TAZ! Do you know him?

Well, my friends, I see from your blog that it is Christmas time again....BUT, there is no snow in Australia.  Just like Spain in summer, it is very hot.  We have to eat our ice cream very quickly, otherwise it melts and runs all over the place as a sticky mess.

I see from my last post that no one knows this strange animal.  Or were you too shy to try?

Well, the little animal is a Tasmanian Devil, and the cartoon character is TAZ.  Have you heard of him?

What can you tell me about Tasmanian Devils?  Where do they live, what do they eat, and so on.

Coral and I are travelling to London again soon, to see our son who is still teaching Math in London.  To be different, we will be having Christmas Day, December 25, in Dubai.  Do you know where that is?

We fly to London on December 27, and then after a week, we board a cruise ship Aurora to sail back to Australia.  We are looking forward to sailing through the Panama Canal.  Do you know what that is, and why it might be important.

We arrive back in Australia on February 18. I will blog some more when I get home.

I hope that you have a happy and holy Christmas, and that we might meet again some time in 2014.

Your good friend

Alan

Another strange animal!

Hello again my El Villar friends.
It does not seem to be three weeks since I last blogged, but it is.  I think I have been very busy.
Have you noticed how quickly time goes by when we are busy with our lives?  And how slowly it goes when we are bored?
I have another strange animal for you.
Not many Australian animals have been drawn in the cartoon world.  Nemo the fish is one. Nemo is the star of a Disney film.  The animal below is another.  Mercedes may have seen one, but maybe not!

Can you tell me what the name of the animal is, what part of Australia it lives in, and the name of the cartoon character which takes it's likeness.

I wonder if some students other than Lidia can answer the questions first?  Go on, you can do it!

Until next time,

Alan

What is this strange looking animal?

Wow! an animal with ears like a rabbit, eyes and nose like a mouse or rat, long tail like a small kangaroo or wallaby...and it even hops like a kangaroo, and burrows like a rabbit.  Like kangaroos, it is a marsupial...it has a pouch to carry it's baby in.  And guess what...the pouch faces backwards, just so it does not get dirty when digging burrows.  How smart is that?  More! it lives in the desert, and like koalas does not drink water.  There is not much water in the desert, so that is a good thing too, don't you think?

I wonder if your teachers have guessed what the animal is?  Mercedes might know, as she has visited Australia?

See if you can find it's aboriginal name, and let me know your answer.

Until next time, big hugs from your friend Alan from DownUnder.

mi amigo Bluey el periquito

A big HELLO to all my friends at CP Ntra.Sra. del Villar.  I notice that the Blog is very quiet this year.  Has the "cat got your tongue"?  That's an English expression meaning "why are you so quiet, can't you talk?"

No doubt you are very busy with your studies?

Coral and I have been very busy this year too.  We play sport four times a week, which does not give us much time for other things. We love our Table Tennis and Model Air Plane flying!

I have a new friend.  My daughter Angelina found this baby Budgerigar on the walk way near our house. He was hungry and not able to fly very well, so HE adopted us.  His name is Bluey. We did not know at first if it is a boy or girl...so Bluey was chosen as a name because it can be either.  Do you like that name?

Bluey loves doing tricks in his cage. He can swing upside down, and climb all over the bars of his cage.  We think he is smart.  We hope to be able to teach him to talk.

Now, Budgies are found all over the world. They are a popular pet.  But did you know that this little bird is a native of Australia. True!  Can you find out what the most common colour is?  It isn't blue!

We now know Bluey is a boy...do you know how we can tell this?

I hope that you can find time to write, just a little.

Your old friend,

Alan

What did you do on Vacation?

Well, a big hello to our English students at El Villar.

If I am reading your Schedule correctly, you are now back at school, and hopefully have moved on to the next grade.  I hope those who have moved onto high school will continue with their English studies, as having a good knowledge of English will help with future careers, as well as with any travel they might plan. I really do wish that I had the chance to learn Spanish as a young man.

Well, my friends, what did you do on your vacation?  Did you travel to some place interesting?  Did you learn any new sport or skill?  How about computer games or television?  I hope you were not what we call "couch potatoes"?

When I was travelling across the Pacific last February, our ship stopped in a part of Tahiti called Bora Bora.  See if you can find it on an Atlas.
The children of Bora Bora are very poor, and have little chance to play with computers or even watch television.  They would like to play football, but there is not much suitable land for playing fields. BUT, they do have a wonderful safe lagoon for water activities and, of course, they all swim like fish. Most children also have access to a canoe and they spend a lot of time practicing in them.

