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!

Both me and time have been flying

Not very frequent blogg updates,I know... but time is flying in La Paz. I am living with Kass (a nice english guy working at Oliver's travels), his girlfriend and a pregnant cat (which I am uber scared is going to give birth while I am at home alone - Tone Mette if you read this give me some tips from your year long exprience of midwifing for your cats). Try to do some spanish lessons but I am soon giving up, I work pretty much five days a week and go on an occassional bike ride. The result of Friday's trip is found below. Warning: These pictures do NOT do justies for my injuries, which where located pretty much all over my body.

I am just super glad that I didn't break anything or loose my teeth (or went down the 500 m cliff not far from me). A less fortunate girl can be seen if you go to You Tube and type in "frontbreak face plant"...

So what do you do two days after being beaten up, and with a knee that is the size of a small tennis ball? Go on a new bike ride! Here is one of the pictures from me and Osmar's trip on Sunday. Great weather, amazing Bolivia, three punctures and two tired souls at the end of the day . I should say that I look cool in the picture below, but don't be fooled! I did almost sacrifice my teeth - again - while going down, or at least trying to, some stairs....

And if anyone was wondering; no I am not coming home for Christmas and it is not to easy to change my flight as first being told. So when I will be back in Norway is a mystery...

Facebook

Facebook is good to have when you are out travelling meeting loads of people, but it is also a great tool to have some control over what happens back home. Like how my clothes are doing and what fun stuff they are attending. Featuring my little sister Kine who has been in my closet and putting pics on facebook (storesoester ser deg!):

World's Most Dangerous Road

An article about the WMDR and the company Gravity which I am working for (in Norwegian): http://www.dagbladet.no/dinside/2008/09/19/547430.html

Me doin the road for the second time

Back in La Paz, "for good"

In the end I decided to stay another few months in Bolivia so Tuesday I said good bye to Jitka and headed north again. That ended up being a looong journey. First of all, Bolivia has about 10 meters of asphalt which is pretty much distributed around La Paz. This makes all bus rides in the southern region quite bumpy and subject to a high probability of failure. Secondly the roads are narrow with hundreds of hundreds of meters drop on either one or both sides of the road (which kinda makes it more comfortable taking the night bus - what you don't know doesn't hurt you). Anyway, I was all set for a hell of a ride that night when we left the bus station about an hour late (normal), but after about 30 min we stopped. A truck was stuck in one of the curves and there we had to wait for 8 hours (!) before we could continue the 8 hour bumpy road to Potosi. I missed my bus to La Paz and had to take another night bus. This was more comfortable with room for European legs, asphalt almost all the way and we had only one stop (for about an hour) due to mechanical default...

The last few days I have tried to sort out my life a bit. I have talked to a mountain bike agency here in La Paz and it seems like I'll be working there for a couple of months (meting the bosses tomorrow to get everything settled). While yesterday Bolivia finally got to me after three months with a cooperative digestive system. I spent most of the day alternating between the toilet, the bed and the couch in the common area at my hostel. My one trip out of the hostel was quite unsuccessful.. What happened? I decided to get out of bed to get a sandwich and some juice at a cafe about 5 min from here. Long story short; I ended up having a black-out and came to my senses having some guy taking my pulse. I got my sandwich in a bag and a nice couple from England followed me back to my hostel... The really depressive part of this story is that I had to have gotten these nasty bacteria from the awesome food at the Arabic Restaurant or the amazing empanada-ish things stuffed with potato and chicken from the old lady on the corner. Neither which I am ready to give up... Anyway today is a much better day and I could treat myself to an “expensive” lunch since my food expenses yesterday was kept at a minimum…

The diversity of Bolivia

Lake Titicaka has two sides; the Peruvian and the Bolivian. After a few days in Puno I got on the bus to the Bolivian side. Since I got the last ticket of the day I also got the opportunity to sit in the co-pilot seat observing crazy driving and counting dead dogs. However it was worth it; Copacabana was a really nice chilled town with amazing colors and scenery. However after almost a week all together hanging out at the worlds-highest-something-lake it was time to move on. This was not necessarily straight forward since Bolivians do enjoy the occasional road blockage and demonstration, but after a few extra hours with mini van, taxi and walking in- between 1000ish police men in the city centre I finally got to my hostel.

