It's coming to an end!!

Yeah, I know I've been lazy about my blogging lately, but I think you've gotten a pretty good idea about what I've been doing by looking at my photos. And also, who's got time to read travel blogs during the hectic christmas/New Year's season anyway?

Well, I'm in my second last Latin America destination at the moment, Salento, Colombia! It's a beautiful place! Quiet, harmonic, full of green hills, cows, horses and friendly people. A perfect place to appreciate my last bit of lazyness before my real life catches up on me. But not only lazyness: Hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking!

 

Sooo. what have I been doing the last couple of months? (Relax, I'm not gonna try to describe everything in detail.) After Nicaragua, I spent about a month in Venezuela. It was just what I needed, a little break from the backpacker bubble. Because there aren't many tourists there! It's a shame, cause Venezuela has got a lot to offer: Beautiful sceneries including beaches, jungle, mountains, friendly people, adventure. But I guess it's considered too dangerous for most people, and I agree that you need to know what you're doing if you go there: In Caracas, for example, 40-70 people get killed every weekend! And in Merida (2 million people) 17 people got killed on New Year's eve and it wasn't even big news! I was lucky to have local guidance the whole time and nothing really happened to me. 

The last 3 weeks have been spent in Colombia! And everyone's been absolutely right: It's a GREAT country to travel in! And yes, the people are that friendly. I spent a week in a beach town, Taganga and beautiful Parque Tayrona, a national park full of beaches. I did a 3 day dive safari there, Advanced Diver - check!

Then I moved on to Cartagena and Medellin. Both big, modern cities: Cartagena is hot and colonial, Medellin is metropolitan and organized. Both great for partying and last minute - tanning by the hostel pool! The mud volcano in Cartagena was a highlight - like a girl said: Gives buoyancy a whole new meaning! There's no bottom in the mud, you float, even in upright position!  So, will I be the tannest doctor in Gjøvik? Don't really think so. My tan seems to last for 10 minutes and by the time I'm working it's gonna be more than 2 weeks since my last tanning session...

Adventure week in Honduras & Nicaragua!

After Utila, we went to Lago Yojoa, the biggest lake in Honduras. We heard there was a waterfall there, sounded nice enough. So we went to see it, and yep, it was nice enough. Then we got offered a tour behind the waterfall and it was CRAAZY! We didn't see any paths or caves, and we wondered how we would get in behind it. Well, we went RIGHT through it! The impact of the water hitting our backs was absurd, we had to cover our eyes and breathe through our noses. And you could look up and see the the water coming thundering down on us! The whole thing was topped by jumping a 10 meter drop into the river.

Next stop: Leon (after 4 chicken buses and a overnight stop, instead of the 2 direct buses in one day that we heard of). We went volcano boarding the same afternoon, JUST as crazy! This is what you do:
1.Hike up a volcano
2. Put on a orange prison style suit and goggles
3. Sit on your board, go down
4: If you're totally awesome: Be stupid and don't break until it's too late and get on the speed record board with 87km/h
5: If you're even more awesome: Take advantage of your complimentary 7 mojitos and get so embarassingly legless that your travel buddy has to walk you home and put you to bed.

The next day we went on a tour to the beach, where we cruised through the mangrove forests, released baby turtles on the beach, made a bonfire and slept under the stars. The next morning we went for a run on the beach and surfed a little.

After 2 packed days we went on to Granada. Spent less than a day there, just strolled around the city. Next stop was Isla Ometepe, a massive island in the even more massive Lake Nicaragua. It feels more like the ocean, just with fresh water; waves and everything! Here, we went horse back riding to a beautiful lagoon thingy and hiked a volcano. Probably not the most spectacular hike ever (no view whatsoever on the top), but nice jungely scenery and good exercise - took us 8 hours!

After this it was definately time some more relaxing beach time, so we went to San Juan del Sur, a surf town close to the Costa Rican border, much loved by backpackers. Yes, the place is FULL of them, but the atmosphere and nightlife is great, the surf good and the beaches beautiful. I stayed there for a few days, great not to pack my bag every 2 days!

More caribbean groove

Back to the caribbean coast! I bussed up to Rio Dulce and Livingston on the caribbean coast of Guatemala. Rio Dulce - Sweet River - is really sweet! Nice and quiet, blue skies and turquise water, jungle on the shores the whole way. I stayed in an amazing hotel on a secluded spot in the jungle at the shore, filled with hammocks, cats, dogs and with deilicioso family style dinners where everybody sat down together. I had some relaxing days, except that I was foolish enough to show the owner's daughter the games in my iPhone - she would't leave me alone after that. It was a bit disturbing when the 6 year old woke me up in my hammock saying "Tiineee, Tiiiineee, let's kill some zombies, it's so funny when the big ones get their heads chopped off!".

