Monday afternoon, I went for a bike ride along the Rideau River.  Here are some photos I shot along the way.

It was about 3 p.m., so the sun was quite hard. I think I got nonetheless some good pics.

Cette semaine, j’ai fait un peu de classement dans mes archives et ai téléversé quelques anciens reportages sur Vimeo.

J’ai réalisé la vidéo suivante avec ma collègue Marie-Josée Samson en 2006. Nous avions alors effectué un séjour de trois mois à Cotonou, au Bénin, avec Jeunesse Canada Monde et Journalistes pour les Droits Humains.

These photos are long overdue.

I got quite busy since I left Bogotá on July 26 (including a short trip to Ecuador and a wedding near Toronto).

Here are some images I snapped during the celebrations of Colombia’s Bicentennial of Independence on July 20, 2010.

The Colombian flag flies on a building in Bogotá, Colombia, on Tuesday, July 20, 2010. Colombia celebrated the bicentennial of its Independence on this day. (Photo: Jean-Sebastien Marier)

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La Colombie fêtait hier ses 200 ans d’indépendance de l’Espagne. Voici un court reportage que j’ai préparé sur les célébrations.

Le tout a été filmé et monté en environ trois heures — à l’exception de la séquence d’ouverture avec les avions, filmée hier matin.

Je voulais posté ce message hier soir, mais le serveur sur lequel est hébergé ce site était en cours de maintenance.

Sunday, I went to the Parque Metropolitano Simón Bolívar with Robbie, a British fellow. The Parque Simón Bolívar is Bogotá’s largest city park. Its facilities include, among other things, a library and an amusement park.

Here are some photos of our outing.

As promised, here are some photos of the Salt Cathedral (Catedral de Sal). The ”Cathedral” was built in the tunnels of a mine about 200 meters below a mountain in Zipaquirá, a town located roughly 40 kilometres north of Bogotá.

Lora, Charlie and I left our hostel early in the afternoon Saturday and took the TransMilenio to Portal del Norte — the bus terminal in the northern end of Bogotá. From there, we hopped on a bus to Zipaquirá. The trip, which normally takes 30-45 minutes, took about two hours due to traffic. Once in Zipaquirá, we had to walk about 15 minutes through the town to reach the entrance to the park where the Salt Cathedral is located.

Inside the mine, visitors follow the Stations of the Cross. The Cathedral’s complex also includes a stream of Holy Water, a dome and various sculptures.

The main tunnel has been reinforced with steel arches. The original Cathedral, much bigger than the current one became too unstable and was closed in the early 1990′s. The new one was built thereafter and opened in the mid-90′s. According to Wikipedia, the original building could hold up to 8,000 persons while the new one has a capacity of 3,000.