Everything comes to an end...

... and now, after more than 7 months in South America I am back home. My last months were hectic and the internet in Patagonia was slow and expensive. But here is a quick summary of my last 1,5 after I left Valparaiso.

Pucon

Here I climbed Volcano Villarica, went rafting and met Josh from Canada who I ended up trekking with the next three weeks.

Bariloche

Back in Argentina. A two day trek around Pampa Linda.

El Bolson
At the little hippie town El Bolson we ate a lot and had a day out climbing.

El Chalten

32 hrs by bus from El Bolson you find El Chalten. Tiny town that is home to the amazing Fitz Roy, one of the most technical climbs in the world. Josh and I had a great day trekking before having about 1 kilo of dinner each.

El Calafate

THE tourist attraction in Calafate is the Perito Moreno Glacier. Pretty nice with a lot of ice :-)

Torres Del Pine

Back in Chile. Pretty much 120-something kms in 4 days, numerous blisters and a lot of glaciars, lakes, rivers, mountains etc.

Cordoba

Luckily we found some cheap flights to Buenos Aires from El Calafate so we didn't have to spend more than 40 hrs on bus to get out of Patagonia. Anyway in BA I said bye to Josh and went to Cordoba. Here I did a lot of relaxing, met some really cool people and finally, skydiving. Here I also laid of the steaks after somebody asked if I was pregnant, when I was just a bit bloated after to much all you can eat asado in BA....

Foz de Iguazu

On the brazilian side of the waterfalls I met Sandy, a friend from back home. We had a day on the brazilian side and one on the Argentinean side and saw a lot of water...

Then followed a week of shopping (a lot), eating (steaks, a lot of it) and a soccer game (Argentina vs Venezuela) in Buenos Aires, before going home. So here I am wondering what to do next......

Beach Babe

I went to the beach (beach, peach, bitch is by the way a tongue curl for the spanish speaker) yesterday, my first time touching the ocean in 5 months (only touching it was frezzzzzin). I went with Anita from the hostel and we enjoyed 2 hrs on the beach at Vin(j)a del mar. We even got to see a attempt of robbery close up and I had a McDonald burger for the first time in forever, what an exciting day!






My plan was to try to smooth out my farmer's tan which I have been working on since I left the Galapagos, and end up looking a bit like....











... Gisele, but my plan failed miserably and today...







.... this is me!!!!

Mendoza, and now; Chile

Mendoza homes the second highest peak outside of the Himmalayas; Aconcauga which is almost 7000 m. Would loved to have climbed that baby, but due to lack of money (going with a guided group would have cost about 3000 dollars plus plus plus) and climbing partners (aint quite ready to run up there by myself) I will have to do it a bit later. Anyone interested?

However, I got to squize in a 2 day trek in the park with Bruno from Argentina. Where the second day we went up to Plaza Francia at 4200 meters and walked in total 13 hr. Beautiful weather, beautiful mountain and great walk!

<--Sign found at base camp. Nice combination with the 200 dollar fine you will get if you don't use the public toilets in the park, which is pretty much one at the start and two next to each other one placein the park... extreme trekking.

My last day in Mendoza I spent on a bike (with a basket but without breaks) cycling through the wine district. At the first winery I met Suzanna from Holland and Mike and Jeremy from England who I got to be friends with for the day. Wine tour was apparently a good combination with night bus journey as the bus driver had to come and wake me up and get me out when everyone had left the bus and got their luggage in Valparaiso yesterday morning. So now I am in Chile. Was supposed to leave for Pucon tomorrow, but due to a great hostel with amazing beds (no bunk beds thank god! I have most likely acquired a permanent head injury after banging my head on the top bunk x number of times) I've decided to spend one more day here.

And the trip continues; Argentina

After more then 3,5 months in Bolivia it was time to move on. Therefore, the 3rd of Feb I joined Dale on the bus to Villazon. This was a 18 + hr local bus (the type that is packed with cholitas sleeping on the floor and spiting coca leaves in my seat) ride where we were entertained by Take on me (A-HA) inbetween all bolivian pan flute music... Arriving in Villazon it was time to say bye to Dale (who was of to Buenos Aires) and get on the bus to Salta. The following 9 hr (including some kind of check of something by the police in the middle of nowhere) in an Argentinean bus on Argentinean roads was easy peasy after the previous bus ride. So now here I am... Havent had a steak or climbed any mountains yet but it is soon to come...

But first a tiny summary of my last month in Bolivia:

A day in Peru... when my 90 days ran out so a quick visit to Peru was made. According to the sign they hope to have you back soon, however not within 24 hr... except if you can bribe the police.. of course.

Party, party, party... and alot of it. Resulting in, among other things, me not having a iPod... It died due to excessive exposure to beer. Not good when the average bus ride the next months will be 20 hrs..