I did a day trip to Livingston, the only town in Guatemala with a black population. The atmosphere is quite different from the rest of the country, with a lot of rastafaris and creole slang. We had the pleasure of a little unofficial guided tour through the black neighbourhood. He told us all about that Livingston isn't all about reggae and chillin', the black population live in a very separated area, and has a lot more problems than the latinos. They live in poverty, the latinos control most of the resources and the tourist industry, and they usually don't hire black people.

Then I got 3 boats, 3 buses and a taxi, all in one day, to make it to Utila, Honduras! A caribbean island that's ALL about the diving. To be honest, I didn't really feel like I got to know Honduras there - it's very international and you might as well forget that you're supposed to practice your spanish. I stayed there for 6 days, got my open water diving certificate there, and loved it! Unfortunately no sharks or dolphins, but enough fish, stingrays, lobsters and a turtle to keep me entertained. I also played my first real poker game with money and got myself another bikini :) Most entertaining moment on land: A drunk diving instructur telling us about being a member of the Mile Low Club (people who's had sex underwater) - 10 meters depth! She taught us that you just to put on some extra weights and not waste too much time making it enjoyable.

Finding myself (or who I don't wanna be) in Lake Atitlan and dancing in Antigua

After 7 weeks in Mexico, I finally entered a new country!! I took a shuttle to San Pedro, by Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. A beautiful place to relax, loved by alternative long term stayers who want to find themselves, learning spanish, meditating, doing yoga and eating organic food, that sort of thing. I only spent 2 days there and kept mostly to myself, but I did have some interesting experiences:

I hiked a volcano, that felt more like a normal mountain, but with cool jungle and a beautiful view from the top. It was supposed to take 2,5 hours, but it took me almost 4, and nearly killed me! I thought I was pretty fit. It was just me and my small funny guide, which meant a lot of quality local chatting. It pleased me that his spanish was worse than mine sometimes - around the lake, they all speak tribal languages, each town seems to have their own.

The next morning I went swimming in the lake, beautiful!! That's where I had my most interesting/scary conversation so far on this trip: 

I met a fellow swimmer on the shore, a nice english 47 year old lady. She was a yoga teacher and staying in San Pedro for a few months, writing a book. Typical lake person. I got confirmed that she was on the alternative side when I told her I'd just finished med school: "Hospitals are just so barbaric, I think!" Thank you very much, ma'am, that's gonna be my work place in a couple of months. 

Then it got worse: I had noticed that she had an open wound in her face, I just guessed she'd swam into a rock or something. But now she told me that it had started off really small last year, and it had just kept growing. And haha, those silly doctors actually diagnosed it as skin cancer and wanted to cut it out! She would rather jump in front of a train; It would leave a terrible scar, and it would just be a temporary solution, since cancer is all about toxins circulating in your blood. No, her method was better: It was all about cleansing your whole system, she used strict diet, yoga, herbs and aloe vera. And it was healing, she could feel it! She was even taking photos of it as proof and was planning to write a book about it. Then I asked if it had actually become smaller. "Oh, no, it's bigger than ever! But that's because the toxins need to come out.". I didn't try too hard to convince her otherwise, just said that I couldn't be happier if this worked, but hoped that she would at least consider other options if it didn't heal soon. "Oh, no, that won't not necessary, it will all be gone in a month, maybe less." And the best part? Her boyfriend was a doctor.

After this disturbing talk I went to Antigua for a week. It's my second time in this city and I LOVE it. I thought I'd might get bored after a few days, since I didn't have spanish school or volunteer work like most people, and I did most of the sightseeing/touristy stuff on my last visit. But I enjoyed every minute! I just felt really at home. The first day we went to the circus, lots of entertainment for 1 dollar! The staff consisted of around 10 people, one guy seemed to do most of the acts. The only animals were dogs and a monkey we never actually saw performing, he was just hangig out behind the tent. Other highlights were creepy smurfs that scared the kids and a 12 year old chubby boy in a see-through shirt that could juggle with his feet. The rest of the week was spent walking around, eating great food, going to the market, hanging out on the rooftop terrace in the hostel, waiting for the volcano to erupt, which it did, several times! And of course dancing salsa!! Had private lessons every day, my teacher, Andres was really good, tiny and adorable. The social dancing in the evenings were also great fun, these guys can really dance! 

