Colombia

I cannot count the times I have sat down before a computer the last few months and started a post without finishing it. I have come to the conclusion that I will not write a post about my travels through Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, because there is so much to tell, that I will never actually finish it. So if you want to hear stories about when I travelled to the Uyuni saltflats, went to the third highest city in the world, did a sketchy mine tour in Bolivia, bicycled down world´s most dangerous road, volunteered at an animal refugee, stayed overnight on a floating island, hiked South Americans deepest canyon, did a 5 day hike to Machu Picchu, surfed on both water and sand, volunteered at a Hare Krishna community, went to a city located in the middle of the world, or all the other little stories in between, I guess you will just have to invite me for a cup of coffee once I get back home, and I will tell you all about it :) But now, I will tell you about my travels through Colombia.

Colombia, this whole time, has been a goal. We have heard such lovely things about Colombia, that we really couldn´t wait to get there. And I must say that Colombia has not disappointed me. Definitely my favorite South American country, among with Brazil.
Although I am really fond of Colombia, I must admit the first days here were a bit rough. Our second day in Colombia we met up with Erla and Snaedís, two Icelandic friends that were travelling around South America as well, in a city called Cali. Cali supposedly is the Salsa capital of South America, and since we are all fans of Salsa, we went out that Friday night with high expectations. When coming back to our hostel that night, after a lot of dancing, we discovered that our security boxes had been broken up, and that all our valuables were gone. Me and Una had locked our things in together: our passports, credit cards, debit cards, cash, cameras, ipods, diaries, kindle, glasses, and so much more, were simply gone.
I felt the world crash. I was stuck in Colombia, with no money and no passport. I went to sleep that morning at 9 AM after a long wait for the police, a police report, and ofcourse, after having been hit on by the police. Yes, apparently they thought it to be very appropriate to compliment our blue eyes, that were all swollen up by crying. Snaedís, my hero, corrected them that this was not the place nor the time.

But here comes the crazy part: The day after, we were awaken shortly after noon, being told that a taxi had just arrived with a bag full of documents. Turns out that the robbers sent back our passports, debit and credit cards, diaries, glasses, and other little things that were of no value to them.
YES! This is no joke! They literally a taxi to send back our passports and cards!! I am still deciding whether to blame the robbers or just be simply grateful. I guess the feelings are a bit mixed.
But after all, we are okay. We are grateful that we have the most important things: passports, credit and debit cards, and last but not least: our health. Our health is undoubtedly the most important thing. At least we didn´t get physically attacked.

So, to get over this dramatic beginning in Colombia, me, Una and Snaedís went to the best place to recover: a small village called Salento. Salento is a tiny, cute village in the coffee zone of Colombia, with beautiful surroundings. We stayed there probably 5 days, doing cute activites like visiting organic coffee farms, going horseback riding, hiking and relaxing. This, literally, was the best place I can imagine to get over that robbery.

Surroundings of Salento

After Salento we went to Bogotá, capital of Colombia. To imagine, that exactly 6 months earlier, me and Una did a connection flight through Bogotá, to get to to Venezuela. There is so much we have done in those 6 short months!
In Bogotá we barely did anything; we walked around, went to the Botero museum (seriously, that painter is a rock star), hiked a mountain and celebrated my birthday - which ended up with Snaedís going drunk in a flight to Cuba. BUUUT that is another story!

In Peru, me and Una volunteered at a Hare Krishna community right outside of Lima. Ofcourse, we are not Hare Krishna, but we are culturally interested and open minded. Since we liked the atmosphere there, we decided to volunteer at another Hare Krishna community right outside of Bogotá. I cannot say that the volunteering was difficult, but we were basically painting mantras the whole time. I LIKE.

After volunteering, me and Una went our separate ways for a few days. She went to Medellin and I went to a small, adrenaline-filled village called San Gil. There you have a big variety of extreme sports you can do. I was able to do exactly what I came there for: River Rafting level V and Bungee Jumping.
You would think that after jumping out of a plane, thousands of meters above the ground, that jumping from a 40 meters high plank wouldn´t be that big of a deal. Well you would be wrong! When bungee jumping, you don´t have your instructor stuck on your back who really does most of the jumping, but basically you stand at the end of a plank, looking at the ground, and by yourself, freewilling, jump into the unknown, like you would jump into a swimming pool. Scary, but a lot of fun.

So after my adventures in San Gil, I met up with Una in Cartagena, for the next adventure: PADI Open Water Diver course. Suddenly I found myself going to classes, and reading a whole school book in my freetime. After a whole year without school, that was an interesting turn of circumstances. But to be honest, after such a long pause, it becomes fun to study. Plus that I can think of way less interesting classes than scuba diving!! So after a lot of reading, a few exams, and some scuba diving in the caribbean, I graduated with an Open Water license. Yay!

