Amigas

Bye bye to Aussie :(

2008-05-05T01:50:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!

Just a short note to tell you all that we are having a great time, the last couple of weeks we have been on jeep safari, sailing tour, diving a shipwreck (with sharks!) and skydiving! We have had so much fun here in Australia and now we are going to Hong Kong tomorrow morning and then home on Sunday...

Though we are a little sad that our adventures are soon ending, we cannot wait to see you all back home in about a week! Thanks for reading our blog ;)

Sunshine, love and kisses

Elka and Tinna

Citylife, beaches, festival, and farmlife

2008-03-31T03:53:00.000-07:00

Good Day our beloved friends and family!

Last time we left you was when we just arrived to Sydney here in Australia. There we ended staying nearly two weeks and we had a wonderful time. The first days we stayed in hostels in the centre, then we went couchsurfing for five days and finally we took a couple of nights in the centre again before we headed off North along the beach.
Our stay was pleasantly accompanied by Elka’s friend from University, Valborg. She just moved to Sydney to study Biochemistry there for a year. Well done! We had some great fun together, loving the beautiful weather, Bondi Beach, the Opera House, Hyde Park, a little shopping :S, the Botanic Gardens and some really good nights out in Kings Cross and downtown :) We also met up with the lovely Swedish girls that we travelled with in California + New Zealand and we had such a good time all of us together! With them we also went to Manly Beach, the Rocks, the Opera House once more :), and had a picnic, chilling out in Darling Harbour.
Valborg got us in contact with a really nice guy called Mark, who had this couchsurfing going. For those of you who haven’t heard about couchsurfing, it is a concept where travellers meet through a website; some are on the road and others have a couch to offer. The idea is then that you, as a traveller, stay for free and get an opportunity to meet the locals, whereas the one offering the couch often has been travelling earlier and enjoys being able to keep meeting different people from interesting cultures as you do when you are travelling. Mark has a great apartment in North Sydney with magnificent view of Harbour Bridge and Sydney. In the evening wild parrots came to the balcony to be handfed! We had our own room (luxury!) and stayed at Mark’s place for five great days.
Then we had a couple of stressful days since the deadline for Universities in Denmark was the 15th of March! So we jumped off the travel life for a couple of days and made choices, applications and CVs :) Despite tears, blood and sweat ;) it all ended good and we got it send in the last second! Well, actually we do not know if it ended good, that answer we will get in the end of July :S
Concluding, Sydney was one of the big cities on our long journey that we have enjoyed the most! (And that includes competition from Havana, Quito, Lima, La Paz, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Auckland!) All of them were amazing as well, and of course it will always be a generalisation to compare, but Sydney was high on the list of star quality in our eyes ;)

We then bought a one-way bus pass up the East Coast from Sydney to Cairns giving us possibility to jump on and off as many times as we want within two months. Our first stop came to be Port Macquarie; a small-town atmosphere with quite nice beaches. This town also had the loveliest Koala Hospital, which we visited and came very close to the cute teddy bear-like animals in treatment. Wonderful place! Furthermore, Port Macquarie has one of the biggest rock climbing centres, and this being one of our new favourite activities we took a couple of hours climbing around there :)

Next destination was hippie Byron Bay, a small spot at the easternmost point of Australia. People here are quite down-to-earth but still it is a small town with a great hype. We arrived Wednesday before the Easter Holiday, one of the busiest times in Byron due to the big annual 5-day Blues and Roots Festival. However, we were lucky to get two beds in a hostel throughout the weekend and we then got a last minute cheap offer for some 5-days ticket and took the deal. We had the best time there, just summer, sun, beaches, music, and beautiful, interesting people. Our daily programme was: wake up, eat breakfast, go to the beach, have lunch, go to the festival and finally sleep a little, then repetition the following day ;) At the festival we listened to many talented Australian artists, among others Xavier Rudd and stunning Angus and Julia Stones. Some of the international names we saw were Keith Urban, John Fogerty and Sinead O’Connor.

After the festival we bought tickets into the country to visit Bettina and Phillip Lynn, some friends of Tinna’s parents. Bettina and Phillip live on a big organic farm with their two children Peter and Kathrina plus cattle, horses, dogs, chicken and a big goat industry. In addition, on the hill near the house they had a big group of wild kangaroos living there! We spotted them a couple of times very close; they are so funny animals. The family on the farm were so welcoming to us and actually we got quite homesick because we felt so much at home! We stayed there for nearly a week, enjoying the lovely atmosphere and experiencing the life on an Australian farm. Among others, we helped to gather the cattle from the fields on horseback, and we helped injecting, weighing and sorting the young ones. One day we almost stepped on a very, very dangerous snake, another day we had this huge hairy spider on the ceiling over our beds! Furthermore, we went with Bettina to have a lesson with Chris Bayne teaching us about natural horsemanship and making us ride all gaits with nothing on the horse’s head, only using our legs! We could make the horse stop, canter and bent with nearly no signals, very impressive. Moreover, we went to the annual cattle auction which was a true experience of the culture in the bush – the smell, the dialect with which the men speak, and the way they all dress with cowboy hats, checked shirts, jeans, and cowboy boots.
Our stay at the farm gave us a whole other side of Australia and it was so much fun to see and experience ‘the bush’ as they call it. In a way it seemed to be more ‘real Australia’ than the touristy route along the east coast.

Now we just left the farm and we are heading to Byron Bay again and thereafter Surfers Paradise followed by Brisbane. We look forward to learn surfing and to go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef further North :)

We send you all our best thought and we look forward to seeing you when we get back in a little more than a month’s time! Miss you!

Elka & Tinna

From kiwis to kangaroos :)

2008-03-05T02:53:00.000-08:00

We just arrived to Sydney in Australia – what a beautiful city – we can’t wait to explore it and the rest of aussie-world! The last time we left you was in Queenstown, New Zealand, and the day after our last blog we went paragliding… Great fun! And actually quite relaxing ;) Jumping off a mountain - not as scaring as we thought it would be! Really nice views of the colourful New Zealand landscape from up there :)
Queenstown is cosy little touristic town with lots of things going on all the time, we strolled around the streets, enjoyed the good nightlife and had some good fun there :)

Next stop on our NZ roundtrip was Milford Sound, one of the touristic hotspots in this country. Milford Sound is a fiord settled in absolutely unique scenery, with tall mountains peeking high above the water, powerful waterfalls twisting down the black rocks and glaciers and forests nearby. The gateway to the fiord is just a harbour with a couple of houses, two hour’s drive from the nearest town. But since the cheapest boat trips on the fiord are in the morning (before the major tourist buses arrive) we wanted to stay near the harbour so we drove there the night before. Luckily, we found a lodge in-the-middle-of-nowhere where we could use bathroom and kitchen, and then we rolled down the seats and slept in the car :) The following day we had a very nice cruise around the fiord on the small boat “Friendship” and we went very close to the cute seals sleeping on the rocks.

After Milford we drove off towards Dunedin, a city known for its nearby easy access to pristine wildlife. Here you can go see penguins, sea lions and albatrosses on the beaches (but you have to take a tour). Unfortunately, Dunedin greeted us with endless amounts of rain and we never got off to see the animals :( But yet we had already seen penguins when driving down the west coast. Luckily, Dunedin also showed to be hometown of NZ’s largest chocolate factory “Cadbury’s” :P Hence, we went for a pleasing factory tour! Another thing we did in this city was to see the world’s steepest street – quite impressive! And Elka took the walk up in the rain while Tinna waited in the car ;)

Last stop in NZ was Christchurch where we stayed at the Icelandic couple Svava and Hilmar’s place in the mountainous suburb of Lyttelton. Svava, Hilmar, their two kids Birna and Arni, and Svava’s brother Sibbi were very welcoming to us and we enjoyed our stay there a lot! Among others we went to the cinema with Sibbi and to the local pub Wunderbar, which must be the craziest decorated bar ever! Dolls hanging from the ceiling, gasmasks within the light bulbs, hidden bathrooms, a lamp made of hair curlers, and a lot more... But it was cool! In Christchurch we also went sightseeing in the atmospheric city centre, went swimming in the sports centre and finally, went to a climbing centre with Svava and Hilmar. This was our first time climbing, so we got some instruction and then we just went climbing on our own. It was so much fun! We liked it a lot and vowed that we will do it again, and again... ;) Really good exercising as well – you should try it! :)

Well, this morning we left our car in Christchurch airport and flew into Sydney with really beautiful view of the harbour and the opera house from the plane! So now our 2 month’s adventure in Australia is about to begin, but we have made no plans yet – as we like it :) First we will now take some days exploring this seemingly very interesting city...