This was by coincidence Sean’s hostel as well (Sean was one of the Australian guys I met and travelled a bit with in Brazil) and he could therefore have the honour of going mountain biking with me on the World’s Most Dangerous Road. The latter being terrible expensive and touristy but a lot of fun. The day after sitting on the bike for 4 hours it was time for another mountain. Some pictures from the three day trek to Huyana Potosi (6088 m):
After La Paz it was of to Potosi and a tour of the mines with Jitka. Next to the close encounter with one of the local idiots in Arequipa this was the scariest thing on my trip so far. Picture of me and the asbestos:
Eight hours on a bus (including one break down and one change of bus) me and Jitka arrived in Uyuni, with a following three day tour of the Saltar de Uyuni with more. The tour can be described as AMAZING! We are talking salt desert, flamingos, lagoons, geysers, volcanoes etc

And now I am in Tupiza trying to decide what to do next...

Lists

What I lost in Arequipa:
- weight (lot of trekking)
- some dignity (too much vodka)
- skin on my right knee (victim of an attempt of robbery)
- a sports bra (laundry service)
- Ulvang trekking socks (laundry service)
- Lee jeans (laundry service, I think..)

Books I have read while I have been gone:
- Anybody out there (Maran Keys)
- Fem mennesker du moeter i himmelen (Mitch Albom)
- The motorcycle diaries (Aleida Guevara)
- Orkestergraven (Unni Lindell)
- Begravde hunder biter ikke (Gunnar Staalesen)
- A bed of red flowers, In search of my Afghanistan (Nelofer Pazira)
- Et godt menneske (Nick Hornby)
- The little lady agency (Hester Browne)
- Land of the blind (Jess Walter)
- Nakenbad (Carl Hiaasen)
- Do travel writers go to hell? (Thomas Kohnstamm)

Some Spanish words me gusta:
- por qué (why)
- porque (because)
- que lindo (what a beautiful/nice something)

- the ending -ito/-ita such as pocito, Michelita, Noruegita etc.

- bombero (fireman)

- vamos (let´s go)

- chevere (cool)

Arequipa

Arequipa is Peru's second largest city and my home for the last week, or at least the home for my backpack. What I have done in Arequipa and around:

- Sightseeing

Monasterio Santa Catalina

- Colca Canyon

Three day trek in the Colca Canyon, which is according to Wikipedia more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon!

Scenic beauty

My room for a night

- El Misty

El Misty is one of the volcanos surrounding Arequipa and this weekends challeng. First day we walked up to our camp at about 4700 meters. Since I am travelling alone I got the honour of sharing the tent with the guide. It was below freezing and I was so cold and my main challenge that night was therefore getting close enough to Angel (the guide) to enjoy some heat from him and his sleepingbag without being unappropriate... Anyway up at 1 am and at about 7ish in the morning me and Gavin (the four others in our group got altitude sickness and had to turn around) could enjoy hanging out at 5822 meters above sea level.

Peru - Inca and Tarzan

The 22nd of September I had to leave Ecuador with still loads to do and see. Since I wanted to do the Inca Trail I had to book the tour ahead of time and did it way before I went to South America (guess I just have to go back to Ecuador some day). Anyway in Lima I met up with the group and my room mate Michelle (how cool is that; Michele Hansen and Michelle Johnson!!). Lima did not impress me so I ended up having a burger for lunch, spent the afternoon in my room with HBO, before I finally got out of bed to have a Papa Jones pizza for dinner.