City life and death parties in San Cristóbal

 

After 3 weeks on the beach, I got a  night bus to San Cristóbal, a hippie-filled colonial town in Chiapas, Mexico. The cold nights were a bit harsh after the coast, but I enjoyed my stay a lot! I met up with a group I met in Puerto Escondido. It was nice to get an urban feeling again after inflatable killer whales and coconuts. We spent a lot of time just walking around in the streets between the chai lattes (we got addicted, had 2 every day). The best touristy thing there was a boat trip down a stunning canyon. 

We were also in San Cristóbal during el Dia de Muertes - The Day of the Dead. It's the day of the year to celebrate, not mourne, the dead. The town was full of decorations and dressed up people, quite similar to Halloween. But then the cemetery it was something I've never seen before: The whole place looked like a festival! The "streets" between the tomb stones (that were more like little houses) were full of people, big groups were gathered around the tomb stones (that were covered in colorful flowers) eating, laughing, drinking beer. People selling snacks, bands playing music. Not a single sad face, they were just partying with their lost ones! Would love to bring this tradition back home. The only thing less charming was that people threw their garbage on the ground. 

Beach bumming at the Pacific coast

After Oaxaca and a lethal 8 hour bus ride, me and my Aussie/Kiwi-crew arrived in Puerto Escondido, a surf town on the pacific coast of Mexico. And we loved it immediately! Well, except that we got a little overwhelmed the first night by an australian invastion of the rooftop terrace at the hostel. They fulfilled all stereotypes: Loud, drunk, blonde and VERY australian. We were sober, tired and disgusted.

But the next day everything turned out okay, Mayflower, the hostel, it definitely a place for beach bums and surfers who just want to hang out on the beach and have a good time. And most of them, like us, love it and stay longer than planned. Even if the water on the Pacific side isn't as crystal clear as on the Carribean coast, this was definitely more my kind of place: Yes, it's touristy but not to the same extent, and the atmosphere is more relaxed, surfy and backpackery. I was thrilled to see waves again, and to be surfing!! I got a huge reminder why I LOVE this sport, even if it's hard work and not very rewarding unless you're really good. I didn't even get put of it when one of the girls hit a rock and needed 30 (!) stitches on her thigh - 3 layers.

We also had a wonderful stay in Zipolite, a quiet town a bit further southeast on the coast. Not much to do there, but you don't need much if you live right ON a gorgeous beach like that. We did some activities tho:

-A mediocre snorkelig trip where the highlight was diving from a 5m rock (I'd never done more than 3m, and that in a swimming pool)

-Horseback riding on the beach. Superb as usual, and quite interesting to hear the guide's story about falling down from a 4 story building the year before and how it changed his view on life. And we went past a 7 year old plane wreck, which apparently had contained big amounts of cocaine, but the people in the plane and all the drugs got away.

After 6 days it was time to leave, like Chris said; "It's a bit like being on holiday with your parents, except cooler, freakier parents". The crowd was long term stayers, eccentrics in their 40/50's who sat on the beach and drank beer all day, getting wrinkly and high. We were just too young and normal.

After Zipolite, 50% of the crew (including me) actually went back to Puerto Escondido for some more beach time. We went to a Halloween Party, where me and Sarah, AND Chris, dressed up as slutty devils. We cross-dressed a french boy too, he turned out to have an impressive cleavage with the help of my favourite push-up bra.

Oaxaca

On the way to the pacific coast I made a stop in Oaxaca. Quite nice city, a bit bigger than Guanajuato and not as charming, but it's got quite a few sights nearby. We became quickly a nice group on people doing adventures together.

Day 1: Market and Mezcal tasting (Mezcal = similar to Tequila, but from a different region) and a bit of clubbing with some nice fellas we met at the Mezcal bar.

Day 2: Adventurous ride in the back of a truck to Hierva de Agua - gas and minerals bubbling up from the ground that make massive formations that look like petrified waterfalls (se picture). We had a bit of a hike to see all of it, which was rewarded with swimming in natural pools at the site afterwards. mmMmm!

Day 3: 8 Crazy gringos on bikes in the middle of Mexican traffic! We rode about 50km, first uphill to some ruins in Monte Alban, then to El Tule, the world's widest tree. The ruins were..you know, ruiny, the tree was BIG! A bit disturbing that there's a church next to it and it happened to be a funeral there that day, in the middle of us tourists taking pictures of the tree. Salsa dancing in the evening - not that many people but great fun. The only sort of mexican in our group made a fool of himself (and us) by shouting " La Bamba para los gringos!!!" to the band several times.

