Swiss O week: Stage 3

Stage 3 was at Col du Pillon, the same venue as stage 2. The weather could best be described as variable - plenty of sun but with the odd storm and strong winds threatening. Definitely not as nice as the previous day and we were pleased that we had already visited Glacier 3000 - not a shorts day today.

A house made of mirrors (snapped from the train)

The courses today took in the lower slopes of the mountain which made for much tougher and muddier orienteering. The forest was thick and tough to run through - soft and steep and complicated. Eric undid all his good work on the first two days with a diabolical run. Elise also struggled around for a long time. Sam had fun completing both his official course and the daily o week kids event which meant he wasn't waiting too long for the rest of the family.

Our starts were later today so after running we were straight back on the bus for the trip home. Elise and Sam got caught in a storm during the last part of the walk back from Zweisimmen station. Hurrah - rest day tomorrow!!!

Bad hair afternoon

Video Day 3

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Inca Trail day 4

This was the day we would arrive at Macchu Picchu so we awoke with a keen sense of anticipation. To celebrate the last day on the trail, somehow the chef had whipped up an enormous cake which was served after breakfast. After a discussion with Marco about the likely weather over the next two days we agreed that it would be best to tour Macchu Picchu as soon as we arrived in mid afternoon rather than wait until tomorrow. Marco assured us that this would mean less crowds and better weather (he was right). We could see the backside of the mountain above Macchu Picchu in front of us as we started out. Unlike the last two days, today was mainly downhill. We would have to descend about 1,000 meters and judging by the first part of the morning walk, most of this would be on steep and slippery rocky steps. After alternating descents and traversing along steep hillsides through cloud forest and bamboo groves we reached the ruins of Intipata. Intipata was a very...

Santa Cruz

Unlike our first island hop, Isabela to Santa Cruz was done by boat (see the addendum below for my thoughts about inter island boat travel). At least the early morning trip was a smooth one. Luckily we had managed to book an apartment in Puerto Ayora which meant we could do some of our own catering for a change. By the time we arrived we were slowing down some, we felt we'd seen much of the wildlife the islands offered and frankly, we were exhausted. So we didn't venture too far from Puerto Ayora. One nice place near town we did visit (Eric went twice) was Tortuga bay which was exactly what you would expect a tropical beach to look like. In fact it had two beaches, one a surf beach and one a quiet cove where you could snorkel with barely a ripple. There wasn't much wildlife here except a few Iguanas (and one turtle) but the warm water was great for a swim nevertheless. As with San Cristobal we took a taxi trip to the highlands, crawling in Lava tub...

New York: National Museum of Mathematics

When we first came to New York we all wrote down where we wanted to go while we were here. All of us included the math museum (confirms our status as a family of total geeks) so that is where we headed today. On the way we went to the LEGO shop. There was plenty of great Lego art and some pretty cool sets that Samuel hadn't seen before. The best part was the machine that used a palm print to generate your Lego avatar. Eric: Check out the six pack. Not sure where they got the toupee from though. Samuel is Johnny Depp? Amazingly accurate this one. The famous Flatiron building A nd the math museum? Of course we enjoyed it! It was all interactive with loads of old and new problems to solve. We even got to use maths in an artistic way. Tessellating Samuel and Eric were most entranced by a floor exhibit which changed periodically but had a range of practical problems. The museum was well populated in the morning with ...

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