After the course, I had no time to relax and restore my energy, since we went straight away to a national park called Tayrona. BEAUTIFUL place with BEAUTIFUL beaches! Takes some effort to get there, but definitely worth it.
Sadly, we didn´t stop for long, since Una had a plane to catch to Puerto Ordaz, her city in Venezuela. So we spent one night in Tayrona, went to Santa Marta, and had to say our goodbyes the day after.
During this trip, we have been separated before for a short periods of time, but this time we were going our separate ways for good (that is, for the rest of our travels). After 6 months together, it was not easy to say goodbye. Like I put it: An End of an Era!
So, long story short: Una is in Venezuela by now with her Icelandic family, and I will carry on by myself for a while. But not for long though, since I´m going back to my city in Venezuela myself next week!

Since I´m not able to upload any photos anymore after the robbery (the photos in the post are either found on the internet or bought), I will do my best to throw in new posts once in a while: So stay tuned to hear about my trek to The Lost City (La Ciudad Perdida), the Flower Festival in Medellin, and my return to Venezuela.
-Svandís

Border-crossings

Hello there. Since my last blog, we have been jumping across borders. We went from Argentina to Chile, from Chile to Argentina, and again from Argentina to Chile. And tomorrow we will jump the border over to Bolivia.

Good news: WE FOUND GOOD COFFEE IN CHILE! Victory is ours.

Although Chile is richer and more developed than most countries in S-America, we still felt like we were in S-America again, after leaving pretentious Argentina (they really are trying their best to be European) to Chile. Reggaeton wherever you go, street food, stray dogs, and don´t forget about silly crimes, like criminals robbing a whole ATM machine to try and later get the cash inside (we spent our first night with locals, looking for an ATM machine that hadn´t been removed by robbers). Oh, sweet old South America!

We went to a music festival in Santiago, called Lollapalooza, among million other Icelanders. Only that we met only 6 of them in person. That weekend we saw Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys, Band Of Horses, TV On The Radio, MGMT, Peaches, Bjork, Tinie Tempah and had a blaaast. If you overlook the fact that it was a non-alcohol festival and that you didn´t camp, the atmosphere reminded me bit of Roskilde festival. But besides the atmosphere, there is not much more comparable.

 

We toasted water at the non-alcohol festival.

After a successful music festival, it was time to end the festival, not as successfully. For some peculiar reason, the festival was in no co-operation with the public transportation system of the city, and the metro system closes around 11 PM - at the same time as the music festival. We still tried our luck. But so did thousands of other festival-goers as well.

So there we were, in the crowd, slowly making our way into the metro station - inch by inch. When we were only a few meters from the entrance, almost making it inside, they started to pull the gate closed. I swear this resembled the moment when they closed the gates in Titanic.

But due to relentless objections of the crowd, the gate was re-opened. Not that that helped out, with all the tickets being sold out and all. BUT, what can I say, Una and Svandís don´t give up that easily, and somehow we made our way to our hostel. VICTORY IS OURS.

The day after we took a bus, among with Begga (a fellow Icelander that we got to know at the festival) to PUCÓN - a small, cute town surrounded by volcanoes. But not only is it surrounded by volcanoes, but are earthquakes quite common in the area (and well, just overall in Chile). At first I laughed when the hostel owner in Pucón explained to us how to get out of the house in the case of an earthquake. I wasn´t supposed to laugh.

The main attraction of PUCÓN is to climb one of the volcanoes, a common activity in a nice weather. There was not nice weather during our stay. We waited for 3-4 days in Pucón for the travelling agency to let us go up, without any luck (but I really don´t blame them - later on we got to know this Australian guy who had gone up the volcano, and according to him a girl nearly died during the ascent).

But what made our stay in Pucón worthwhile, was the lovely, but peculiar hostel owner.

In tourist places like Pucón, hostel staffmembers often come to terminals to lure the newcome and badly-slept tourists to their hostels. When arriving to Pucón, this certain hostel owner convinced us of his hostels quality. When walking to the hostel with him, he gave us one of the most interesting first impressions I´ve ever experienced. You know those yellow toyboxes that are inside kindereggs? 

 Liiike this one.

Well, halfway to the hostel the hostel owner whipped out one of those kindereggboxes from his pocket and started talking about a Russion fellow, named Michael, being in the box. He showed us the box more closely and what do you know! It was marked Michael. Then he went on about how he always kept Michael´s ashes with him (even under his pillow when he slept!) and how he sought company in talking to the egg/Michael. This storytelling took form in very bad English, so it wasn´t until we got to the hostel that we could ask each other if we´d really gotten the story right. Which apparently we did. And still we stayed at his hostel, after hearing him talking about how the walks around with the ashes of this Russian guy in his pocket.

