Annapurna Hotel Ansalonga Ordino

Today was my last full day in Andorra. There wasn't a huge amount to do. It wasn't snowing, but the wind was so fierce that it seemed like a sand storm made out of snow. I had a great time watching a group of cows grazing in snow up to their stomachs. Other than that I had a walk around town and spent about an hour at a ...

After a long night on a surprisingly jam packed night train, I arrived at a train station about 1km from the Andorra border. I was slightly worried about my transportation from the train station at l'Hospitalet to my destination 26km into Andorra. The cryptic information information I was able to find on the web about buses told me that there were 2 per day, one leaving at 7:30am and the other 7:30pm. This was a bit disconcerting as my train arrived ...

... village et quand on est arrivé, il avait le marché du matin. On a acheter du vin à environ 1 euro le litre (vin de pays) et du bon fromage bleu pour le déjeuner.

On avait pas le droit de prendre des photos dans la grotte pour pas faire de la pollution lumineuse (il y avait déja des ptites pousses de plante pres des lanternes...ils veulent pas en rajouté non plus). Aussi il faut pas déranger les chauve souris...pauve cocottes...

Found out today that the 90 day tourist visa that I thought we were granted for each country is actually for the combined Senchgen countries. Since we'll be at least 60 days in France alone, it means we won't be doing the France, Italy, Greece and then Turkey route we had planned on in the length of time we'd ...

... the martin to enter, then the chickens could be moved back to their real home. Of course, that meant catching all 10 chickens and moving them back up the hill.

Brian was the best a catching them. He’d corner them in the barn and lunge, but no one wanted to touch that damn rooster. Last to be caught, Justin was lucky enough to grab hold of a leg mid air as he tried to fly over a partition. Once neatly inside the cat carrier I was ...

A gory day full of raw meat, but surprisingly it didn’t bother me. Some issues that have arisen when discussing the idea of setting up our own small holding with the attempt to be as self-sufficient as possible was whether or not we could deal with it. So far it doesn’t seem to be a problem.

We’ve stayed a few extra days at this farm with the anticipation of butchering day. Took 2 pigs to the abattoir ...

... and hand hold. Until you get to the point where you can’t seem to make a move at all. Limbs getting sore and there’s no place to set your foot, and no where to grab hold with your hand. Every muscle in your body tense trying to keep you in the place where you re. Mind solely focused on the task at hand. Moving slightly, feeling around, using divets in the rock that are barely visible to support your weight. Ever upward straining ...

... and roads scattered everywhere - if you can find them. Driving is a very different than walking. In great contrast to the towns below, the wind howled and ice formed on the road. On foot the walk was extremely harsh and I could see why there were shephards and hikers huts dotted all around for shelter. You can see why farmers train their animals instead of caring for them themselves ...

The set up for working at Las Laous is a 2 day on, 1 day off system. This works great because it means that we have a full day to go and do things and we aren’t really restricted for time. Also, the fact that Justin and Emily have lent us a car makes it even better! We can go farther that we could on foot or bike.

One of the main things we were interested in seeing was the Grotte de Naiux (Caves). Part of the fun of spending time in the ...

... of the mountains were breathtaking and I think this was probably our favorite excursion yet. (P.S. We should have a picture of us jumping off the cliff later this week. Someone else took the picture with their camera. As soon as I get it up I will let you all know.) After our workout, we headed to Andorra for an authentic Catalan lunch in a manor ...