Guanajuato

I finished

my stay in Tulum with an amazing snorkeling tour in caves

- not recommended for claustrophobics - I got a sensation of potential panic. And yeah, a crazy party night where I ended up at an after party at a rich polish guy's house

with some mexicans, a frenchman and an argentinian. Didn't know any of them. It included jumping into his pool from 2nd floor and me frying sausages for the whole party. I woke up, quite confused, at 3pm in one of his MANY guestrooms the next morning.

After 2 weeks of beach bumming, I decided that I needed some cultural input. So i booked a flight to Mexico city. Only stayed there for a night. The only thing worth mentioning was an "art presentation" at the hostel. It consisted of 3 weird looking guys screaming out long complicated texts and poems with psychedelic music and lights in the background. One of them even wore a mask! I think it had something to do with an earthquake, not sure. Complicated spanish.

Then I went straight to Guanajuato. My friend Veronika recommended me to go there, and was kind enough to fix me up with a host family, her friends and salsa people. It was definately something different and more "real Mexco". I met up with some of Veronika's friends already the first night, and had LOADS of fun with this lovely group of salsa people, dancing almost every night and sleeping most of the day. I did a week of spanish lessons there as well, to freshen up and fill up the days. It was expensive but good! The other students in my groups were all 50+ americans who'd gone there to find themselves and learn spanish, I think I was considered a quite exotic element. I actually had such a great time in Guanajuato that I stayed for 2 weeks instead of one. It's a beautiful city: small, safe, great atmosphere - every night is a party night and the center is allways filled with people strolling around and enjoying the city. And the dancing it great!!

But I had to let go at last. After 12 hours of bus rides, I'm now in Oaxaca, trying not to be too sad about leaving Guanajuato. It's been really nice here so far, but I arrived late at night yesterday, so I'll tell more in a bit.

Lots of love from Mexico!! :)

And here we go again..

Yeah, I'm travelling again!! For the ones I haven't talked to in a while or with a goldfish memory, here are the facts:

Why: Because I have to wait for 6 months for my internship in Gjøvik anyway

When: 5 months - september - february

Where: Ehm..starting in Cancun, Mexico, haven't booked a return ticket yet.

Goals: Not many! Practice spanish. Be the most tanned doctor Gjøvik has ever seen.

Like last time, this blog will be in english to make sure everyone who wants to can follow it, and like last time, the language part of my brain's being heavily challenged these days, so my english might get bit funny. I haven't decided weither I should bother uploading pictures here or just to Facebook - any opinions?

So far it's been ALL about the sun&fun! :) I started in Isla Mujeres after just one night in Cancun. I got there JUST in time before the whale shark season ended, had an amazing tour where we were snorkeling right next to them. Because it was the end of the season, we only saw 2-3 and not 20-40, but I was just really glad we found them at all! We had great opportunities to see them and swim right next to them. I didn't think I would, but I got a bit scared - they're MASSIVE! Unreal. It's been my dream for years. Unfortunately I don't have a waterproof camera, so I don't have any photos :(

Otherwise, it wasn't much going on on the island. The beach, turquise water, excellent hostel with a beach bar, hammocks and nice people. We hired a golf cart for a day and drove (I drove! My company was more trusting than what's good for them) arond the island, checked out a turtle sanctuary on the way.

The night before, we had an even more amazing turtle experience: We were hanging out at the beach bar, suddenly one of the guys discovered that there was loads of baby turtles crawling up from the sea! Apparently, they're attracted to light, which should normally be the moon, but in this case - big lamp posts on the beach. It must have been hundreds of them, and we walked around making sure all of them made it back into the water. I'm not completely convinced that it was really necessary, but it felt very inspiring there and then.

And yes, we had a "cocology class" at the hostel, which was quite random, since I think our teacher was either high or half asleep, it was raining a lot and the palm trees were too wet to climb. But we did sort of manage to open a coconut, stick a hole in it, drink the milk and get the meat out.

Now I am in Tulum, a bit further south. It's a bit more quiet here, and the beaches are even better. Today we went to a beach where you can just bring snorkeling gear, swim for 5 minutes and right there, there's massive sea turtles hanging out, you can get as close as you like! The biggest ones' shells were probably almost a meter in diameter. We saw a few sting rays as well :)

.. and she's home!

Yep, back to real life! Yep, I know I said that I was going to Peru for a week, but some of you may not be surprised to hear that it didn't exactly happen, got stuck in Montanita for another week instead.. Totally normal, happens to everyone. But it was definately worth it! Had a good crew of 4 girls who got stuck there too. And got to do a lot more surfing! Yeeah!

Because of the strike in Spain, I spent my last 17 hours in Ecuador at the airport in Guayaquil, great. And only escaped the coup attempt by 1 day, woops!