Hasta luego amigos!

Elka and Tinna

Kiwi explorers...

2008-02-25T00:56:00.000-08:00

Hey, hope you are well!

We are now in New Zealand were we have been for a bit more than two weeks. And what a beautiful country! Wow, nature here is stunning and leaves you with nothing left to ask for! Plus people are super friendly and helpful :) The country is though very touristic compared too many other places that we have been to on our tour. The population here is about 5 million and the visitor number is 2.5 million every year! It also seems as if there are more travelers of older generation here than in South America where most people we met where 20-30 years old.

Well, enough about that. Now, let’s talk about travel adventures ;) As you might remember, last time we wrote here we were in Fiji. So, more or less chronologically, here is what we have been up to since then:

Our week in Fiji was not as the Fiji you see on postcards. When we arrived a hurricane had just passed, so many places were flooded, the water was rather brownish, it was quite windy and we had rain every day... Nevertheless, we enjoyed our stay a lot, the Fijians treated us really great and we used the stop there to regain travel-energy, getting ready to a new chapter of our trip here in the Pacific. We went to a tiny island called “Robinson Crusoe” and there we stayed for the last four days of our stopover. This was true relaxation with an absolute minimum of activity mainly due to the rain, but also because the island was so isolated. We did do something though ;) We went snake hunting (and caught a couple of them!), fishing, lying in hammocks reading, making jewelry of coconut shells, playing many silly games (but very funny since we won!), kayaking, watching a little show made by the natives (tune: Kiss me honey honey, kiss me!), and taking showers by filling a bucket with cold water and then pouring it over ourselves :)
So, we arrived to New Zealand which welcomed us heartily. We flew into Auckland with absolutely amazing views of the island and the many beautiful colours in the land and water from the plane, the sky was blue and the weather just great! (Which it seems to be all the time here!) We were picked up in the airport by Kenneth (a friend of Tinna’s parents) and he took us to his place in the country with Icelandic horses! Here we stayed for five days and had a great time; we truly enjoyed to be reunited with the horses and the tölt :) We stayed in a cozy cottage near the house and Kenneth and his wife Snejina gave us a very warm welcome!

Yet, we had to move on on our adventures so we decided to hire a car for the rest of our stay in NZ (cheaper than taking the bus!). Then we headed northward to a small village called Paihia in Bay of Islands. This was such an idyllic spot! The weather was great (25-30 degrees, blue sky) and the village was situated right at the beach looking out to the beautiful bay with islands and crystal blue water! Furthermore, Paihia had a whole street of hostels filled with young backpackers. So we parked the car and went surfing through the hostels till we found the best ;) The following day we enjoyed the beach, went playing tennis, made a nice dinner and shared a bottle of wine, chatting to some fellow travelers. This felt like true vacation and not the stressful, tough backpacking, haha ;) Actually, here in NZ we haven’t eaten out at all – uhm, except a couple of times at Subway… Well, the next day was a beautiful one! We went on a catamaran out in the bay and had a lot of dolphins swimming along all around the boat! They are such wonderful animals, wow... We were actually supposed to swim with them, but because some of them had babies we couldn’t. Still, it was a marvelous experience – they were so close to us! Jumping beautifully two and two together just like in the movies ;) The boat stopped at one of the islands where we walked to the top and enjoyed the stunning view. Then we snorkeled around in the bay and had barbeque at the boat. Nice!

That evening we headed south again. Elka was driving and Tinna had the Lonely Planet guidebook. Tinna was reading about the surrounding and suddenly she read that one of the best diving spots in the world was situated nearby. And the book said it was a great place to learn diving! So we took a quick decision, stopped at the next hostel where the owner called the dive center for us. They agreed to start a four day course the next morning at 7.00! So we got two beds at the hostel and jumped in them :)
The first day of the course was in the classroom learning a lot of theory. It was just the two of us and an instructor, Will. Second day was more theory, exam and then our first dive… in the swimming pool! So we swam around there with all the equipment, learning all the hand signs and safety cautions, getting used to being underwater and controlling our buoyancy. Finally, the third day we went in the boat and out on the open water! The site we were going to dive is called The Poor Knights Islands and is a marine reserve. The trip out there was about 45 min. and both of us were scared to death sitting there in the boat looking at the terrifying, deep, powerful ocean. But we arrived, put on all the equipment and jumped in the water. As soon as we got started it wasn’t as bad as we had imagined, it was actually quite interesting! A whole new world that opens under the surface of the water! We went down to 12 meters and were diving around for 50 minutes! After lunch we did another similar dive, but we moved the boat to a different spot, so the fish and vegetation was different… Simply unbelievable to swim around in the water seemingly weightless and studying all the life. We saw several Sting Rays, Moray Eels and hundreds of different fish. They were all so pretty and very curious, we could nearly pet them and many of them followed us around! On the fourth and last day of our diving course we also went out to the islands, but to two new spots and here we went down to 18 meters and did some absolutely breath-taking dives! It just kept becoming more fun as we became better divers. As we ended we got our certificates and we are now both Open Water Divers and can dive all over the world :) Very proud, hehe… Before this both of us were quite scared of the underwater life and now we agreed that challenging ourselves like this was such a great feeling and a major victory within us. It refreshes your mind and strengthens your confidence to learn completely new things ;)

Well, let’s move on! After the course we headed further south and stayed one night at Kenneth and Snejina’s place where we received a sending of licorice and pålægschokolade from Denmark :) Hereafter we drove to Rotorua, a center of geysers, hot springs and Maori culture (the natives in NZ). All this we visited and it was quite interesting. Then we drove further south to reach Lake Taupo, NZ’s biggest lake. The scenery here was truly beautiful, so we went hiking (or tramping as they call it here) up to the top of Mount Tauhara in the burning sun… Yes, we were rather sweaty after that hike! But the wonderful view of the lake from the top made it worth the effort :) Finished in Taupo we headed towards Wellington and picked up a hitchhiker on the way, a young man from Scotland. He was going to Wellington to find work and was good company in the car.
Since we wanted to go rather quickly to the South Island, Wellington was a short stop for us. We left with the ferry the morning after arrival and came to Picton on the South Island by noon. We soon realized that we had landed in the centre of the wine district on the South Island, so we stopped on a small village called Reinwick. The owner of a gorgeous little hostel gave us a map of the 25 wineries in the area – most within walking distance – and then we decided to be cultural and went on free wine tastings :) Walking from winery to winery. It was so interesting and fun even though everyone was (much!) older than us plus we learned a lot!

So, after digesting the wine stop we headed to the West Coast of the South Island and drove down it, admiring the spectacular scenery in this rather remote area of the country. Stayed one night in a quite sleepy town called Greymouth. The day after we met up with the Swedish girls we traveled with in California, went hiking to the Franz Josef glacier and had some quality time together ;)

Having said goodbye to our Swedish friends (they were going north) we headed further south and ended in Queenstown, which is where we are now. Queenstown is a buzzling small town full of tourist and energy; a mekka for adrenaline-sports and outdoor activities... So you never know what we will do tomorrow! ;)

That was about it for now… We miss you all very much, we really do!

Cheers,
Elka and Tinna

Waterfalls, swamps, Brazilian beaches, Hollywood, and San Francisco...