Well, of course we had to ask questions - my head was already exploding from unanswered questions!

Who was this Michael?

Had he also been a guest there?

Why was he dead?

Why were his ashes in a kinderegg box?

Was that where we would end if we stayed there?

Well, so when questioning him in Spanish later that day, we got all the answers we needed - kinda.

Michael had been a Russian guy who had been planning on a S-America trip with his friends, when he found out he had cancer. Not giving up on his S-American dream, he asked his friends to bring his ashes with them to S-America once he was deceased, and leave them all across the continent. Unfortunately, his friends had the same bad luck as we did when they stayed in Pucón, and did not succeed bringing his ashes to the volcane of Pucón. They, therefore, left them with the hostel owner, who promised to put them in the volcano when he had the chance.

A beautiful and satisfying story (but I still don't forgive the ashes being kept in a kinderegg and even less the guy always walking around with it).

 The lovely hostel owner and Michael.

So, in the end we left Pucón without climbing the volcano.

Easter, me and Una spent with a Chilean family Una is related to. We got to know Chilean cuisine a bit and had a nice time. In Chile they eat lots of avocado, bread, tea, cornflour and empanadas. We quite liked it - it was at least a mager step upwards from Argentinean cuisine - the only food Argentina can be proud of (in our oppinion), is steak and wine. Besides that, Argentinean food is a bit disappointing.

After some days with the Chilean family, we decided it was time to go to Mendoza - with a small pitstop in Maipo valley for some Chilean wine tasting.

 We like our wine.

Our bus from Santiago arrived to Mendoza at 5:30 AM. We had been imagining ourselves spreading out our sleeping bags in the terminal and sleeping there until the sun came up - but luckily, a hostel had yet again sent a staff member to collect the unaccommodated tourists. Although it was super nice to be able to lay into a bed straight away, we ran fast away to another hostel when the bunkbeds collapsed and we discovered the fungus in the kitchen.
Once at another hostel, everything got a lot better and we had a great time in Mendoza. We went horseback riding, did a tour to see Aconcagua (the second highest mountain in the world), did a bike tour around the wineyards of Mendoza, and last but not least - we went skydiving. Being in Mendoza, the wine capital itself, I felt nothing to be more appropriate than joining our two main activities - winetasting and skydiving. So I did a winetasting while skydiving.

After Mendoza we were going to go to Salta in northern Argentina, but decided to make a pitstop in a small, cute town called Cafayate. Cafayate is surrounded by incredible mountains, cactuses and some ancient ruins from a former indigenous tribe, called Quilmes. The Quilmes were quite interesting - they were able to fight back the Incas during their time, and they fought against the Spaniards for 130 years. Until the Spaniards simply relocated them to Buenos Aires - hence, no more Quilmes.
Salta was our last stop in Argentina. It´s unbelievable how more S-American everything got, the Norther you went in Argentina! Salta and Buenos Aires are like ebony and ivory - I can barely believe these two cities are located in the same country.

 Cafayate.

Now that I´ve finished my time in Argentina, I think I can tell you a bit about the culture - or at least how I experienced the culture.
Argentineans are more reserved than other S-Americans - well that is perfectly understandable, them being descendants from Europeans and all. But they are still super friendly.
Although being friendly and always seem to be ready to help you out, it´s not a good idea asking them for directions - because if you do, you will most definitely not end up on your destination.
Argentineans seems to be proud of being descendants of Europeans, but they push it a bit and sometimes they come out a bit presentious. Like I said before, they can be proud of their meat and wine - but besides that, they don´t seem to have any typical Argentinean cuisine (that is if you don´t count the Alfajores - cookies filled with caramelized milkcandy, eaten on almost any occasion), but seem to have unsuccessful Italian restaurants on almost every corner. Although they try and maintain their cuisine Italian, they seem to have snatched the Siesta from the Spaniards, so everything closes between 1-5 PM. At this time of the day, the towns are DESERTED. Then around 5-ish, it's like the towns come back to live and everyone goes out on the streets, to the park, to drink mate (some kind of Argentinean "tea") and etc. And then they eat dinner sometime between 22:00 and 00:00. You can imagine how surprised we were when we were told in Cordoba that we wouldn't find any restaurant open until 21:00.

Anywho, so all in all, although Argentinean culture didn't charm us as much as we expected, we still got to know lovely people, saw beautiful landscapes, tried out some marvellous meat and wine, and had a nice time.
So after a pleasant stay in Argentina, it was off to Chile again for a few days, and then finally, into the real South America: Bolivia.

Stay tuned.
-Svandís

Steak-Joy, Wine Pouring and Tango!

