Welcome
Travelogues
That was a long time ago in Washington DC. There was everything but the kitchen sink in that 35 kilo load.
I still travel with a backpack but now it never weighs more than 10 kilos.
The Jefferson Memorial
Camping on the beach in South Carolina on the way to Miami.
My route took me around the Gaspé peninsula, down to Boston, through New York, Baltimore and Washington, down to Miami and Key West, up to Nashville, through Memphis, Little Rock, Jackson, Baton Rouge to New Orleans, then to Houston, crossing into Mexico at Brownsburg then to Monterrey San Luis Potosi, Mexico City and Acapulco before returning via Manzanillo, Mazatlan, Nogales, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria, Vancouver, Lethbridge, Regina, Winipeg, and Hearst in Northern Ontario. A total of 15 000 miles or almost 25 000 kms in four months of hitch-hiking (and riding a few freight cars).
Here I am visiting my uncle Narcisse, his second wife and a friend in Miami beach. I had arranged for a number of contacts along the way, friends in New Orleans, a relative in Houston, friends in Mexico, and Los Angeles and my sister Andrée in Hearst.
The Basilica of Guadelupe in the Plaza del Zocalo.
A colourful market not far from where I was staying for less than one dollar a night.
In Mexico I met up with a great bunch of climbers, the volunteers of the Mountain Safety Patrol (El Soccorro Alpino de Mexico).We got along famously, and had great parties in their club house, which was a few rooms in a run down office building. Here we are patrolling the 5 452 metre volcano Popocatepelt.
A stop to brew tea and have a bite. That big box in the foreground is the bulky two way radio that we had to carry to keep in touch with the mountain safety base. That was in 1956, before the transistor era!
The weather worsened as a storm enveloped the mountain.
We went up to the top anyway. Popocatepetl is no a technically difficult climb but it is a big mountain.
It had stopped snowing when we got to the summit but was not possible to see the bottom of the crater because of the clouds. As we were up here we got a call to look for a Swiss couple that had gone up without a guide and were overdue coming down. There were two teams on the mountain. We searched well into the night and finally met up with the other team who had found the couple disoriented and suffering from hypothermia and were bringing them down. We glad to be down after spending 20 hours on the mountain!
|
|
|
I continue developing this site for the pleasure of sharing the joys of discovery with you. Meeting wonderful people of all skin colours, ethnic origins and beliefs has inspired me to set up the Humanist Foundation of Quebec to promote critical thinking and intercultural tolerance. You may download and use the globetrotter's photos provided you mention "Photo by Bernard Cloutier" with a link to this site below each photo. High resolution versions can be acquired from our agent Travel-Images.com. |
||||||
|
|
If you feel like it, you may exchange comments and impressions with other readers in the questbook or express them to me privately by the e-mail link. Putting a link on your web site, if you have one, would invite your viewers to enjoy free virtual travel as I hope you did. |
|
||||
|
|
THANKS FOR YOUR VISIT
AND COME BACK SOON!
|
|||||
|
| ||||||