2008-02-01T18:32:00.000-08:00

No - this blogsite is not dead! And yes - we are still alive! ;)

Oh, it so long since we've written here, don't know where to start..! Guess from the beginning would be good. So...

After Buenos Aires we headed to Iguazu, amazing waterfalls at the border of Argentina and Brazil. Stayed at a hostel with swimmingpool which was enjoyed fully in the hot and humid climate! We spend two days exploring the extraordinary waterfalls with our English friend Joe from both Argentinian and Brazilian side - seing the top, the sides and underneath.

After this we set off towards Cambo Grande in Brazil. Here we quickly found four-day tour going into the swamp area of Pantanal, known as the best wildlife spotting area in South America. We had a great journey in the jungle living side-by-side with alligators, piranhas, jaguars, monkeys, mules, amadrillas, deers, raccoons, tucans, hundreds of beautiful bird species and lots of animals we don't know the names of. We were a group of six young people, two guys from Holland: Jan and Roel, a girl and a guy from Israel: Sivan and Adriano and the two of us + a strange guide. We went driving, walking, sailing and riding on mules to explore the area. Lived in a rather touristic camp at the riverside, but we had so much fun together!

The upcoming trip was the most demanding busride so far - 26 hours - to Rio de Janeiro. Brazil is a huge country! However, we managed the ride without any major damages on our sensitive bodies ;) In Rio we stayed at Copacabana in a chilled hostel a few blocks from the beach. We knew we had very limited time in the city, so the first day we signed up for a guided city tour, which is normally strictly against our policies, haha.. Yet, the tour was rather effective, we got to see many of the major highlights in Rio and the group was quite small. First we drove up to the huge and wellknown statue of "Christ the Redeemer" overlooking the city, then onwards to the legendary stadium "Maracana", the carnival street "Sambodromo", the ultramodern "Cathedral Metropolitana" and finally we took the cablecars up to the mountain "Pao de Acucar" (sugar loaf) with splendid views of the fabulous city, the beaches, the mountains and the sunset in the background.

The following evening we went clubbing in the neighbourhood of Lapa which was a true experience of Brazilian culture! People, food and music all over the streets like no other place we have been to. We went into a Samba club full of locals and had a great time - and wow - those Brazilian Samba-girls know how to dance! ;)

The Sunday was used to change hostel since we wanted to stay on the Ipanema beach aswell, having heard it should be the best. Here we found a funky hostel only 100 m from the beach and had some delicious seafood.

Next adventure was to take the very oldfashioned street trains up to the gorgeous neighbourhood of Santa Theresa and of course we had forgotten to charge the camera! Such a shame in those beautiful surroundings! However, we enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and the cute architecture fully insted :)

The following day we went on a very thought-provoking tour to the absolute slum of Rio called "Favela" in Portuguiese. This was the area where the motion picture "City of God" was filmed. It was moving to get an inside view of the slum and the poor conditions in which these people live. In Rio you really feel the huge gap between rich and poor.

To digest all these impressions we ended our stay in Rio de Janeiro with a nice nap on the Ipanema beach - and a thrilling swim in the huge waves (never gonna do that again, arg!)

Next thing on schedule was a crazy 40-hours of traveling (bus-plain-plain-plain-bus) ending in cold Hollywood. The city of broken dreams... And what a contrast to South America! It took about a week to climatize and get used to the westernized world again... Oh we missed the sun, the Spanish, the Indians, the handicrafts, the nature, the real backpackers, the down-to-earth atmosphere and everything else about SA!

Nevertheless, we did have some fun in the crazy North American world :)

We lived right at Hollywood Boulevard and the first day we wandered to the Chinese Theater, had fun with the famous hand- and footprints and took a guided tour inside. Then of course we walked the Walk of Fame and observed all the totally crazy people on the streets of Hollywood (who would honestly want to walk around all day dressed silly up as Superman, Jack Sparrow, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and many many others!?). It's a mad world.

That Friday night we tested the nightlife in Hollywood on a great pubcrawl with the hostel staff. Here we met three fantastic Swedish girls (also staying at the hostel) with whom we had so much fun!

A bit tired our true sightseeing-spirits hadn't left us totally that next day, so we took the public transports to Venice beach. It took forever to get there - the public transportation in L.A. is terrible! So we were looking even more forward to getting our car the following Tuesday. Still, Venice beach was a blast! Wow, so many strange, beautiful, sad, cheerful, ugly, scary, lively and mindaltering people in one place. So many different styles and cultures. We viewed the sunset until we were freezing, grapped a latte and jumped on the bus back to dear Hollywood. Onboard the bus we were talking Icelandic as always and suddenly a man behind us says "Erud tid ad tala islensku stelpur?" (Are you speaking Icelandic girls?). A tall, beardy guy looked at us. We were literally chocked - the first we met from Iceland! He told us about his life as a photographer in L.A. and about his mother who is a fashion designer with a store downtown. He gave us his phonenumber and the address of his mother's store, so we could go and see her if we wanted.

When we returned to Hollywood the whole street was closed and the police was crazy getting people off the streets and sidewalks. We tried to get a climpse of someone famous (yes, we have become real star-stalkers during our stay in Hollywood), but we never found out what all the fuss was about. Then all of a sudden they re-opened the street. So much trouble for what seemed like no reason. We could nothing but laugh - those Americans are a bit silly.

In the evening we met our Californian friend, Paula, whom we got to know in Peru. We ate together, went to a cafe and a club, but unfortunately we were too tired so we went to bed early.

Sunday afternoon we took the subway downtown to visit the Icelandic woman, Stella, and her shop "Stelladottir". This was a very special old woman that we will late forget. You have to see the pictures :) She was so friendly and happy to get visitors! And of course we quickly found out that she once bought a car from our wellknown grandfather, Svanur! :D She made and designed all the clothes herself (with assistance from her four cats) and she invited us to Icelandic dinner with lamb and browned potatoes! We were very tempted and it was so sweet of her, but we knew that we had to get back before dark, so we said no thanks with big holes in our stomaches :(

Monday was another adventure. We had been told that we could get free tickets to "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" if we just got early to the NBC studios. We woke up at 6, but again the public transportation in L.A let us down and we were there by 8:30! So cold in the winter climate waiting for buses, subways, whatever! Luckily the five of us got our tickets (the three Swedish girls included) and later that day we went to a great, quite intimate "live on tape" show with Jay Leno. It was so much better than in the TV and we laughed ourselves to tears!

Tuesday was the day of departure for our roadtrip up the coast to San Francisco. We got the car in the morning and the three Swedish girls decided to join us in the car. Maria, Aasa and Fia. We were all excited, but also a bit late getting our buts out of L.A. So we ended staying in a motel in Pismo beach (about four hours north of L.A.) for the night. And we tell you, this motel was exactly like the ones in the movies! Scary.. The next day we drove off early on the scenic route along the pacific coast with the sea on our left and the rocky mountains on our right. Nothing else. Just before SF we stopped in charming Monterey. We almost had an expensive seafood meal, but ended on McDonalds :S No, we are not proud but it is so much cheaper! (Quote Fia: It's sooo sssheap!)

San Francisco stunned us as an amazingly big, but beautiful city. Though it was raining constantly we could not help loving it, especially compared to snobby L.A. The first day we spend cruising around in our beloved silver Kia. We visited Fisherman's Wharf, "Crookedest Street", Cow Hollow, Palace of Fine Arts, Golden Gate Bridge + Park, Haight Ashbury (hippie neighbourhood), and BestBuy :)

Next day we went in pouring rain to explore the famous Redwood Forest. And it was very impressive. But it was also very wet. In the night the hostel had Karaoke Night and Maria and Aasa were great! ;) By the way, you might keep your eyes out for Aasa in the next Eurovision, haha...

