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

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