I had a super weekend visiting my friend Bea in Madrid, great to experience some european urban life after 7 weeks of latino madness! And i realized for the second time that gay clubs aren't as fun as you'd think. Just like any other club, except that you don't get ANY attention what so ever - not my thing.

Well, I thought I'd finish this blog session with some priceless quotes - travellers know how to put it! :

"Guys keep leaving the country to get away from me!"

"And then he did something that can only be described as purring into my ear"

" Why is my hoo-haa green?"

" He fucking destroyed my vagina and he's a retard!"

" I hate cockroaches! They're worse than Hitler! Maybe they didn't kill 40 million people, but they've molested 6 billion."

" They speak spanish and are a little bit retarded sometimes, but otherwise the people here are just like in Europe"

"I'm tired and disfigured. I'm going to bed."

Montañita!

At the moment I'm getting ready for my last night of partying in Montañita - and last night in Ecuador - decided a few days ago to step by Peru before going back to Europe!

I've been at the coast of Ecuador for about 2 weeks now. First I went to Canoa, a beach town further north from where I am now. A really nice place, but definately made for sun, which was non-existing for the time I was there. Someone should have been doing her homework and would then discover that september is the lowest of low season in Ecuador.. So Canoa was a ghost town - nice to relax there and cool that you could get familiar with all the locals within hours, but I left after a few days. Went paragliding there tho - awesome! check out the photos on facebook.

Then I went south with Lora - a nice english girl I met at the hostel in Canoa. A night and a day in Puerto Lopez, which also was very quiet, but is where you can go whale watching! Turned out that in august/september is when all the humpback whales go up along the coast of Ecuador for mating. We went for a few hours and saw 6 whales! As a lot of you know, I have a mayor thing for whales, I was about to cry when I saw them coming jumping up right next to the boat. I do have photos, but I suppose they don't seem that spectacular to people who weren't there.

Then I went down to Montañita, a hippie/tourist/surftown and The Place to Be in weekends. I've had such great fun here - wicked parties, good surf, great atmosphere. I've actually only surfed twice, cause the waves have been waay to big for a little chicka most of the days. But the times I've been out there have been super! Great to be on the board again! And I still remember how to do it, even if it's been 2 years. My muscles have forgotten everything about paddeling, though.. And yep, easy to get some locals help you whenever you need it!

I also went horseback riding on the beach here, some peruvian guy took me to this random farm a bit away from the centre. It didn't seem like anyone was home, but then the owner turned up, offering me a bit skinny looking horse. I paid $5 and could do whatever for an hour. So I went to the beach and the horse went mental! SO fast, great fun! Just went running full speed for most of the time. And put some local kids on it for a little while.

I've taken some spanish classes here, but only 2 hours per day and it's been very relaxed, we've just played games, read a couple of stories and chatted a lot. Exactly what I wanted. And it's also been extremly easy to practice spanish here, I meet "spanish teachers" on every corner. The people are nice and fun here, but a little crazy. They just tend to smoke a bit too much, I suppose. Specially the boys, of course. I feel like I have many "friends", but not any real friendships. They all tend to turn weird at some point. Any girl who's been to south america would know what I mean.

Almost done in Quito!

I'm having my last weekend in Quito now, leaving to the coast in 2 days! It's weird and a bit sad since this has become more or less my home. The hostel is great, but it changes a lot. For my first and last week there's been really good groups of people to chat and have a beer with, but there aren't many long term stayers and in between it's been pretty dead. But it's also a good thing, because I've been forced outside the hostel on my own to get a network, which mostly have been through salsa and in spanish.

But: I can't wait to get to the beach!! Quito's got about 2500 altitude meters and it's only warm when it's sunny. One cloud and it gets freeezing. I got a lama jacket my first week here, and I fell in love with it immediately - I even got married to it - (we had a "ceremony" one very late night, an australian chick was the priest - "do you take this jacket to be your lawfully wedded..jacket? I do!You may put on your jacket!") But now we've developed this kind of love/hate relationship - it keeps me warm but I'm sick of needing it.

My days have pretty much gone by like before - spanishsalsaspanishsalsa. Great fun but lots of work. Last week was crazy - I started cheating on my salsa school and took 2 lessons every day - one at each school. And the spanish grammar is getting a bit out of hand. At some point you feel like they keep throwing tenses at you that doubt you'll ever use. They got something like 27 of them in total, my last three have been: 1 for the future when you're not sure something's going to happen or not, 1 if it's a possibility that something happens, 1 if you just want to suggest that something might happen. Yep. I'll probably take some more spanish lessons on the coast but only chatting. No more tenses, please.