The last day was prison-day. We visited Alcatraz, which was a great experience. Fortunately, it wasn't raining so we had perfect opportunities to explore the famous island. When we got up to the prison on top of the island we got headsets and then we walked around in the prison individually listening to the 45-minute audio tour. It was so interesting and a great way of getting into the history of the prison and the famous escapes.
The rest of the day we spend shopping (Quote Aasa: It's sooo sssheap!) and visiting Chinatown.

Sunday we drove back to L.A. and got beds in a mixed dormitory in the same hostel in Hollywood. The dorms have 6 beds, so we were 5 giggling girls and then this guy from New York. That poor thing. He was in Hollywood to go to an audition for a Pringles commercial the following day. Seeking the American dream...

Monday. Our last day in Hollywood. And America for that sake. Paparazzi-day. Sooo exciting!
We started out with a lovely lunch at "In-n-out Burger" - yes we are getting into the American lifestyle ;) Then we headed off to Beverly Hills, cruising around in the fancy streets to spot celeb houses! Haha! It was so much fun! Like some finding-the-hidden-treasure game :) And we started off stopping at Sylvester Stallone's house with more than 10 fancy cars in the driveway. Then followed Jim Carry's, Dr. Phil's, Tom & Katie's, Britney Spears' and the tree that Lindsey Lohan crashed into resently, hehe... Yes, we are now true star-stalkers and just wait, it become worse ;) Just to add, the reason we knew it was their houses was because the Swedish girls had already been on a guided Starline tour around the area, hihihahahoho...
We finished the day by driving through Rodeo Drive and all its fancy designer stores. Suddenly we saw a little crowd of people gathered outside a Gucci store. We huried over there and quickly found out that Mariah Carey was inside. We got all excited and pulled our cameras out. After a little while she came out, she was so beautiful, positive and smiling. There were quite few people (but some crazy paparazzies!) so Mariah came very close to us when walking to her car (but with some serious security guys!). And we were starstruck! Such a good ending of our Hollywood adventure ;)
A couple of hours later we were off to Fiji and this is where we are now. Comfortably hot here compared to California, but raining :( And Tinna has been in bed for the last two days with a 40 degree fever, but has now recovered so if the weather is good we are off to island-hopping tomorrow.

Let us know how you are. Miss you all so much!

Elka & Tinna

Feliz año nuevo!

2007-12-31T11:17:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all our wonderful friends and family!
We hope you all have a great evening tonight and a 2008 with lots of joy and happiness :)

We are in Buenos Aires (and what a fantastic city - love it!), the time is 5.30 pm and in a couple of hours we will be celebrating the evening at a great costume party in our hostel.

Shortly we will tell you about our stay here in BA - don't have time now - but among others we have visited a ranch with gauchos (south american cowboys), gone to an open air ballet concert in the centre, visited Colonia in Uruguay for one day (the cutest city ever + nice beach!) and then a little shopping (have to buy new backpacks, haha...)

We hope you have enjoyed your Christmas holiday and send you our most loving thoughts from the heart of Buenos Aires!

Take care! :) Love, hugs and kisses

Elka & Tinna

Adventures and accidents...

2007-12-20T11:15:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! We are really sorry it has taken us such a long time to update the blog, but a lot of things has happened... We are in Cordoba in Argentina and it's sooo hot here! About 35 degrees at the moment! But but, the first city we visited here in Argentina was Salta. And on our second day in Salta Elka had an accident; We were walking in the street on the way home together with some people from our hostel. Two Irish guys were walking behind Elka and suddenly one of them came running from behind and tried to lift Elka up on his shoulders without her knowing. This resulted in Elka falling forward on her head, her upper lip and one front tooth broken! So since the bloody Wednesday 12th of December our travel has been nothing but ambulances and hospitals ;) Life is a bit lighter now, though. Elka has stitches in her lip, but is recovering really well and today we are heading to Buenos Aires to visit a good dentist who will make an artificial tooth.

Well well, let's jump a couple of weeks back in time so you can get the whooole story of our travel since last update...

Bolivia; known for the world's highest everything (quoting Lonely Planet ;) )... We started in Lake Titicaca - the world's highest lake, then we went to La Paz - the world's highest capital and furthermore we visited Potosi - the world's highest city (!) at 4070 masl. So we were getting quite used to the high altitude and the freezing nights in the highlands! Actually, we didn't go below 3000 masl in more than 3 weeks...

Well, after La Paz (were we wrote our last blog) we headed south to Uyuni. Uyuni is a small town in desertlike surroundings with no paved roads, small markets and poor population, but full of touristagencies due to the famous salt flats nearby. We arrived in the early morning and after surfing through different agencies we found an affordable 3-days tour around Salar de Uyuni. We were joined by our swedish friend - Filip - with no guidebook and no toiletpaper ;), a french guy - Pascal - constantly playing horribly on his guitar and crazy taking pictures, his girlfriend - Maria - the only English speaking, another french girl - Astrid - beeing in her own world always humming and singing, and her bolivian boyfriend - Inti - who was very very friendly. The seven of us + a driver were stuffed in an old land cruiser and the tour had begun! After driving about 15 min. from Uyuni we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of snow-white, completely flat landscape stretching to the horizon with the mountains in the far distance. It is difficult to describe this amazing natural phenomenon, but it's a huge area (12,000 sq km) consisting of hard, flat salt as long as you can see. In some areas of the flats there is a 5-20 cm layer of water upon the salt and the water reflecting everything beautifully. We stopped at a famous hotel made of salt and took silly photos in the water and salt. Great fun but our clothes were completely full of salt afterwards! Later we stopped at "Isla de los Pescadores", a small island with giant cactuses in the middle of the salt flats - very impressive! For the night we stayed in a tiny deserted village with a strong wind from the mountains and alpacas in the backyard. Here we visited a very unique cementery which had "mummies" or sceletons inside lava caves. Wouldn't like to be there alone at night! ;)

The second day started early on the very bumby roads (no concrete anywhere in Bolivia!) and our first stop was at an active volcanoe near the Chilean border and it was actually erupting when we came! (though not much). The next stop was at a tranquile laguna full of flamingos and with lamas grassing nearby. Here we stopped for lunch (made by our driver), Pascal was playing his small guitar and we had fun taking pictures of the beautiful flamingos, which came surprisingly close to us. After lunch the jeep headed to our accomadation for the night, a basic place right at Laguna Colorado, a splendid laguna in all kinds of colours, full of flamingos and with lightbrown mountains rising in the background.

The third day we woke up at 3:30 and left the camp at 4:00 in the dark night heading for a viewpoint to see the sunrise. The night was extremely cold (far below zero) but we were stuffed in the jeep and quickly gained heat. Our driver drove like crazy in the old car (as always) and after about 15 min the tire broke! We were all said to go out of the car so he could fix it. The night was so cold, it was terrible, and neither jumping nor extra clothes helped. The whole group ended up standing closely in a small circle to keep heat and now and then we saw one of the other jeeps passing by. Quite disappoiting since our jeep was the first to leave the camp! But looking at the bright side, this moment was very special and one we will remember for a very long time; The night was completely dark and because we were so far away from civilisation the stars were brighter than ever before. The only way to keep heat was to stand closely together and as soon as just one of us moved all the rest were cold. We could see the sun colouring the sky in the distance and we were eagerly waiting for its heat. Soon the car was ready and we drove again heading towards the sunrise lighting up the dark desert. We stopped at a geothermical area with boiling mud pods and a magical forest of steem. Here we enjoyed the beautiful sunrise behind the closeby mountain colouring the steem and starting to give the deserted area heat and life. Around 7 am we arrived to Termas de Polques where we were going to have our breakfast. Before eating we took a wonderful and fully enjoyed dip in the hot springs nearby. Just what we neaded after the cold night! After breakfast we drove on and our next stop was the stunning Laguna Verde, a laguna with amazing turqouise/green colours, salty shores and a huge volcanoe Volcán Licacabur (5930m) rising behind. Having admired the nature here, next part of our trip was the 7 hour drive back to Uyuni! We made a couple of stops on the way, the most interesting was the 'train cementery' right outside Uyuni. This was an area full of rusty, very old trains with a mystic, historical atmosphere.