It´s funny how everything changes just by the crossing of a border. One moment you are in the environment you´ve gotten used to, but only a few steps and two stamps away, things are drastically altered. So we have said goodbye to Bossa Nova, Caipirinhas and Portunhol and were welcomed with Tango, steaks, wine and Spanish!
Although we only stopped speaking Spanish for a month (and spoke some kind of a mix of Icelandic, English, and Portuguese instead), the language changing really messes with your head. I don´t know how many times I´ve been about to say "Obrigada" instead of "Gracias".

The day after crossing the border, we went to the Argentinean side of Iguazu. Wow, THAT was impressive! I think I could have spent the whole day watching The Devil´s Throat. But I didn´t.
The day after, we took our first Argentinean long distance bus. We had heard so many stories, and god-damn it, they´re true. The 16 hour bus ride we spent in our lazyboy seats, being served with chocolate, food, wine and champagne. Argentinean buses ftw.

Would you believe me if I told you that that day we left South America and entered Europe? That´s at least how we felt entering Buenos Aires.
Now I understand perfectly what people have been saying about Buenos Aires being the most European city of South America. But in a certain way, I´m not even sure that is in a good way. Buenos Aires has that same big-city-atmosphere as the European big cites. Being more for nature and small communities, it didn´t fascinate me as much as it should have. But still it was nice to "escape" into European-ish culture for a while. And not to mention that we stayed with Mikjail, a Venezuelan friend that is studying there, which was super nice! Finally we stopped being super tourists in hostels, and stayed with "locals". It was kind of like putting the backpacking on a pause for a moment, a small time out. Which is necessary once in a while, to restore energy.

If it wasn´t for the overwhelming big-city-rush, Buenos Aires is a place where a culture-vulture like me could get stuck in. There is a thriving arts-, food- and activities culture, and if you have the time and money, Buenos Aires is a place where you shouldn´t get bored.
There were two nights in Buenos Aires that stand out from the others. One of them we spent blindly, closed up in a totally dark room among with approximately 30 other people. We were in Teatro Ciego or Blind-Theatre, where we used all our senses, except for our sight. We listened to the play, sensed the actors around us, smelled the aromas and ate a delicious 3 course meal (yet again, blindly) during the play.
It was interesting, being blind for a whole evening. You feel how all your other senses become more aware, how they try and replace your eyes. It is still nothing I would like to get used to.
Btw, I´m quite sure the theatre staff had a laugh, mixing up the texture of the fruits for dessert - either that or Argentinean peaches taste like banana.

The other night that stands out, was when we went out to a place called La Catedral. It´s a Tango place and a restaurant, with a bohemian atmosphere. I can´t say that we did much of dancing, not having learned any Tango and all, but it really was enjoyable watching the others - and not to mention the shows the professionals put on.
These two nights stood out, but we still did a lot more in Buenos Aires. We did a city tour, we went to concerts, visited the AMAZING cemetary (we went 3 times - no joke), looked for a good coffee (without success) and, believe it or not, ran into our Hawaiian friend again! What are the chances of Icelanders and a Hawaiian to run into each other in South America, TWICE? Hahah, life is full of surprises.
But the coincidences kept on coming, because only a few days later, we found ourselves in Cordoba, having dinner with a nice, Icelandic couple, which we stumbled upon doing a University/Museum-tour. I still think the tour guide was more amazed than we were, since they never had received Icelandic people before, much less four of us! Like I say, life is full of surprises.

Well, so, all in all, we were in Argentina for two weeks before heading over to Chile to go to the music festival Lollapalooza. Two weeks is not nearly enough time for such an immense country like Argentina, so we will return soon enough, to tour around the notorious wineyards of Mendoza..
Until then!
-Svandís

Brazil in all its glory

Greetings Earthlings. Long time no see.


11th February 2012 I crossed the border of Venezuela into Brazil.
11th March 2012 I crossed the border of Brazil into Argentina.

The geologically well informed should notice that we have crossed immense distances, in quite short period of time. The reasons are simple: 
A) We have to be at the music festival Lollapalooza in Santiago Chile in a few days (where, btw, I understand a lot of Icelandic people will be - what a random place for an Icelandic people assembly), and:
B) Brazil is EXPENSIVE! Or well, the prices are normal for Europe, but being a backpacker and being on a short-budget, you tend to try and avoid spending money. So we RAN out of Brazil as fast as we could. Or drove. Running would be a bit extreme.


Being a huge country, Brazil is bound to having a lot of different cultures. We experienced the laid back atmosphere in the Amazonas, the deserted streets of Belem (everybody fled to bigger cities to enjoy carnival), Carnival in the reggae capital of Brazil (Sao Luis), the artie culture of Olinda, the Bahian (Afro-Portuguese) culture of Salvador, and then finally, the Carioca culture of Rio de Janeiro.
Having spent a month in Venezuela, and barely meeting any other tourists in the north of Brazil, I was surrounded by dark skinned and brown-eyed people for about 6 weeks (and that includes Una). I can promise you that there are few things stranger than getting surprised by the reflection of you own blue eyes in the mirror..