I did a horseback riding trip all of last weekend, it was amazing! Just riding around in the jungle/farmland in Pululahua, a volcanic crater about an hour away from Quito. My horse was absolutely perfect - just wanted to gogogo but easy to stop if I wanted to, which didn't happen much. Otherwise I haven't really explored much - haven't had the time and energy for it.

Yesterday I ran into a "familiar" face. My friend Astrid's boyfriend's sister (!) lives in Ecuador and I've gotten lots of good tips from her through facebook even if we've never met - she's a sweetheart. She lives quite far from Quito, but suddenly I heard "Tine Sommerfelt, right?" in swedish and there she was - in my hostel! Cool to see her in person and thank you Svante for hooking me up with her!

Same chick, new adventure

Well, I've recieved some complaints about missing information about my trip to Ecuador, here it comes, for everyone who fancies it! I figured english is the most reasonable - I'll have to be excused if write a bit funky - I've never been more language-confused!

Some facts:
Destination: Ecuador with a short stop in Madrid
Time: 7 Weeks - 9th of August - 4th of October
Goal: Spanish, salsa and surfing
How: 4 weeks of spanish/salsa classes in Quito, 3 weeks of sun, fun and surf at the coast

Okey, so far?
My days are pretty packed in the weekdays - doing 4 hours one-on-one spanish and quite a lot of homework every day. I actually enjoy it a lot, can spend ours the living room like an old granny with my blanket (it's cold here at night!), a cup of tea and look up words, do my homework etc. And it works! I still speak spanish like a kid, but we've been speeding through an unbeleivable lot of grammar and words in the last 2 weeks. Now I can actually have a conversation (not a good one though) and my salsa teacher only speaks to me in spanish now - yej!!

yep, salsa takes a lot of my time too - doing one hour a day (also one-on-one) and try to go out and dance a bit in the evenings as well. Great fun! But I don't know if everything will be useful for when I go back home - seems like they're doing things a bit differently here, they tend to dance a lot closer here (surprise..!)

The rest of the time is spent hanging out at the hostel, partying, walking around. I finally got around to get outside my little bubble this weekend too - did a day trip hiking up Cotopaxi, a big volcano outside Quito - and biking most of the way down, weee! Really cool. I don't think it would be allowed in Europe tho, the roads were supersteep and extremely bumpy. Like the last time in South America - I love that they don't care that much for safety here - makes everything a bit more adventurous! :)

Mellom-Amerika, kort fortalt

Jeg er hjemme i Norge! Jeg kan skrive æææøøøååå!

Vi klarte å rushe gjennom Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize og Mexico på 3 uker. Masse adventure-aktiviteter:

-Sykkeltur 5km oppoverbakke og bade i en diger foss
-Firhjulingkjøring
-Wildlife - kikking i jungel
-Zipline ( sånn der du henger fra en kabel og rutsjer av gårde)
-Surfetime for jentene med meg som instruktør (!)
-Riding
-Kajakpadling i mangroveskog
-Gå på vulkan ( vi var et par meter fra rennende lava)
-Huletur med svømming og stearinlys som eneste lys
-Snorkling

Min oppleveles av de forskjelling landene kort beskrevet:

-Costa Rica: Velfungerende turistmaskin med masse dyr og amerikanere
-Guatemala: Fattig, autentisk og ting tar tid
-Belize: Rastafarier som chiller, turkist vann
-Mexico: Amerikaner - chartertur -turisthelvete ( det ene stedet jeg var, vel å merke!!)

Hadebra, Itacaré!

Ja, da ble det paa tide aa dra videre. Noen sa " travelers become experts at moving on".

Jeg syns faktisk det er helt greit. For de siste 5 dagene har Itacaré vaert regn, regn, regn. Og stort sett crappy boelger. Og alle vennene mine har reist, nesten ingen nye har kommet. Frustrerende, men gjoer avskjeden lettere. Har blitt veldig flink i Idioten-kabal. Og kommer til aa ha verdens mest gjennomfoerte pakka sekk.

Naar det gjelder surfinga, foeler jeg at jeg har blitt flinkere. Og jeg innbiller meg at jeg ser litt mer muskuloes ut. Men har innsett for alvor hvor uforutsigbare boelger er. Jeg kunne ha en periode hvor jeg foelte alt var helt konge, for saa aa ikke klare en eneste boelge paa over en uke. Mer styr enn med snowboard, men wow jej saa goey det er naar det ordner seg! Kommer til aa surfe mer, men snowboard er nok naermere hjertet mitt.

Jeg har ploeyd gjennom 4 vennegjenger her: En jentete gjeng, en veldig guttete og to blanda. Ble veldig glad i alle sammen.