Back in Uyuni we had a lot of pizza (!) and jumped straight on a bus to Potosi, the world's highest city. Potosi showed to be a very cosy, colonial town with mild climate, formal balconies and narrow streets. The town has a 'golden' history since a silver ore was discovered there in the 16th century and it became Latin America's largest and wealthiest city. The silver mines were also the actual reason why we wanted to visit Potosi. So on the first day we took a tour to the mines - and what a cultural chock! At first, we got boots, clothes, helmets with light and scarves to protect nose and mouth from the toxic gases and dust. Before joining the tour we had to sign a paper which said that if something happened to us or if we died this was our own responsibility! Then we went to the miners' street market were we bought gifts for the working miners we were going to visit. The gifts consisted of soft drinks, alcohol, dynamite or coca leaves, which the miners are chewing constantly to gain strength and avoid hunger. Hereafter we went to an old refinery seeing how the minerals from the mines are distilled. Then finally we arrived to the entrance to the mine at the hilltop Cerro Rico. We were ten people in our group and we walked in one line with a guide in each end. The mine had three levels, the first was the one we entered and the third was 70 meters straight down inside the mountain. Already in the first level a woman jumped off and wanted to go back. Now the tour had begun. On the second level a guy and a girl jumped off aswell. The shafts were completely dark if it wasn't for our headlights. The air was very hot, dusty and lacked oxygen, the shafts were narrow, dirty and often so low that we had to crawl. There was nearly no safety causions and we saw the miners working using medieval techniques. Most miners die of silicosis pneumonia within 10 years of entering the mines! Which doesn't sound strange 'cause the air there is really horrible and they are working demanding physical work all day. Having seen the 3rd level and helped the miners with their work, we were going to climp up the narrow shafts and ladders again. Our guide explained us the new way and let us find it by ourselves - in which we succeeded :) Finally arriving outside in the clean air again, our guides made a trial with the dynamite that they use to blow up inside the mines. And wow - that was the biggest 'bang' ever! Quite impressive... And a good way to end a thought-provoking visit in the silver mines.

From Potosi we took an overnight bus to Villazon, the bordertown to Argentina. We walked over the border and on the Argentinian side we took a bus to Salta and then you know the rest of the story... ;)

As mentioned earlier, we are now in Cordoba. Here we have met Anita, a loving local girl (a friend of Jónína, Elka's brother's girlfriend :)) and Anita has been so nice to us, showing us the town and its surroundings. Now our next stop is Buenos Aires were we will spend Christmas and New Year at a big youth hostel.

Hope you are all great enjoying the cold December in the north ;) and the Christmas spirit which we miss here in the south!

Besos besos para todos! :)

Lake Titicaca... + Bolivia!!!

2007-12-04T13:35:00.000-08:00

We are now in La Paz in Bolivia and what a great city! Here there is life in the streets and people everywhere plus wonderful markets with everything you can imagine at the best prices! The city has a cosy atmosphere and the people here seem really nice and helpful.

After Cuzco we headed of to Puno, a town on the shore of Lake Titicaca; the world's highest navigable lake at 3820 masl and South America's biggest lake aswell. We took a daytrip on the lake visiting the artificial reed islands contructed by the Uros culture also called floating islands. It was quite interesting to see how these people lived, very different from anything else we know, but unfortunately the area was very touristic which took some of the excitement. Either way, it was a good experience. After a stop on a couple of these islands our boat took us to Isla Taquile, which we climbed and had lunch (fish from the lake) at a local home of indigenous people. From the top of this island we had beautiful views of the lake and the nearby islands.

From Puno we headed to La Paz stopping in Copacabana right at the Peru/Bolivian border. A charming little town also at the lakeside. Arriving to La Paz and seeing the view over the city it reminded us of Quito in Ecuador; a huge city situated between the Andean mountains with endless of barracks climbing up the mountainsides. However, having stayed here for a couple of days, we have a great feeling for the city - like it better than Quito! Much more "down-to-earth", hehe... Well well, to night we are taking a nightbus to Uyuni and from there we are planning to take a trip tomorrow on the famous salt lakes.

Don't have more time now - the bus is waiting! And we're always late ;-)

Wish you all the best! Hugs and kisses!

By the way, thanks for great comments! :-D

Hardcore hikers ;-)

2007-11-27T13:46:00.000-08:00

Yeah, that's how we feel having finished the four-day Inca Trail to the lost city of Machu Picchu! Considering our lack of shape this hike was quite a challenge for the two of us... Sometimes on the way to the top it was like we wouldn't make it, but then when you get to the top of the mountain you forget all about the difficulties - just enjoying the view!
Guess it's like that with many things in life ;-)

At 6 am the 22nd we were picked up from the hotel in Cuzco by our local guide. From here we took a bus to "km 82" - the starting point of "The Inca Trail"; an ancient route used by the Incas in old times, 42 km long, passing mountains, valleys, Inca ruins, waterfalls, small lakes, cloud forests and ending in the historical site of Machu Picchu.
Our group consisted of nine excited young hikers, these fellow travellers being; Fanny and Dan from Belgium, Kate and Victoria from Australia and England, Michael from Australia and the two 'loco' Danish guys, Soren and Dennis. In addition, we had two guides, one cook and twelfe porters. In this company we felt like royalties having fifteen men to take care of us! They carried most of our stuff, put up our tents, made us dinner, had nine balls of water ready for us at any time we wanted to wash our hands and they were in general helpful with everything we needed.
The first day was quite easy, walking 9 km with no steep hillsides so we were all quite optimistic about the three upcoming days. Second day was killer though! We woke up at 5 am by the porters serving coca-tea in our tent :-) Then we started trekking up the very steep mountain which kept becoming steeper and steeper as the hours passed. At some point, we could see the top in the distance but it seemed impossible to reach! The last 200 meters we stopped every 10 meter to catch our breath ;-) ¡Of course only caused by the high altitude and not our physical condition! Finally, we reached the top "Dead Women's Pass" (4215 masl) and the relief was incredible. Just after reaching the top, an amazing male condor flew by - just over our heads! Stunning, almost like it was waiting for us :-) After taking group pictures and enjoying the beautiful view we started the two hours downhill hike on the other side of the mountain. After a couple of minutes walking downhill we had completely forgotten the earlier difficulties! We arrived to the camp in the valley and five minutes later it started raining heavily - we felt lucky :-) The porters had the lunch ready for us and after that we had a nice 'ciesta'. The cold evening was spent in the dinner tent talking and playing cards.
The third day started early aswell. The terrain was now changing, where in the beginning of the trip there was little vegetation and many rocks, we were now starting to walk into 'the cloud forest' - the area between the highlands and the rainforest. On our way we stopped at several amazing Inca-ruins in the mystical cloudy scenery. Having walked approximately 8 km we stopped to have lunch. After the lunch we took a short trip to 'el baño' and when we returned to the dinner tent our group was gone! So the two of us walked completely alone for a couple of hours in a scenery like nothing we had ever seen before. It was pouring rain and total silence around us. We felt like we were walking on a path of history and the plants, caves and stunning cloudy mountains surrounding us was like in a fairytale. After 16 km of walking we arrived to the camp soaking wet and exhausted, but with big emotions filling our bodies and minds. Here we had the luxury of a wonderful 'hot' shower - the first in three days! In the evening Tinna twisted her knee, but it didn't seem that serious.
The final day we felt the adrenaline filling our bodies since we knew that the trail would lead us to the famous sungate and thereafter Machu Picchu. Tinna had some problems with the knee but nevertheless we walked really fast resulting in us being some of the first (and the first in our group, hehe..) arriving to the sungate. Climbing the last steps and walking through the stone gate, unbelivable views opened in front of us. We saw a huge valley with tall green mountains, a river in the bottom and the proud city of Machu Picchu arising in the middle on a mountain top. It was just after 6 in the morning and the sun was shining in the blue sky! We felt so lucky, considering that this is the rainy season and the chances of seeing the city on a bright day are very small. We walked 45 minutes down to the ruins of this amazing Inca city and our guide gave us a two hour tour around Machu Picchu. After this we went to ‘aguas calientes’ (hot springs) and relaxed in the ‘natural’ brown water. In the afternoon a train took us back to Cuzco where we fell asleep emidiately after four adventurous days.
The following day was pleasently spent at the hospital with Tinna’s swollen knee, she is now limping around and beeing the reason (again) why we haven’t moved on to Lake Titicaca and Bolivia ;-) Hopefully we will be fit-for-fight after a couple of days resting here in Cuzco.