The 23rd we went to Cuzco, the day after we visited the Sacred Valley and spent the night in Ollantaytambo before starting the Inca Trail. The first evening we had the camp site for ourselves which meant that we (people from the group, the guides and a couple of porters) could play some soccer before dinner. A good one since I still, a week and a half later, have a decent bruise from a close encounter with Toby. This first night I let Michelle sleep by herself in the tent while I took my sleeping bag outside to enjoy an amazing view of the stars. Day two was a bit more challenging having to go through Dead Women’s pass (4200 meters), however since I had been some time in the altitude before the trek it was pretty easy and spent the time in front practising Spanish with the porters. Day three, one day before Machu Picchu, my camera decided to not work anymore! So therefore I made Michelle take a few pictures of me at MP ( the picture to the left is me and Hayley) while I borrowed her camera to take a snap shoot of the two alpacas putting on a show for the tourists where the result is the picture on the right.

After finishing the Inca Trail five of the fourteen on the trek went to the jungle. Even though we did not see the jaguar Michelle was hoping for we got to enjoy some wildlife (rats that can be up to 60 kg, spiders, birds, alligators, a sloth etc) and a climate that brought me right back to my year in Singapore. After two days in the jungle I said good bye to my friends and went back to Cuzco, again on my own. After some recommendations from a British girl I met in Rio I went to Loki Hostel where I got a demonstration of how small this world is, because there was Henrik - one of the guys from NHH who was in Singapore on exchange at the same time as me. Scary! I spent some relaxing days in Cuzco before leaving for Arequipa for more trekking.

Galapagos

Monday 15th through Sunday 21st I visited the Galapagos. These Ecuadorian islands are known for its beauty and amazing wildlife , the latter being of interest for Charles Darwin when he visited the islands 1830-something. However visiting has its cost - literally; the islands are expensive! Putting your feet on land and you have to pay 100 US, in addition to everything being twice the cost compared to Quito.

After a relaxing first day on the island the second day I joined a diving trip. Cold water and a long and windy boat trip back was what I needed to catch a cold which faithfully accompanied me the rest of the week. Thursday I joined a 4 day cruise as people had been saying that going on a boat trip is a must when in the Galapagos. Did some great snorkling with sealions and turtles, went on some good tours, met some interesting people and except that there were a few too many latin lover wannabes among the crew it was a perfecto!

Some pictures of the creatures of Galapagos where at the top left a sealion is nursing her baby, then me and a giant tortoise at Charles Darwin's research station in Santa Cruz, the top left you have a pelikan getting a snack, before the two below show an marine iguana and a blue footed booby.

Illiniza Norte, 5100-and-something above sea level

This weekend me and Rachel hiked/climbed Illiniza Norte, a mountain about 2 hours north from Quito. The first day we had a nice little warm up to prepare our final hike. Beautiful day where Ecuador displayed some scenic beauty. Some animals from that trip; a horse to the right (!) and an alpaca in the middle (why have a sheep when you can have an alpaca?) and some cows to the left

Sunday we got up at about 4.30 and started our hike. Illiniza Norte is not very difficult to hike/climb but the altitude has its effects and above 4000 meters I felt like an 80 year old with KOLS. However we made it in the end and had the pleasure to have a snack 5100 meters above sea level. The weather was not as it was the day before and we pretty much did not see anything, but it was beautiful anyway and the snow in the air made it hard to believe that we were not that many kilometers from the equator line. (By the way, did you know that Ecuadorian mountains are further from the earth center than mountains in the Himalayas due to the ecuator buldge?). This last picture is Rachel, Marco and me on the top

My week

This has happened since my last blog entry:

