Hotel Central Pas de la Casa

... having a beer and watching a man try to dig his van out of the snow. To my knowledge his van is to this moment where it was when I left the bar.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to post some pictures of Canillo when it's snowy and the sun comes out. Don't have too many, but figured it was worth a post.

... at 7:30am. But it wasn't too long before all my amusement was replaced with respect. As we started up the mountains, it was easy to see that the nearly 2000m climb up to Canillo isn't a laughing matter. Turn after turn we zig-zagged up intensely steep grade in a 15 ton death trap, and our driver just bounced along as if it was nothing. I'm sure it really is nothing to someone who does that kind of thing everyday, because when we got to the first stop at ...

... 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...

... 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 ...

... was time to plunge down. Catching a glimpse of the farm with my telephoto lens Brian had some bearings to go by. Into deciduous forest that was misty and light, then further down the valley into darker trees. Ground thick with fallen leaves and branches made traversing difficult. With the steep slope and last night’s rain, it was a little like skree hopping…

Once in the woods it was impossible to see what ...

... e all reak of beer, and gav opens his bag to get somehting, and realises he just got a haksaw thru security, which was wrong, and apart from that, he has absolutly nothing in his bag!! it was the funniest thing i've laughed a in a long time. so we get into barcelona and get a four hour bus journey to pas de la casa, stopping in this nightclub along the way. get off the bus and put our bags on a truck to bring them to the gaff. dan our tour guide tells us about getting ...

... Klara once or twice.


The next morning, I had to work at nine. I was valiantly within fifteen minutes of arriving on time.

Arnaud was there. Curly-haired Arnaud´s job in the supermarket is to walk around the aisles not knowing what to do; re-arrange two objects on their shelves every fifteen minutes; and make jokes. His favorite joke to say is, "Je travaille ici!" (Do you mind? I´m working here!) which he says to you every time he´s doing ...

... is that my supermarket is very cheap, and a big percentage of the town comes in every day. I´ve met a ton of people during my search for work, and I get to say "Bonjour" or "Hi" or "Hola" to them when they come in. I spend my day carting vegetables and bottled water and cereal and alcohol from storage up to the supermarket shelves. Yesterday, I was in storage, and a huge tower of paper towel rolls fell over on me. Don´t worry, though. I wasn ...