When I last wrote, we were in Belem heading to Sao Luis. Sao Luis was nice, and we got our share of Carnival, but the hostel experience we had there, was faaar from pleasant. Being extremely exhausted after a 12 hour night bus between Belem and Sao Luis, we didn´t double check the state of the hostel we arrived at, before paying and checking in. We really should have double checked it.
I can forgive the untidiness, the dirty showers and even the fact that you could enter our room through the window (by now, we are used to almost everything). But this I can not forgive: After having put our things away and showered (with the house almost falling apart meanwhile) we headed out to get to know the city and to GET SOME FOOD! To our unpleasant surprise, they had locked the front door - which was quite strange, for it being midday and such. So we quickly made our way to the reception, only to find it.. completely empty.
After some knocking, searching and calling out loud, we gave up and simply waited. And waited.. In total, we waited one and a half an hour before finding a person that could let us out of this god forsaken hostel. And that person was some random French guy, who for some reason had access to the front door. Although having been furious at the moment, I can not but laugh now.


After Sao Luis, we went to Olinda, which is the sister city of Recife. Olinda is a beautiful city with a historic center where all the houses are painted in lively colours, where there is art all over the streets and everywhere you look! In Olinda we get got some taste of Carnival as well, and went for the first time (but not the last!) to the BEAAAAACH! 

Carnaval in Olinda

Brazilian beaches are B E A U T I F U L - and knowing that, we were a incy bit disappointed with the beach in Olinda (after our receptionist praising it far more than it deserves), with seaweed spread all over it, and surrounded with bars that were, just about to fall apart. I´m sure some of them must have by now. But the water was maaaaaarvellous and oh so refreshing!

 Streets of Olinda

After Olinda, we were off to Salvador. Salvador is a nice city but reeeally touristy.
Who would have thought Brazil has such a strong tourism? I have to say I'm really surprised how safe Brazil is for tourists - it really is super safe!  But, that is, again, for the tourists. I'm quite sure as soon as you step out of the tourist zone, things are far from being as safe. Sometimes I even got the feeling of being a kind of a fake world - a fake world that was made for the tourist, to improve the international opinion on Brazil.
I sometimes felt like a sheep - like a tourist sheep, and all the people working related to the tourist industry in Brazil being the shepherds. We were given the ways we could go and then directed to where we could eat, sleep and play.
Meeeeeeeeee..


Any who, talking about tourism, you know these street vendors in tourist places who keep on harassing you, even though you've made it very much clear you won't buy anything? Well, the street vendors in Salvador take it to a whole other level.
First they offer you their product. Once you have denied, they ask where you are from, and ask you all sorts of questions, and somehow, slowly manage to befriend you (and this all happens in OK English, which, for street vendors, is really not common). Once they have, they give you one of their products, as a token of your friendship. And then they ask you for your money.


But well, although Salvador is a super touristy city, we really had a nice time. The hostel we stayed at was awesome (really, if heading to Salvador, stay at Galeria 13, it really is awesome), we went to a SUPER dance show where we saw a mix of all the dances of Bahia the state, took a Samba class, stumbled upon a group of 16 men playing Samba for hooours on the street, BEACH, went to some awesome jazz concerts, etc etc. So, all in all, Salvador is quite awesome. But what really is awesome, more awesome than Salvador, is RIO DE JANEIRO, which was our next destination.

 Rio de Janeiro.

I think I have never fallen for one city like I fell for Rio de Janeiro. It was such a pleasant surprise, especially since I´m not that much of a fan of big cities. Rio just really had everything. Rio is huge, but still maintains its tranquillity and relaxed atmosphere. Into the skyscrapers jungle flows nature and mountains, and you really don´t mind all the buildings and people since you can always see mountains, beaches, trees or the sea on some side. The people are extremely helpful (I can't count the times we stood hooked over a map with "LOST TOURISTS" written all over our forehead and people volunteering to help us), the city is easy to navigate (yeah I know we still got lost a few times), the Portuguese is extremely seducing, lots of Samba and Bossa Nova, it's actually common to bicycle, and not to mention the security! I was really surprised about the security in Rio, after hearing all my life how dangerous Rio de Janeiro is.. but no! It is actually quite safe. Well the only other South American cities I could compare to were the Venezuelan ones, and in comparison to them, almost everything looks safe.