--- I had dinner at "my parents" son and daughter-in-law and managed to marinate the table cloth with wine and in general was the strange foreigner that did not know the difference between ano and año.
--- Luckily I learned the difference between ano and año before I could brag about my number of anuses to too many. I also turned 26 años last week and since I did not have my party planer Maria to organize it I ended up having a beer with two chickas before going to bed early.
--- My "mom" and "dad" here in Quito have become grandparents, a nice excuse to go shopping. Hopefully my friends in Norway can make some babies soon so I can do more shopping at stores similar to Bebe Mundo!!
--- I went to Otavalo this weekend with Amy and Rachel. We went early in the morning on Saturday did some shopping at the gigantic market, before our "extreme" hike to the waterfall. We did not exactly go the quickest and easiest way, a situation most likely to happen when I am the one with the most sense of direction. In the evening after "freshening up" these party animals had an ice cream and went to bed at 10 pm. Sunday we had an awesome hike around a laguna, beautiful view and nice weather and I am of course sunburned since I frequently forget that my skin color is some shade of blue. The picture to the left shows the crossing of the grande river. I stripped down to my underwear and did the crossing in approximately 10 seconds and afterwards I could enjoy Amy's and Rachel's entertaining journey. The two next ones are from our hike around the laguna.

I wanted to upload some more pics but the internet is not working with me... so for now; enjoy

Learning Spanish in Quito

Ilha Grande turned out to be good, I´ve seen similar in Asia so I was not totally amazed but I had a couple of nice days there before me and four others left for Paratay a small town with a nice little old quarter. There we spent one night. Friday me, Simon and Sean took the buss to Sao Paulo, I spent a few hours hanging out with them before I left for the airport to hang out there waiting for my 6 o clock flight to Quito. One afternoon in Sao Paulo was for me more than enough even though a Brazilian girl diagnosed me as insane leaving Sao Paulo on a Friday without experiencing the nightlife. So than I left Brazil, despite all warnings, without being mugged, killed or assaulted in anyway and I didn’t see any dead people either.

After a long night, long flight and awful delay in Lima and no pickup at the airport and some phone calls I ended up at my new home for the next two weeks. I will stay with Marcia and Jorge while I do my language course. Very nice couple that do not speak English, therefore the dictionary has been my best friend the last few days. I had my first class today and I now know more than ordering beer and hopefully I don’t encounter more serious problems ordering at restaurants. More because in Paratay when it was dinner time I eyed some bacalhau on the menu, for me this is a tomato based dish with potatoes, olives and fish (often Norwegian) - it is delicious. However I did want to assure that it was bone free and since bone was not in my portouguese/spanish vocabulary I really made a scene by doing some drawings and involving half of the restaurant to sort this out and finally the waiter could confirm that there were no bones present in the dish. Anyway, it ended in me having four small fried fish balls for dinner (boneless). How could I know that bacalhau actually means just cod in Spanish…


Since I never got a picture of me at Ipanema here is one taken in Kirkenes visiting Gunhild this summer. The only appropriate way to wear a bikini in Norway, with wool underneath

Ilha Grande

After almost a week in Rio I have now arrived Ilha Grande, where I will stay a few days before I head towards Sao Paulo. My first week ha been awesome! The hostel was great, the tours were great, dancing samba to 4 o clock in the morning was even better! Night food being beef on a stick for 6 NOK is also something I can live with. People are nice and smiling, and gorgeous!! We are talking Gisele Bundchen at every other corner and not to mention hot grandmas with six packs.. and if you ignore the, too common, small Speedos there are loads of hot guys as well. Conclusion: go to Rio!! (but maybe not for your honey moon)

Ciao!

Svalbard

It is now less than two weeks before I leave for South America. For a small warm-up I have spent the last ten days in the opposite direction; Svalbard. Coincidences resulted in a trip by sail boat from Longyear town to Signehamna, slightly north from New Ålesund, and back again (for those who are not familiar with artic geography go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard). At almost 80 degrees north pretty much everything is the northernmost something. It is beautiful, it’s cold and the home to my new favourite animal; the walrus. Although it felt pretty good taking a shower after almost two weeks with limited washing possibilities and beginning dreads, I wish I could have been there longer. Everything comes to an end, but fortunately there are new beginnings ahead, Rio De Janeiro 13 days….

3 Months and 5 days left...