Hugs and kisses

Elka & Tinna

PS. We have uploaded some pictures from Ecuador and Peru on our fotosite – hope you like them :-) Though none from Machu Picchu yet...

Land of the Incas

2007-11-21T11:24:00.000-08:00

First of all, thank you so much for all your comments - we're so happy when we see them and we're really sorry that we haven't been better updating the blog... Guess it's because we've been so busy exploring Peru ;-)

Surprisingly, right at the beginning of our stay in Peru we realised that we were now travelling on "the Gringo Trail" meaning the trail in South America that is most popular to backpackers. All the time travelling through Peru we have always been part of a group of young people travelling together; never just the two of us.

Our first cultural experience in Peru was in the surfer's town of Huanchaco, situated nearly on the beach in the desert of northern Peru. Here we stayed with four others from four different nations; Mona, Josh, Arent and Monica from Norway, Canada, Holland and Austria. With them we rented a taxi-driver for a whole day visiting the ruins in the area, to be highlighted "Chan Chan" (the biggest pre-Inca mud city in the world) and "Huaca del Sol y Luna" (amazing pre-Inca pyramids still in archeological investigation and development). After this demanding day we made each other the promise of no more ruins until Machu Picchu :-)
Next stop was Huaraz in the Andes joined by Arent and Monica. Huaraz is a center of outdoor activities situated 3091 meters above sealevel and surrounded by the highest snowcapped mountains in Peru. Here we took a nice trip to the stunning lake of "Llanganuco" which was quite interesting because of its turqouise/green colours and the breathtaking mountains and glaciers surrounding it.
From Huaraz a nightbus took us to Lima where we stayed three nights at a great youth hostel with lots of activities and social life. We did'nt get much chance of enjoying this though, since Tinna decided to be very ill with high fever and was forced to stay in bed. To be mentioned, Elka was an amazing private nurse during these boring days ;-)
As soon as Tinna was better we headed south to Ica in the desert and from here to the tiny oasis of Huacachina - and we had found another paradise!!! We truly though that this kind of place only excisted in cartoons! Huacachina is a laguna in the middle of desert with palmtrees and a couple of houses, this little oasis surrounded by enourmous mountains of light sand! The oasis was extremely peaceful and the only thing you could see was the desert. We stayed at a nice hippie-hostel with an amusing little monkey, turtles and a relaxing swimmingpool - fully enjoyed after the cold highlands :-)
Huacachina was also the place giving us a great rush of adrenaline. We went driving in a dunebuggy (open car made to drive fast in the desert) and sandboarding down the mountains of sand. Driving in the dunebuggy was like a rollercoaster-ride and the sandboarding was a true thrill aswell! Though we, because of our laking boarding-skills, mostly did the sandboarding on our tummies ;-) It is really difficult for us to describe this amazing experience in words - we can just say: you could go to Peru only for this! :-)
On this trip we met two american girls, Sarah and Paula, and two guys from Australia and England, Ben and Jake. The following very special day (BIRTHDAY!) we travelled to Nazca joined by Ben, Jake and Arent (our dutch friend from Vilcabamba). In Nazca the five of us took a tiny propel-airplain (with only five seats) over the historical Nazca lines. Both the plainride and seeing the lines was a big experience, though we were almost puking during the 45 minutes long turbulent ride ;-)
We wanted to go straight to Cuzco the following night and therefore we booked a cheap nightbus at 9 pm. After waiting at the busstation for two hours, the bus finally arrived. We jumped on in a hurry and the bus took of emidiately. After a couple of minutes in the stinky old bus we realised that there was no seats for the five of us! And this was going to be a busride for 18 hours... Five minutes after take-off the bus stopped for "dinner-break". We were very dissapointed, shocked and a bit terrified, so we took a quick group discussion and agreed on taking a taxi back to Nazca. 18 hours in a bus with the risk of theft and on dangerous roads, we were more than willing to take the chance of not getting another bus and/or loosing our money. Fortunately, back in Nazca we found a reliable bus company and in addition got a little discount on the expensive tickets :-) So we learned from this unpleasant experience; don't trust the cheap bus companies - though it looks good on the posters! ;-)
Saturday afternoon we arrived in Cuzco after 18 hours of beautisleeping in the luxurious bus of "Cruz del Sur" ;-) We went straight to the recommended youth hostel "Loki" and here we were told about a great 80's party in the hostel the following night. We were tempted right away and went straight to the secondhand stores of Cuzco downtown. Here we found the ugliest clothes ever and with some imagination and scissors we had the coolest 80's outfits ever! ;-) We had a night of great fun with several of the people we had met earlier on our travel in Peru.
The next days were spent relaxing and enjoying the international atmosphere at the hostel and the cosy town of Cuzco. This is where we are now and tomorrow morning we will start hiking the four-days long "Inca Trail" to the lost city of "Machu Picchu".

Hope you are all well... Hasta luego amigos!

Ecuador finished...

2007-11-07T14:29:00.000-08:00

Well well, we arrived to Peru yesterday...

Just gonna tell you briefly about the last part of our trip through Ecuador.

After the jungle-trip we went to a mountaintown called Baños. Here we just chilled out and regained power plus a little hiking-adventure in the mountains :-) Hehe, we got lost, it started to raining and we ended sliding down the very steep mountainside on our buts!!

Then we headed to Cuenca, the third biggest city in Ecuador. Here we arrived just in the beginning of the days were the town had a major annual festival celebrating its indpendency. This was done by carnevals, fireworks and a huge amount of people everywhere. Among others we met a group of cheerful Norwegian volunteers which we spend most of Saturday night with - playing cards, haha...

After Cuenca our plan was to go to Peru through a southern town called Loja. But in Loja we met a traveller from Holland who convinced us that we had to visit the small village of Vilcabamba in the mountains. So we went to Vilcabamba... And here we took a whole day of hiking and horsebackriding in the mountains visiting a beautiful national park. On this trip we were accompanied by our dutch friend and two guides :-) Just to add, for those of you knowing horses, these western horses that we found in the Ecuadorian highlands could go both lull (grisepas) and tölt plus the normal gaits! We were quite surprised yes... Our longtime riding experience didnt seem to do much good though - we walked (and felt) like old women after this demanding trip ;-)

From Vilcabamba the trip moved on to Peru in an overnight bus. Here we have stayed a night in the city of Piura and now we are in the surfertown of Huanchaco with four other people.
Now we are gonna head for a swim in the waves and a barbeque! :-)

Adios amigos!

Three Days in Paradise

2007-10-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

Wow, the last days have been one big experince - simply not able to put it into words! The Amazon jungle, just amazing! We're gonna try anyway...