Guttegjengen var min siste, jeg var eneste jenta. Ble kalt " Your Highness" og "Hot Norwegian" og var omringa av klassisk gutteprat, tror dere jeg koste meg, eller? :) Naa er jeg litt lei av at de gaar i opploesning, molefunkne avskjeder og et par tomme dager foer neste pulje dukker opp og tar form. Aa si hadet til Flurina var helt forferdelig. Vi graat og graat paa hver vaar kant.

Saa veldig deilig at neste reisefoelge kommer jeg definitivt til aa se igjen seinere! :) Drar til Costa Rica i morgen, skal ha 3 hektiske uker i Mellom-Amerika med Astrid, Jenny og Mia foer jeg drar hjem. Har ikke helt satt meg inn i hva vi skal gjoere, men gleder meg som en unge! Blir digg etter saa mange uker med slaraffenliv.

Anacondaer og rottekatter

joess, tiden flyr naar man har det goey!

Jeg er fortsatt i Itacaré, ser ut til at jeg blir her til slutten av juni, naar visumet mitt gaar ut. Har liksom blitt hjemmet mitt naa.

Dagene gaar til gaaing i jungelen, surfing og andre kreative aktiviteter paa stranda, balkong-henging, fliring og festing. Livet er hardt altsaa!

Men det blir likevel ikke ensformig, for folk kommer og gaar, vi drar til forskjellige strender, og her en dag drista vi oss faktisk til aa dra paa en... dagstur!

Og vi har vaert pa boksekamp. Den ene fyren var ca. dobbelt saa stor som den andre og slo knerten neeesten ut i foerste runde. Deretter kjoerte han halv maskin til knertens trener kasta inn haandkleet.

Forrige fredag var vi 8 stykker som sov paa stranda. En nydelig kveld/natt med baal, nestenfullmaane, grilling og den obligatoriske nakenbadinga. Men saa begynte det selvfoelgelig aa regne. Og regne. Og regne. Og det gikk ikke an aa dra hjem, maa ta buss og gaa 20min.

For et par uker siden gikk noen av jentene i jungelen paa vei til stranda, og fikk selskap av en lokal som presenterte seg som Tarzan, tilboed seg aa bytte brett med dem saa han bar deres store og de bar hans lille. Den ene jenta kommenterte at hennes brett var mye stoerre enn hans, han svarer at "Nei, denne er stor!" og stikker haanden i sine kamuflasjefargede hotpants og drar fram tissen! Som er MASSIV! Jentene ler en lettere nervoes latter og ber han putte den tilbake, deretter fortsetter de gaaturen som ingenting har hendt. Senere paa stranda bedriver han diverse hentydninger, bla ved aa dra fram en diger rambokniv og skjaere mango som han mata dem med. Vi begynner aa faa godt innblikk i byens tullinger.

Om surfinga:

Forrige uke var boelgene superdigre, men vi skulle vaere toeffinger og proeve likevel. Resultatet ble 3 roekne footleashes og 1 knekt brett fordelt paa meg og Flurina. Mitt kjaere brett! Saa det i grunn komme, da. Ny utgift, men mitt nye leiebrett er mindre, mye bedre og finere :)

Denne uken er boelgene mye bedre, og ting begynner aa skje! Igaar hoesta jeg stor respekt ved aa komme hjem fra nachspiel klokka 0630, skifte og ta 7-bussen til stranda og surfe i 2 timer! Det gikk faktisk veldig bra, meg og en masse lokale menn i fine boelger.

17.mai feira vi med hjemmelaga norsk flagg, bloetkake, nasjonalsang og fest. Vi var faktisk 3 nordmenn paa hostellet. Veldig morsomt da han ene skulle forklare feiringa hjemme i Norge med " a childrens train in the street". Hvis han kommenterer andres engelsk sier vi bare " tut-tuuut!"

Det kom en ny kattunge hit for ca. 1mnd siden. Eigeren av hostellet fant han utmagra, skalla, skabbete og alene paa stranda. Vi doepte han RatCat og jeg falt pladask. I begynnelsen var jeg den eneste som ville ta paa han (og jeg vaska hendene mye), jeg ble mammaen hans! Naa har han faatt pels og ser ut som en katt :)

Igaar kom det 4 nye kattunger, de er mikrosmaa og nusselige, fint at jeg faar se dem vokse opp 1 mnd.

JEG HAR FAATT SEKKEN MIN!!!

Endelig, etter 3 uker! jej! og surfebrettet mitt er limt sammen igjen! Skikkelig julaften altsaa.