A visit to the hospital......and an insight in the Bolvian health system and its inefficiency when Cristian crashed into a little girl that suddenly came jumping into the road. Cristian broke his color bone and needed some stiches. While the girl got a fracture on her skull. Even though there was a chance of blood clot in her brain nothing was done before after 2 hrs!

Jungle Rail Trail... a great cross country ride through the Yungas with loads of waterfalls and landslides to cross. However not a very good idea for me (who had been sitting on my ass most of the time the last couple of months) to go with a bunch of guides and people that have been cycling through south america for a couple of months and who also enjoy practising adventure triathlon (!). I was shattered in the end.

Happy New Year!!

A quick summary of 2008; Started out with a three week IB- trip to Vietnam, followed by a solo one week tour in Laos. Coming back I had five long months in Trondheim writing my final diploma (still taking time to go to Switzerland to see my friend Max from Singapore and having two weeks at home for Easter with loads of snow getting to go skiing every day). My masters (which was the source of a lot of tears and woken nights) was handed in the 17th of June and luckily managed to get me a pretty decent grade in the end. Summer was relaxing, no work only pleasure. End of July I went on a 10 day sail trip on Libra doing parts of Svalbard - amazing! And then, the 19th of Aug I left for South America and before I know it; its 2009!!!

The 31st of Dec I and 3, significantly more fit and experienced, bike guides left La Paz for an alternative New Years eve celebration on bikes. Got to see parts of Bolivia that, judging on the attention we received, not many gringos get to see. This means no Lonely Planet who could advise us on where to stay, eat and drink, nor are there any maps of the area, or at least maps that are correct... This resulted in not quite knowing how far it was (further than first thought) or if we would get a room for the night. In the end we did find a small village that would let us have a room in the end. When we arrived we had a New Years eve toast with the local soccer team before pretty much laying flat in our "beds" getting served rice, chips, egg and tomato. The only reason we were awake at 12 was that the locals were partying hard outside and when we finally fell asleep around 1 am our drunk friend came barging in with some unidentifiable meat (Dale whom ate the whole thing in the dark said it was chicken, in daylight it was easily identified as pork), banana and potatoes. The morning after we paid, which pretty much involved insisting our amigo to take the money (he wanted the equivalent of 50kr or 7$ for accommodation, three meals and snacks for 4 people, we wanted to pay him 4 times that). Not our everyday in La Paz when it is a daily battle not to be over charged for everything.

New Years Eve

One thing we did take for granted was that we could get water on the way. I can now advise you the following; going outside the usual tourist areas bring loads of gringo friendly water, or at least purifying tablets!! The second day was quite a dehydrating experience with 5 hours uphill, 20-something-celcius and no water (our main source of liquid was coca cola!!). However in the end, after getting a lift the last killer uphill we reached Irupana where we could gorge in water, have two dinners and take a hot shower (great even though having to wear clothes we had been wearing a couple of days).

The ride

The 3rd day it was a five hour bus ride through the Yungas almost back to La Paz, jumping of (rough estimated) 30 km from home and then riding back. The last part was done through crazy La Paz in dark... the scariest part of the trip. Alive, home and clean the crew and Gus went to Argentinean Steak House having 600 gr of beef each...

A perfect way to end 2008 and start 2009....

Christmas 2008

Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas. For me Christmas pretty much began the 22nd when Dale got a tree for the guys’ apartment. The tree with alternative ornaments accompanied by the other Christmas decoration is found below (Aunt Karin I promise, the Christmas penis was not my idea!)

Anyway, the four of us watched Elf (a great Christmas movie with Will Farell), while two of us continued with a bad horror movie before going to bed about 3-4 am. Already at 12ish the next door neighbor started yelling and shouting (covering pretty much all the bad words I know in Spanish and some in English). However right after going to bed he started, what I thought was, slamming things making it impossible to sleep.... After a small nap in the morning we woke up to 20-something bullet holes in the wall, including some chattered glass and wood where we were watching tv....

The 24th I worked from 9 am to 5 pm, having Christmas eve dinner (hamburger and chips) at the only open place: the Irish pub after trying to order take-away from Mr.Pizza. And as a Christmas present the Bolivian police decided to let the crazy neighbor out. He has however luckily not chosen to show his hate for gringos the last few days.

The 25th I woke up to coffee in bed followed by champagne breakfast, followed by wine, fernet and whisky, and finally a Christmas dinner which was great but a bit neglected as a consequence of the previously mentioned liquids. One of the highlights of the dinner was Swedish Mike's meatballs that started out at meatballs and ended up as meatcakes to my enjoyment.

To the left the Swedish tradition of making meatballs while on the right you find the Scottish tradition of drinking a lot of whisky....

And next: New Years!

Pictures from home

What does NOT help when you are getting a bit homesick and want to spend x-mas with your mom, dad and little brother and sister(s):


However, I did manage to change my ticket in the end so for the next holiday (Easter) I will be home!