We took an overnight bus (10 hours) from Quito to Coca; a small oilworker's town right at the river Napo in the Ecuadorian Oriente. We landed at 6 in the morning in heavy rain and had no plans of what to do. Found a hostel at the riverside an placed our bags there. Then we went wandering around watching the town wake up in the streets. We crashed into a hotel and asked for jungle trips at the counter. They called a man that came a couple of minutes later, who offered us a three-days trip into the Amazon. He told us that two young American girls were going aswell, so we thought it would be great to meet some girls at our age.. He picked us up in a truck an hour later and here we met the American girls - who turned out to be guys! Ups, we guess our Spanish is not that great yet ;-)
Well, we jumped in a banana-boat in the river Napo and our jungle adventure had begun. After 2 1/2 hours in the tiny boat on the different big rivers we arrived to what we thought was our final destination. We were quite chocked and disappointed when we saw a Chevrolet truck at the mainland - was this the wild jungle!? But then we were thrown on the truck and drove for about half an hour, stopped to buy some Ecuadorian beers "Pilsener" in a little bar in the middle of nowhere. Then we came to a new riverside (which turned out to be a lake) and here we took an even smaller boat (though with engine) about 40 minutes in the green water. The "Limon Cocha" was a true little piece af paradise it seemed. Arriving from the lake, many stairs (made from palmtrees) took us from the water to the cabin. Placed between Banana, Papaya and true rainforest this was our home for the next days. Completely made of wood, with no electricity, open windows and roof only sheltering the straightdown rain this cabin made us feel like true Tarzan and Janes :-)
After a nice meal quickly cooked by our fabulous guide Braulio, we went in two small canoes paddling up the silent lake. The limon lake had truly green water, completely still in the bright sunlight so it was like a miror to the tall rainforest surrounding us from all sides. On our way we saw several different types of beautiful birds and we were swedding like pigs from the tough paddling (trying to keep up with the guys, yes). After asking Braulio several times about snakes and crocodiles we finally overcome our fear and jumped in the water from the canoes in the middle of the big lake. Ah, wonderful to be cooled down in water! Though it was a bit unpleasant because the water was so green that we couldn't see anything beneath us. The trip back to the lodge was breathtaking (in more than one way), the sunset was stunning and in the end our road was only lighted by the moonlight and the lightening bugs, while a big group of bats filled the sky above us.
The dark evening was spend with a great dinner and poetry reading in the candle lights. And if you got your mind rolling about us and the Americans - don't do so.. We just got some great friends there! ;-)
Day two started early with a walk into the jungle, between spiders and quicksand we found our way to an amazingly huge tree (more than 1000 years old) and took a swing in a lian over a valley like true Janes :-)
After lunch - and a little nap - we went in a canoe fishing piranas (pirat fisk) with a stick and a line. These little basters were too smart (at least smarter than us) so we only catched a couple - luckily for us the rest of the team were better fishermens, so they saved our dinner :-)
In the night we jumped in a small, wooden (motorised - yes!) canoe to look for crocodiles. Before leaving our guide gave us the command "no horsing around and keep your hands inside the boat at all times!" This gave us a chill since the boat was so small that there was only about five cm from the top of it to the water... With flashlight in the darkness we spotted a lot of fascinating crocodiles - some up to 5-6 meters long and one of them sticked its head above the water just a meter from us! We were completely amazed and a bit terrified since this was were we went swimming just a day before. In the water with piranas, crocodiles (and later snakes)!!! Now we understood why we went swimming on the first day ;-)
Our last day started with a canoeing trip to a native community where they showed us their selfsufficient agriculturing. Among others coffee beans, avocatos, chickens running around, haengekojer/hengirúm and several medical plants. We took the trip through the jungle home to our cabin. The plants were so tight that we had to cut our way through it.
Sadly after lunch we headed back to Coca - a 6 hours trip arriving at 8 in the night. On the way in the motorised boat we layed down on our mochilas (backpacks) and watched the bright sky above us (with several shooting stars) and lightnings+thunder surrounded us from both sides of the river. Here the two "cosy cousins" (what the guys calles us) layed hand in hand and had a moment to reflect on life.

Saturday night in Coca we took a glance at the nightlife and danced our buts off. The following day we took a bus to the mountain smalltown of Baños and this is where we sit right now, ready for the upcoming adventures. Tomorrow we are going to hike one of the mountains and relax in the nearby hotsprings.

Hope you are all great in Iceland, Denmark or where ever you are!

We send our best thought to you! Kiss kiss :-)

Pictures!!! (Billeder - Myndir)

2007-10-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

Ja saa er der endelig kommet billeder ind paa vores billedside

http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee189/tinnaogelka/

Vi har desvaerre ikke mulighed for at saette alle billederne fra Cuba ind nu, men her faar I en lille smag paa hvad vi gaar og laver.

Español si si...

2007-10-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

Og til jer der ikke forstaar islandsk kan jeg lige informere om at vi nu er i Quito, Ecuador. Her har vi gaaet paa spansk sprogskole i en uge og i dag skal vi videre til en by i junglen ved navn Coca... Spaendende!

Vi har det rigtig godt! Har oplevet en masse (se nedenfor ;-)) men der er ret koldt heroppe i Andesbjergene!

So long - taenker paa jer derhjemme.

Hasta luego amigos!

Elka og Tinna

Spaenskuskóli í Quito!!!

2007-10-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

Vid lentum í Quito í skítakulda og okkur var skutlad beint heim til fjolskyldunar okkar. Vid erum hjá sitthvorri gamalli konunni en sem betur fer búum vid á móti hvor annarri :) Vid erum í skólanum eftir hádegi og getum vid tví nýtt tímann á morgnanna til ad skoda baeinn og erum vid búnar ad vera mjog duglega vid tad. Fyrsta kvoldid okkar hérna fórum vid í city tour um borgina og er tetta alveg ótrúlega stór og falleg borg, vid erum í ca 2500 m haed og borgin er byggd í fjollum tannig ad tad er mjog mikid um brattar brekku...vid verdum sko komnar í form fyrir Machu Picchu;) fyrsta skóladaginn lentum vid í tví ad tad var skvett sinnepi á okkur allar ad aftan og e-r madur (í fínum jakkafotum) stoppadi okkur og baud okkur svaka mikid af pappir til ad turrka okkur, vid vorum sem betur fer á hradferd og aftokkudum, okkur var sagt ad tetta vaeri eitt trikk til ad stela toskunum okkar.
Vid fórum í Teleferiqo, tad er svona risastór stólalyfta sem flytur mann uppí fjall og tar hofdum vid útsýni yfir alla borgina, tad var mjog fallegt og vid vorum komnar í 4100 m haed, tad var mjog erfitt ad labba og anda á sama tíma ;)
Vid vorum búnar ad heyra um ad tad vaeri lítill baer rétt fyrir utan Quito med svakalegum markadi, vid urdum svaka spenntar og skelltum okkur tangad. Tad var alveg endalaust stór markadur med fotum, mat, dýrum og ollu mogulegu. Vid vorum svo uppteknar af tví ad skoda ad vid gleymdum eiginlega alveg ad kaupa e-d en sem betur fer nadum vid ad fjarfesta i eins toskum sem vid erum nuna alltaf med!!
Jabb svo erum vid búnar ad fara á midbauginn, midad del mundo, tar er fínt safn og haeg ad gera allskona tilraunir m.a. ad láta egg standa á nagla.
Loksins skelltum vid okkur í salsakennslu tad var nú ordid tímabaert og fórum svo í gringoland sem er adalstadurinn til ad djamma, og fóum ad aefa allt salsad sem vid vorum búnar ad laera.

Vid erum ad vaentanlega ad fara í frumskóginn núna á eftir í lítinn bae sem heitis Coca, tar aetlum vid ad reyna ad finna túr inní skóginn, vonandi gegnur tad eftir. Eftir Coca forum vid svo til Baños.

kaer kvedja heim og endilega skrifid komment :)

knus Elka og Tinna :)

We looove Cuba ;-)

2007-10-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

Hermed forste livstegn fra Cuba.. Vi er straks fascineret af dette historiske land og vi moder hele tiden nye spaendende oplevelser paa vores vej. Vi har f.eks. taget massevis af billeder af gamle amerikaner-biler, som er overalt her! Plus hestevogne, trucks og cykeltaxier. I byerne kan man ikke undgaa de mange skilte/malerier med hyldester til Che Guevara, Fidel Castro og 'viva la revolucion'. Der er musik i gaden og utrolig mange mennesker ligemeget hvor man kigger hen, men folk her er utrolig venlige! ...selvom de ogsaa er meget interesserede i vores penge :-) Man foler sig nogle gange som et omvandrende dollartegn, hehe..