Stemmen er tilbake og hostinga er borte ogsaa. Eneste jeg mangler naa er friske oerer. Det andre oeret mitt ble inspirert og ga seg hen til infeksjonen det ogsaa. Paa et punkt vaakna jeg med blod ut av det ene og puss ut av det andre. Digg! Men oere nr.1 er paa bedringens vei, og jeg har en veldig soet lege som passer paa meg. Men slitsomt aa vaere gammel dame som hoerer daarlig! Har kroepet til korset og tatt surfepause.

- Igaar dansa vi til reggae i poesregnet

-Den ene hunden paa hostellet digger oss og blir med oss hvor enn vi gaar

- Ble veldig glad da Florina, min favorittperson her (sveitisk, 24 aar og glad i aa surfe og ha det goey), bestemte seg for aa bli her 1 mnd. til! Mange av de jeg har hengt med er her bare 1-2 uker, saa bra med en liten "kjerne". Alle som kommer blir lengre enn planlagt forresten. Jeg blir nok her ihvertfall ut i mai. Vanedannende sted!

-Til medisinerne: En by i naerheten heter Ileus :)

Ingen tur er perfekt...

1) Fremdeles ingen ryggsekk

2) Surfebrettet kom for 3 dager siden, men var knekt. Skulle vaere ferdig reparert idag, men ble utsatt til imorgen

3) Nesten ikke stemme og hoster og hoster

4) Har hatt oerebetennelse i 3 dager, affeksjon av trommhinna inkl. blod kommer ut og auau! Har naa faatt fjernhjelp fra min kjaere far og har endelig begynt med oeredraaper. Og takk for at de er liberale med salg av smertestillende :)

Det fine er at dette her ikke har gaat ut over humoeret mitt noe saerlig. Det sier kanskje litt om dette stedet her? Begynner allerede aa foele meg ganske hjemme etter 1 uke, vaeret er fremdeles konge og strendene fantastiske!

Lavsesong, saa ikke saa mange folk her, det er bra, for man blir fort godt kjent med de fleste andre reisefolka her. Og det er nok til aa fylle en fest naa og da. Veldig hyggelige folk paa hostellet, paa et tidspunkt bodde vi bare 4 stk der :)

Romperisting og solkremtrobbel

Satser fremdeles paa den minimalistiske stilen. Har enda ikke faatt bagasjen min! Men jeg oyner haap: Den er i det minste i Brasil naa.

Resten av uka i Rio var litt turist-ting, en del festing, dassing og daarlig vaer. Morsomste kvelden var definitivt Favela Party, digert varehus-aktig utested i slummen med minst 1000 mennesker, sambamusikk og romperisting paa hoyt nivaa! Mest lokale, noen turister. Bare aa slaa seg loes!

Naa har jeg tatt en snerten 24-timers busstur til Itacare, surfelandsbyen jeg snakka om. Endelig soool! Hostellet er har hengekoye paa verandaen, 9 kosete katter og 2 hunder. Kan det bli bedre?

Jeg var forsvarlig og smurte meg med 50+ solfaktor forste dag paa stranda, men slurva: Har diverse ildroede flekker i fasinerende moenstre der jeg har glemt eller ikke kommet til. Krysning mellom dansk flagg og jalla leopard.

Rio min Rio

jepp, da har et heelt annerledes eventyr begynt! Rio er varmt, travelt og bedagelig. Hostellet mitt er helt topp med bra folk, masse happenings og digg bar med lite basseng paa taket.

Har tilbragt mine foerste 2 dager paa a slove, drikke ol, litt stranda,prate og vandre rundt og kjope ting jeg trenger. For: Bagasjen min er helt lost! De har enda ikke klart aa spore den, begynner aa frykte at jeg maa bli lengre i Rio enn planlagt for aa vente paa den. Men klarer meg greit, har kjopt flip-flopper og bikini ++ og det er stort sett alt jeg trenger.

Ikveld var vi oppaa to fjell med gondol og saa paa utsikten, imorgen skal vi opp og hilse paa Jesus og boat party.

Har ca. bestemt meg for neste reisemaal: Rolig liten surfelandsby paa nordostkysten. Kan tenke meg aa bli stuck der noen uker! En fordel at surfebrettet mitt dukker opp...

Mest underholdende bekjentskap er to Aussier som er ¨brodre¨,dvs. de ble fodt med 2 ukers mellomrom ca. 9mnd etter en nyttarsaften der to ektepar ble meget godt kjent paa kryss og tvers! Saa ingen vet helt hvem som er far til hvem, de gidder ikke sjekke! Dette horte de da de var 18 aar.