In Rio we, of course, did our share of touristy and typical things. Went up Corcovado (where I tempted to sing Corcovado) to the statue of Christ, went up Pao de Acucar, Pub crawl, Copacabana and Ipanema (where I was tempted to sing The Girl From Ipanema, but this time I resisted!). 
One day we rented bicycles and bicycled our way through and around Rio. That was a w e s o m e. But that was not the only time we went on a bike in Rio, oh no. Because one day we went with motorbikes to the top of favela Rocinha, the biggest shanty town in Brazil. But hold your horses, we're not THAT crazy to just jump upon a motorcycle and run into the next favela. It was an organized tour to take a look into the safest slum in Rio, and the motorbike was actually a motor-taxi assigned by the tour company. But it was really really interesting. You must have seen any movies like Cidade de deus or Tropa de Elite, or just any movie that happens inside a favela? Well, that was how it looked. Except for we didn't see any criminals. Well that is, except for one: There I was, innocently strolling around, a bit behind the group, when suddenly he grabs my bottle of water and pulls it from me with all his almighty forces! Looking at the face of the 4 years old toddler with a pacifier, looking back to the bottle, and then back to the toddler - I couldn't do anything but crack up laughing and walk away.

Rocinha.

Sadly, we didn't spend more than 5 nights in Rio. I would definitely have liked to spend more time there, and I will undoubtedly go there again. I wouldn't even mind spending 3-6 months there, learn Portuguese, Samba, to surf and etc. We'll see :)


 Our last stop in Brazil was Foz do Iguacu. In the 24 hour bus ride from Rio to Iguacu we got to know this really nice Hawaiian guy. Finally, someone else from a small community. I, literally, can not count the times I have heard "Wow, you are the first persons I meet from Iceland!". My answer is usually that there aren´t so many people to meet, since we are only 300.000.


The Brazilian side of Iguacu the waterfall was fascinating. There you got a whole view over all the falls. Quite amazing.

So, well, before we knew, a whole month in Brazil had passed, and we were off to cross the border over to Argentina.

This way to Argen(tina)!

Stay tuned.
-Svandís

Brazil, Amazonas, Ilha do Amor and hippies.

So.. hello there.
Where to commence!? There is so much that has happened, and so little time to recount!

We have, after a long journey, finally arrived to Belem in Brazil. Since the last time I blogged, when I was situated in San Cristobal in Venezuela, I have journeyd from San Cristobal - Caracas - Puerto Ordaz - Boa Vista - Manaus - Santarem - Alter do Chao - Santarem - Belem. We have mounted plains, buses, taxis, boats and hammocks, waited, smiled, laughed, gotten to know new people, gotten sick, gotten robbed and then waited some more.

As I have before stated, San Cristobal is the city of my exchange. Leaving my city, at the end of my exchange year 2009, was one of the hardest moments of my life, because it was the end of something really, really special.
This time, leaving San Cristobal, was not as difficult. This time it wasn´t the end of something, but the beginning: The beginning of a trip. The beginning of living.

When flying from San Cristobal to Una in Puerto Ordaz, I made the mistake of not plasting my bag. I can blame myself that all my medicine got stolen.. Without wanting to be mean, I hope the thief gets malaria. Then at least my extremely expensive malaria medicine wont go to waist..
We spent one night in Puerto Ordaz before we hit the road: before we mounted the 30 hour bus to Manaus. The bus trip was actually, quite not thad bad. We slept, had some nice view, got to know some interesting people, plus we had a lot of catching up to do after such a long time apart.
We had the bad luck of arriving to Manaus on a Sunday - for those who do not know, everything is quite closed on Sundays in South America. But we still managed to get a guide to show us around the city and had a really pleasant day there.
On a Monday, 12 February, I fulfilled an old dream of mine: I sailed the Amazon. I fulfilled this dream of mine on Monday, Tuesday.. Friday, Saturday and Sunday! It was quite a long trip.
The trip was interesting: The boat had two floors where people put up their hammocks and slept. Our hammocks were nicely situated (awaaaay from the toilets and the smell that follows) and we had a nice view over the Amazon river and the forest. The food that was sold on the boat could barely have been less interesting, so we lived mostly of fruits and unflavored crackers.

On Tuesday night we made a stop in a city called Santarem, where we joined a Colombian dancing group and their Brazilian friend, to a place between Santarem and Alter do Chao. The day that we spent there, was, without a doubt, one of the most interesting I have experienced in my life. When we got off the bus, near to Alter do Chao, it seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere. There, in the middle of nowhere, we were told that the Pousada we were looking for, was situated even more in the middle of nowhere: Following a narrow road, into the dark dark woods, where no light shone.. The 8 of us, armed with but one flashlight, accepted this challenge and entered the woods. After a few minutes of stumbling, tumbling and panicky giggling, we rambled upon a stoned hippie and his humble ranch. There is were we put up our hammocks, cooked some Colombian food, and soon fell asleep amidst the trees of the Amazon and the pouring rain..

