It's Time!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is my email sent a few minutes ago. You will understand.

Hi everyone. Hope you all are having a great summer. Most of us are prepping for the OR, and at which I will be really happy to see you all at.

It is also time for you to start packing what you could gather and/or promised for the foundation and ship it off to me ( free domicile ) for or before July 20th ( ship date ) so I can have it weighed and packed for its 5 week trip by boat across the seas to Split, Croatia, our starting point. I did manage to get a great rate ( on me ) for 300 kilos / 2 meters cube of gear. So iLL has already sent me the boxes as well as about a dozen individuals donations shipped to me from across Canada.

I have organized all flights and train transport inner Europe through miles donations and Air Canada Star Alliance for Eva and I. Jason and Martina are going to help in Macedonia on our way to Lebanon late Sept early Oct. I have set up events at gyms, comps and events for the gear to be divided equally ( so I need to know what I have ahead of time, hence the ship date ). Pula, Split, Belgrade, Montenegro, Beirut and three other cities are on the call sheet. Our trip is attracting a lot of attention, and we are getting booked solid for events, gatherings and developing of new areas along the trip.

I would ask you to add any patches, stickers, banners or any other promotion logos that can be tagged to bags and placed in good situ for photo and video shots for your help. We will also be editing  some videos upon our return and we will need all your logos in high-rez and press pages to make the most out of what you did for these kids.

Please ship everything to the following address. Please make sure it is code tagged correctly for brokerage exception and/or free domicile.

Climbing Gear for Kids Foundation of Canada
x xx xx x xxxx
xxx x xxxxx x xx
xxx xxx
xxxxxx

Thank you so much. I will keep you all in the loop as we approach the departure and the blog will stay busy with day to day updates once we are up and running. I will also have posters and stickers for you at the OR. :)


__

Ulric Rousseau
x x xxx xxx xxxx

So iLL
Maxim Ropes
New England Ropes
ClimbTech
La Sportiva Ambassador

Email xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx

WebPage www.entouragemgmt.com
Blog www.ulricrousseau.blogspot.com/



Sent to the following PEEPS in Discreet who are helping me out sooooooooooo Much.

Prana
Evolv
La Sportiva
Maxim
Climbtech
So iLL
Vetical Reality
Allez Up
Rock and Rope
Delire
Roc Gyms
Rock and Ice
Petzl
Boiler Room

Off the market.

Hi baby. Its been 2 days since I saw you and I am already a nervous wreck. My stomach aches. Not because I am sick, but because I cannot be with you tonight. 8 days till I see you again, but feels like 800... 

When I was in europe last year, I took the train over night to Croatia. My ipod somehow got stuck on repeat and I could only have one song, and this is the song that was playing. I keept looking out the window of the train, at the small distant lights of houses in the moutains, the couples getting older together, having a late supper or going to bed. 

Sipping jack daniels out of a small glass jar from the market the prior day, thinking about when would finally meet my partner. The one who could finally complet me, make me a man, make me stop wandering and begin wondering. Stop searching and begin looking forward.; And among the slow and distant silence across the boundaries of Bosnia and Serbia, between the border check points and the 4 am wake ups from the mussel of a russian ak47, my heart pounded for you, even though I had not met you yet. it pounded so hard you must have heard it in the distance calling out.

I hope you like this song. every time it comes on i remember this trip, this moment in my life when i knew it was going to be, possible, alive, in tune. That it was not all a waste of nothing. That my path would one day lead to you. and it has, and I am, tonight, forever, the happiest and most thankful man on earth.

I love you chica. Yesterday, today and for all the tomorrows to come.

To quote Tarantino, "Mon amour, l'aventure commence"

xxx

Trip-advisor "profanity" review.. LOL

My check in was super quick and apart from seeming to need an escort to my room ( unnecessary, reason for a tip? ) . I booked through expedia.ca, and paid 320$ for 4 nights. Posted on the desk was 2200 pesos ( about 180$ ) a night. saved big. Avoid walk ins in any big mexican city, fyi.

The room was, like every post said, small, but super clean and cozy. Water and shower was warm and pretty constant, except early in the morning, like 5am. Comfy bed and clean sheets. Flat screen tv, but no hdmi out, so my travel cables to plug my mac on the lcd were useless. Ac was good and room had good light from the massive windows and one did open about half way which does help counter the smallness of the room.

All the staff was very nice and the restaurant, though expensive, was also very clean and good. Listen, its a hotel, if you want cheap food, walk a few meters and lots of Starbucks, pizza places and of course tacos. You cannot put expensive food or wine in the negative column of a review for hotels, it is to be expected.

all in all, good actual hotel. good coffee too. good waiters and smiling.

the negs.

I have traveled many worlds and many countries, alone and by group and stayed in all sorts of accommodations, but I have never been so blindly robbed then in Mexico City. 

My first day, after a goods night sleep, i left for the airport to pick the GF. I closed the door and remembered that I had left a 100$ pesos on the floor by the desk in the room, I figured i would be back by 9am and before the cleaning crew.

wrong. we get to the room, one, the cleaning crew was on break, room half made so we couldn't, you know, and 2, the 100 pesos was gone. i said nothing. the cleaning women was a little stressed. hummmmm. we used the safe from then on for everything, and had no issues.

cabs are thieves. do not, DO NOT take a a cab service from the hotel. depending on the cab, it is between 3 to 10X the price except for the airport run which everyone knows the price ( 220 ), so they cant fuck you over.. we had one cab try to charge us 700 pesos for a 40 pesos ride we took later from a street cab.

here is a tip. google the distance for your travels, write them down. the fare should cost you no more then about 15 pesos per km. NO MORE. including tip. if he charges you more, call the police. honestly. we did and got a couple rides free.

the taxis want money, the cops, want you to come back, so they will fuck with the cabbies.

we took a cab from reforma to conade sports center at 8am on a saturday, it cost 99 pesos. to return, we took a cab, and after 30 minutes we realizes he was circling around the city, after a while I told him to stop, paid the 240$ and we where still about 40 pesos from home.

the only time you should take a taxi service from booths is at the airports. other then that, city cabs are best bet. haggle and hustle, its part of the game, and do not be afraid to tell him to stop and walk out.

at no point could I use internet in the hotel. wifi was so shitty, and could only be used in the lobby and restaurants.  the cable internet out from the wall stopped working a few hours after i plugged it in. it was good until then. but the cable was about 8 inches long. so no bed work.

If i owned this hotel I would really concentrate on 2 things, fair cab rides and get a fucking internet companies to come in and fix the internet. its 2013 for christ sakes. everything is online, Skype, whatsapp, email, fb. how do you expect people to work? I pity the poor sap who pays extra for the internet ( not included when you book through other sites ) and then deal with the issue.

breakfast was expensive for what it was. it was good, but coffee and fruit for 12$ is steep, even in european standards.

all in all. hotel was 3 stars ( one star off for the net and one for the cab robbers ), bad apple aside, staff was 5 stars ( 4 if you factor in the cleaning women incident. )

i liked the reforma area, but would stay in zone rosa next time. "Sabor Amour" was a good romantic eat,  reserve ahead of time ( or have a driver call for you, we did ), wine list was good and food was superb. waiters where a little annoying always trying to do something, forgetting that the bet waiter is a ninja. google the restaurant, really cute. unexpected in DF.

hope this helps.

pz./