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 :)