The day after was more than surrealistic, and it never seemed to take an end! We joined the hippies to visit another hippie and his treehouse. From there they all went swimming in this really cute river, and had some Caipirinha for breakfast. Around midday, me, Una, and our new Brazilian friend headed to Alter do Chao.
Alter do Chao is.. undescribable. But I will try anyways.
Alter do Chao is a little town in Amazonas, situated by a river (not the Amazon river). Not only is the town itself cute and charming, but when coming to the port, you have the view of the river, with a beautiful peninsula made of sand. On that peninsula, there are cute, little houses, made of woods and straw; and when the water rises, the houses stay below. Looking at the piece of land the peninsula is connected to, you see trees and a beautiful little mountain that kinda looks like a volcano.
We took a boat over to the peninsula and strolled around, enjoying every piece of beauty and nature the world cast upon us.. We hadn´t been strolling for long, when suddenly, a tree I was passing under, started to shake and rustle! Not knowing what was going on, I started to run, and just when I turned my head to look at what was going on, a humongous iguana fell off the tree, down to the exact same spot I had been standing, only few moments earlier. You can imagine the shock, and the explotion of laughter that came afterwards. I don´t think I would have laughed as much had the iguana really hit me, since I´m quite sure that it would have knocked me unconscious.. BUT, since that didn´t happen, I keep on giggling at the memory.

Continuing on the peninsula, we went with a guide up the mountain. From there, we had the most spectacular view of Amazonas. It was really something. After this, I really thought this fantastic day was over, and that we would head back to the camp. But no, the day kept on going! After going down the mountain, we were suddenly in the middle of a Capoeira class, where there was even made a special show for the two Icelandic girls, who never had seen Capoeira performed live before.. Yet again, the day/night would just not end! After the Capoeira class, we were all of a sudden situated on an old harbor, dancing Salsa, Samba and some Colombian dances. The party then moved to the town square, were we were joined by a french woman, and a sixty year old german man, who, when interrogated where he was from, he gave us the answer: ¨The world¨. Pretty good damn answer, I have to say.
Well, after this awesome and surrealistic day and evening, we finally parted to the camp, walking maaany kilometers to get there. But still very much worth it.

Well. After this awesome experience in Alter do Chao, it was time to move on, so Friday 17th, we boarded again a boat, to finish sailing the Amazon. We arrived safely yesterday, and are now, once again, about to mount a bus, to spend the last days of Carnival in the reggae capital of Brazil.
Stay tuned..

Immigration control, Nostalgia and Extreme sports.

WOW. The last 3 weeks have been.. well, they have been incredible. And the thought of it that there have only passed 3 weeks is mindblowing, I feel like I've been on the road for weeks!
So far I've travelled: Keflavík airport > New York > Bogota > Caracas > Coro > Maracaibo > Merida > San Cristobal. So that is quite a travel in such a short time, I must say.

In the US we stayed with the lovely family of Kitty, that treated us wonderfully. We used our time to shop the rest of our luggage and to prepare ourselves for our adventures! On our second day there, we received quite a shock, when we found out that both our plans for the first days in Venezuela, had crashed. We are very aware that we are not gonna have everything fully planned, and that when we actually will plan something, the plans are very much likely to fail - but we really wanted to have everything absolutely cristal clear, while taking our first steps.. especially when your first pitstop is in one of the most dangerous city in the world (yes, Caracas in Venezuela is extremely dangerous). But what can I say. We managed.

Well, I guess I wont talk a lot about the US, or show you the photos we took, since I guess everyone is more excited to hear about our exotic travels in South America. Right? Well, maybe I'll throw in one photo from New York, of..:

..this oversized button we found!

How awesome is that.

So the 8th January we entered JFK airport, where we took our last steps in civilization.
Joking.
We had bought the flight from JFK - Caracas, but we had to change planes in Bogota. Oh, and there we had to wait 9 hours. I experienced without a doubt the longest 7 hours of my life! The other 2 hours I spent in panicking when we were informed we couldn't enter the flight. Oh yes. But we resolved it in the end (loooooooong story), and at noon 9th January, we landed at Caracas airport.

I have no words to describe how strange it is to be back in Venezuela. To think that I lived here for a whole year!? Anyone that has gone as an exchange student, can tell you that once you get back to your home country, your exchange year seems like nothing but a distant dream.. And now I seem to have entered that same old dream again..

