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..