And when a ship comes into the lagoon, they love riding on the wake of ship Tenders or Ferries that are used to ferry ship passengers to shore.  Below is a photo of this activity.

That's something a bit different, is it not?  Would you like to try that activity, instead of football, maybe?

I hope to write again soon.  Until then, see what you can find out about Bora Bora and Tahiti.

Ferdinand Magellan

Well Hello again, and thanks to all who have used their English to reply to my earlier blogs. Well done, and keep on trying.
With this blog I continue with my travels on the good ship Arcadia.
A very long time ago a sea captain by the name of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese working for King Charles I of Spain, was the first person to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, via South America. He is credited with discovering the Strait of Magellan, a difficult but more safe passage than via Cape Horn.  Do some research and see what you can find out about all this.
In my travels we did in fact sail into the Strait of Magellan, and visited a port city which overlooks the Strait. It's name is Punta Arenas. A photo of the city, and of the cruise ship Arcadia at anchor in the Strait is below. The photo was taken from the top of a ski trail, at the very end of the Andes Mountains in Chile.  How about that?

The following is a drawing of the Strait of Magellan, with the location of Punta Arenas marked for us.

A statue honouring Magellan, and the local Indians, is located in a beautiful Square in Punta Arenas.  It is said to be 'good luck' to hold the foot of the Indian's statue, as shown below.

Now, do you know about Cape Horn, at the very bottom of South America?  If not, do some research.  It is very isolated, and can be very dangerous.  In our journey to Punta Arenas, Arcadia sailed around the Cape, which is actually part of an island. A photo and map are below.

Until next time, study hard, practice your English....and see if you can tell me something about Magellan or Cape Horn that I may not know.

Alan

Back at School I see!

Well, my friends, I see from the school Schedule that vacation has ended and that you are therefore back at school, ready to learn many more new things.  This is correct, is it not?  Did you have a great time on vacation?  I hope so.

As you know from my last post, I had a long vacation that came to an end on February 25.  Like all goods things, it came to an end.  But it was a very interesting and relaxing experience.  I will have to do something like that again one day, when I have saved some more money for travel.

One of the most interesting places that I visited on my cruise is Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. The people are very friendly and energetic (they love to dance Samba, especially at Carnival time), and there are many interesting sights like Sugar Loaf mountain, Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, and the giant statue Christo Redentor on Corcovado Mountain. One of your teachers, Sandra, took my wife and I to see Cristo del Otero in Palencia, which is very impressive, but I think Christo Redentor is a little higher and a bit bigger.  That is something for you to research.  Which one is biggest?

Some memorable photos from Rio are below:

This is a view of Sugar Loaf from the first Cable Station (there are two stations)

This a photo of a part of Rio, taken from the top of Sugar Loaf

And this is the "Big Fella", as my wife calls him..Christo Redentor.

It was a very cloudy day on the mountain, so we were lucky to get such a photo.

Until next time, my friends, be good, and study hard!

Alan

Alan is back in Australia

Hello to all my good friends at CP Ntra.Sra. del Villar!  Coral and I have finally finished our long vacation, and we are back home in Toowoomba, Australia.  Just in time for lots of rain and floods, similar to last year.

We had a great time visiting all our teacher and student friends in Laguna, Arroyo, and Valladolid.  How you all have grown since we first visited in 2011. And how your English has improved too...keep up the good work. A big clap for your Director and her excellent teachers too. They are doing wonderful work.

I will try to keep up with my posts to your blog, and for a short while will include some photographs of my travels. I also have an interesting one from near Valladolid...I wonder if you can tell me where the photo is taken?  But first, apart from London, Spain, and Vienna (Austria), where did we travel. Well, a world map of our travels is below... the red line shows where our ship Arcadia sailed.

The ports and countries we visited are: Southampton (UK), Tenerife (Canary Islands) ,Recife (Brazil), Salvador (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Montevideo (Uruguay), Port Stanley (Malvinas), Cape Horn (Chile/Argenina), Punta Arenas (Chile), Chacabuco (Chile), Valpariso/Santiago (Chile), Easter Island (Chile), Pitcairn Island, Papeete/ Bora Bora (Tahiti), Suva (Fiji), Noumea (New Caledonia), and home to Brisbane (Australia).  Can you find these places in your school Atlas? or maybe Google?

Now, one of your great teachers took Coral and I to the place in the photograph below.  We had a great time.  Can you tell me where it is?  What is the closest village?

For the Science students, the following photograph was taken way down in the south of Chile. Do you know what it is, and how it got there. Why is it blue in colour, and where does the waterfall come from?  I wonder if your teachers know, or maybe your parents can help?

Until next time, be good, study hard....and Happy Easter to all.

Alan and Coral