Coming to Caracas, the waiting and the endless transport was far from over. We landed around noon, and our bus to Coro left in the evening. Everything brought back so many memories, even the bus ride from Caracas to Coro! Venezuelan people drive like maniacs, there are almost no traffic rules, and if there are, the people don't follow them. They just follow their own rules: Don't get into an accident, don't die. But not everyone fulfills those rules either.
There are barely seatbelts in the cars, and if for some magical reason there are, people don't use them. Travelling with a bus in Venezuela is the worst. Although we went with a good company, and each and every seat was almost like a lazyboy, we barely could sleep in the bus due to the air conditioner. Air conditioner is quite a remarkable thing here. You could even say that the luxury of your life here is measured in the quality of your air conditioner.
I've always found air conditioner and temperature interesting here. The people here put the air conditioner on FULL in the cars and houses, and before you know, it's as cold as in Iceland, and the people LOVE IT. But once it gets just a little bit colder outside than usually, oh theeen the people complain. Quite interesting indeed.
Well so yeah, the trip to Coro was quite cold. But we made it! :) But once we made it, at 3 AM to the terminal in Coro, another plan of ours failed. My hostfamily had arranged a Taxi to pick us up (since it's dangerous to be outside at that time of night), but it never showed up. "Welcome to South America!" rang in my head. But no worries! Me writing this blog should be a good enough proof of us surviving so far.

Our trip to Coro was almost solely made to see the sand dunes that are located there. It was quite a spectacular sight.

We only stayed there 2 nights, and then we split our ways. Una headed to Puerto Ordaz, the city she stayed in during her exchange, and I went to Maracaibo.

Maracaibo is the second largest city in Venezuela. It is therefore, one of the most dangerous cities in Venezuela. Although being so dangerous, I spent a lovely time there with Luis Miguel, who was an exchange student in Iceland last year, and his friends. I got to know the city, listened to strange Spanish (they speak really strange here, eh!), saw the biggest lake of Maracaibo, got to know a lot of AFS people (which all seemed to know someone that I know, this is such a small world), tried a lot of food that I had not tried before (I'm telling you, it's almost as if Maracaibo weren't a part of Venezuela) and had a fantastic time.
The days passed, and before I knew, I was back on the road, and this time to Mérida.

Mérida in my oppinion is one of the greatest cities in Venezuela. It has a lot of young people, bars, extreme sports and culture and is a lot safer than most cities in Venezuela. I met up with Egill, an Icelandic AFS friend, in Mérida and we stayed there for a few days. We stayed at a hostel called Posada Guamanchi, where, well, all the staff was high. All the time.
Inspite of sky-high staff, we had a great time. We went paragliding, which was both a pleasant and an unpleasant experience. No comment. We also did some canyoning - note canyoning, not canoeing! Canyoning is a sport where you go down a canyon, climbing, walking, rappelling etc. It's really fun - especially the parts with the waterfalls :) Google it, there are some awesome photos on the internet!

Free as a bird! - Paragliding.

Well so yes, paragliding, canyoning, partying, and we even met up with Una! Who could have figured.. although her city is located on the other side of the country, she came to Mérida with her hostmother to meet some family there. It was quite a pleasant surprise :)

After some great days in Mérida, it was time to move on. This time to the glorious city; San Cristóbal!
San Cristóbal is.. greater than Mérida. San Cristóbal is greater than any city in Venezuela. San Cristóbal is the BEST. Not that I am completely neutral, since San Cristóbal is the city where I spent my exchange year, but it is still a pretty awesome city.

Dear former exchange students of San Cristóbal. The city has not changed a lot since our exchange. Things are quite the same as they were.. Plaza de los Mangos with the sloths, The mountain and the fruits, Barrio Obrero with all the people, The bad roads, The lovely people..
But although the city stays the same, there is a difference in the society.
Venezuela has gone from being dangerous in 2008/2009, to being extremely dangerous now. The insecurity is scandalous, and nobody seems to be safe these days. I don't get easily afraid, but being here, I am not at ease.
Connected to this insecurity, there is another change in the society. I remember being here as an exchange student and talking to some people that dreamt about leaving the country and establishing a better life in another country. This has changed from being some people, to every educated person. Everybody seems to want to leave the country, everybody is looking for a way to escape. And I do not blame them. But can you imagine a whole country where all the educated people flee from? This country is going downwards, and that fast.
The last change I feel, is in the prices. Venezuela has the worst inflation in whole South America, and therefore all the prices have altered by a lot. Though I, as a foreigner, have nothing to worry about (since although Krona, the Icelandic currency does not value a lot these days, it still values a bunch more than the Venezuelan Bolivar), the people here do.

I have now stayed in San Cristóbal for around 2 weeks, and sadly, I have only a few days left.
Although I can't wait for all the adventures that we are about to experience, I can't help to think about how great it would be to stay here, just a little bit longer.. I've had such a good time here. I've spent a lot of time with my hostfamily, I've met all my old friends (except for the other former exchange students, hmmm) which I have missed so dearly, I've rambled about the city, gone cave-exploring, done more rappelling, gone mountain climbing, gone to the ferias.. I've even gotten to the point to experience culture shock! But this time I am aware of it, and can control it. I really do feel at home here.
But no, soon it is time to move on. Soon it's time to cross the boarders and head to the jungles of Brazil..