Vi ankom til Havana sent om aftenen efter en lang rejse. Vi blev straks prakket ind i en taxa, som vi betalte alt for meget for. De forste to naetter havde vi booket hotel, man vidste ikke hvor vi derefter skulle bo. Det viste sig at blive et "casa particular" (privat hjem) som var meget bedre end hotellet. Det er meget almindeligt her i Cuba at bo hos private. De forste to dage gik med at vandre rundt og opleve byen med de mange flotte monumenter, statuer og torve. Det cubanske folk modte os overalt og der var flere som provede at faa os med til "casa de la musica" og danse salsa. Det lykkedes dog kun en fyr, nemlig Alex. En nurse fra Havana Hospital. Det skete saaledes at vi fandt en forfalden gammel trappe som saa vaeldig spaendende ud. De gronne turister som vi nu er begyndte vi at gaa op ad trappen, som saa ret uhyggelig ud, og samtidig tog vi en masse billeder af hinanden. En fyr fra gaden raabte efter os, men vi var efterhaanden saa vant til at alle fyre piftede efter os saa vi fortsatte bare vores lille eventyr paa den store trappe. Der var flere som raabte efter os og lidt efter kom fyren igen og sagde vi skulle gaa ned. Han fortalte os bagefter at det var en military zone og streng forbudt at vaere der! Ups! Velkommen til Cuba...
Fyren som 'reddede' os blev vores guide i Havana resten af dagen/natten. Han viste os 'downtown Havana' og kvarteret for den afro-cubanske kultur. Senere blev vi inviteret hjem til hans familie, hvor der var en religios fest. Det var meget rorende at blive inviteret med hjem efter kun at have kendt ham et par timer. Vi skulle hilse paa deres gud (en statue) og blev siden budt paa stakkevis af kage, whisky og rom. Senere skulle vi paa 'casa de la musica' med Alex, mendet viste sig at vi havde glemt pengene saa det blev bare til en (laaang) gaatur rundt i Havana by night. Bl.a. var vi nede paa havnegaden (Malecon) som viste sig at vaere samlested for bosser! Der var flere hundrede homoseksuelle (og dertil ogsaa transvestitter) samlet i en stor flok. Vi sad ved vandet med guitar og sang gamle engelske sange.

Dagen efter fik vi et (gratis) lift med nogle elektrikere til en by ved navn Cienfuegos. En tur paa 250 km, men det tog en hel dag for vi ankom! Vi tog en nat i Cienfuegos, oplevede byen og tog videre til Trinidad naeste dag. Trinidad er en lille hyggelig bjergby med gamle bygninger og brostensbelagte gader fra kolonitiden. Vi kom om aftenen og modte straks to unge tyske fyre i morket. De var paa Cuba for tredje gang, men kunne alligevel slet ikke finde rundt. Dagen efter tog vi med dem til stranden (de havde lejet bil, meget passende) og ud at spise om aftenen. Det viste sig dog at de, ligesom mange andre tyskere ;-), var nogle dodbiddere (hundleidinlegir), saa vi sendte dem hjem til deres hotel (all inclusive!). Derefter tog vi tilbage til Trinidad centro, fik mojitos og dansede salsa paa torvet med nogle cubanere.

Efter Trinidad gik turen til en storre by kaldet Camaguey og derefter videre til en lille by ved nordkysten, Nuevitas. Vi ville til Nuevitas for at besoge en utrolig dejlig pige, Keiza, som vi havde modt i et lokalt hjem i Havana. Turen fra Camaguey til Nuevitas var noget af en oplevelse! Fordi byen er saa lille findes der ingen rigtige busser dertil, saa valget stod mellem tog eller truck. Vi valgte at tage toget med de lokale. Da vi ankom til togstationen var den proppet med cubanere. Vi var de eneste udlaendinge i miles omkreds. De stirrede paa os som var vi fra en anden planet. Heldigvis fik vi hjaelp af en cubansk dreng til at koebe billetter og finde hen til toget. Toget var et meget gammelt godstog - ja det lignede noget fra en gammel westernfilm! Mens vi sad i toget blev det morkt og det regnede ind, samtidig med at vi blev spist af mosquitoes. Toget larmede ufatteligt meget og rykkede fra side til side, vi sad bare og ventede paa at det ville vaelte eller kore af skinnerne! Efter at have kort i ca 2 timer stoppede toget pludselig. Det var gaaet i stykker, kunne vores sidemand fortaelle. Saa der sad vi i den sorte nat og var meget nervose. Men cubanerne var rolige og begyndte at synge, grine og danse. Efter en halv times tid korte toget heldigvis igen. Turen paa 87 km tog alt i alt godt 3 timer! Men det kostede ogsaa kun 1 DKR per person at komme med :-)

Besoget i Nuevitas var meget anderledes end hvad vi ellers havde oplevet her i Cuba. Vores nye veninde, Keiza, boede i et lille forfaldent hus med sine bedsteforaeldre. I baghaven var der familiens hest, et tykt svin der skal spises til jul og en masse hons. Hesten blev brugt til at kore 'coche' (hestevogn) om dagen og kom saa hjem i baghaven om aftenen, hvor den saa kom gennem kokkenet!! Den forste dag blev vi introduceret til hele Keizas familie. Vi var rundt og besoge dem og vise vores billeder frem som blev naerstuderet med stor interesse, og det led til en masse snak og sporgsmaal paa trods af det manglende faelles sprog (ja vi har ikke helt styr paa det spanske endnu!). Siden blev vi kort rundt i hele den lille by i hestevogn og tog til stranden, hvor vi badede i regnvejr og fangede smaafisk.
Dagen efter var afslappet med familien i det lille hus. Keiza, som tjener sine penge som (uuddannet) kosmetolog, gav os begge baade manicure + pedicure og hun lavede de fineste smaa blomster med neglelakken! -Det skal ses :-)

I dag er vi rejst fra Nuevitas og er paa vej til Santa Clara - byen hvor Che Guevara er begravet.

Vi foler os efterhaanden naesten i et med de lokale og er kommet ret godt ind i den cubanske livstil - her gaar alt utrolig langsomt, alle har god tid og er vant til at vente laenge paa den service de har brug for.

At leve backpacker-livet gaar overraskende godt. Vi tager en dag ad gangen, vi ved ikke hvad der skal ske imorgen eller hvor vi skal hen, men det virker som om at tingene bare kommer til os naar vi rejser paa denne maade og vi falder meget let i snak med alle mulig mennesker fra mange forskellige lande.

Vi taenker dog ogsaa meget paa jer derhjemme. Haaber I alle har det godt og passer godt paa jer selv og hinanden - ligesom os ;-)

Varme knus og Cuba Libre herfra

Elka og Tinnas jordomrejse!

2007-09-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

Hej allesammen og velkommen til vores blog!

Nu drager vi snart ud i den store verden - første denstination er salsaens hjemland: Cuba!
Kufferten er ved at være pakket - spændingen, glæden, nervøsiteten og forventningerne begynder at melde sig!
Vi vil forsøge at skrive herinde så ofte som muligt - både på dansk og islandsk - så kig endelig forbi :-)
Billederne kommer ind på http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee189/tinnaogelka/

Her er vores rejseplan:

2. oktober 2007: Cuba
17. oktober 2007: Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Brasilien
17. januar 2008: Los Angeles, Las Vegas
30. januar 2008: Fiji
6. februar 2008: New Zealand
5. marts 2008: Australien
5. maj 2008: Hong Kong
11. maj 2008: HOME

Skriv meget gerne kommentarer til os - det er så dejligt at høre hjemmefra!

Rejsefeber og varme knus fra

Elka og Tinna

2007-09-21T15:30:00.001-07:00

Heimsreisa Tinnu og Elku 2007 -2008