Guatemala

Hi everyone!

Semuc Champey

After voluntarily spending a night on the floor in the check-in area of Guatemala City airport, the only reason being laziness to find a better option at a late hour, we decided to skip Guatemala City all together, and took a taxi straight to the bus-station, heading for Semuc Champey, outside of Lanquin, in north-central Guatemala. Semuc Champey must be one of the most beautiful natural sights in the world. Semuc Champey is said to mean "Sacred Water" in mayan, but some people (and also what we were told) said that it meant "Where the river hides beneath the earth". So basically it was a big river flowing underneath the natural pools, and the pools itself came from mountain water, not the river Cahabon, which flows underneath. It is made up of 6 natural "pools" that fuse together by small, or big, waterfalls, creating natural waterslides, or big jumps into the next pool, which ever you'd like.

Up there we slept :)

The hostel, El Portal, where we stayed in the roof of one of the dorms, (yes, in the roof) sleeping on mattresses, was a delightful hostel with young, energetic staff that didn't want any payment for "sexy"-dancing with you all night, even though they were 12 years old. It must be the central-american blood.. Worth mentioning that these guys only were cute, not annoying like earlier-mentioned south/central - american guys.. :) Definetly a must-see if you ever go to Guatemala! We were also on a tour inside of a huge cave, with no other light than a candle, that you had to swim with in one hand when the water got deep. The cave involved everything from swimming, to climbing, to letting yourself go from small waterfalls, sorrounded by stone close arround your body. Quite thrilling!

This is where the river goes under the pools.

Also a must-see is Livingston, especially if you are a backpacker. And if you go there as a backpacker, you should definetly stay at Casa de la Iguana, in one of their hammocks, or one of their bungalows. This area of Guatemala is just like being in caribbean, all of the sudden, and it's beautiful in every way; the scenery, the people, and the laidback way of living.. The first night there we were witnesses to a proper caribbean storm, thunder bouldering down 1 second after the lightning, and the rain so heavy you had to shout to hear each other. Pretty cool! Despite the weather our first night was awesome, with fun drinking-games sorrounded by fun people, and great music at the hostel bar.

The Cave

The best beer-pong team!

Day 2 in Livingston we went for a boat trip to a beautiful beach, where we mostly lied down sleeping because of late night yesterday. But also the weather was still a bit bad, it was cloudy and you could feel the rain was on its way. So it wasn't really a beach day. We were supposed to go The Seven Altars (which is a bit like Semuc Champey), but the rain started to really poor down and the sea was getting a bit rough, so we decided to drop it and head back to the hostel. Returning to the hostel soaking wet without even having taken a swim, it was nice to relax with the movie Bruno, Wifi, and french toast with maple syrup that day. ;) The original plan was to travel for a while longer in Guatemala, before going to Belize, but in a heartbeat we decided to go to Honduras to do our Open Water Diving Certificate instead, which is our current location. We will write about that next time. :)

Eating dinner at the beach.

Cuba - rum, salsa, and cigars..

We were so ready to get to Cuba, drink Cuba Libre, dance salsa and chill on the white sandy beaches.. On our way from Peru to Cuba we had to change planes in Costa Rica, and after hours of waiting and writing our diaries, found out the plane didn't leave till the next morning. At first we got disappointed, but it turned out great in the end, for the two of us anyways. Instead of running around in Havana at midnight looking for a place to sleep, we got a free night at a nice hotel, a double bed each, and a free 3course dinner! Sweet! We even got new toothbrushes

Our "mom" in the cuban house we stayed in.

 

The first 3 nights in Havana we slept in a Casa Particulare, Cuba's version of a Hostel, which is basically to move in with a cuban family. Which we did.. A sweet lady that cooked for us as well as her family, her daughter, 37 years with downs syndrome, her husband, and her husbands mom. So she was used to looking after people. It was a nice experience, and we got to eat authentic home-made cuban food! Delicious :) 

As we were walking around Havana Vieja, on our way to find a taxi home, because we didn't feel safe to walk around Havana at night (the first place on our trip where we have felt that way actually), two guys approached us and told us both how linda (beautiful) we are. We decided to give the locals a chance, even though we were sick of being treated as tourist atractions all day, being blond, and obviously muy linda.. So we went and had a couple of beers with them, and they invited themselves to go to the beach with us the next day. And the whole next day we laid on the beach, not relaxed at all, and listened to Roberto, which was the one that could speak english, talk about how poor he was. Interesting? Not.. We figured out the only reason they were hanging out with us was that they wanted free meals, and free beers, so we told them to stick it. Was interesting to hear the local people talk about Cuba though..

 

For our last 3 nights we stayed at a hotel, with Eivind and Gunhild from back home. We had a lot of fun, nice to hang out with norwegians again.. so with them we chilled out on the beach, had cuba libre, and smoked cigars like proper cuban tourists! We went to the museo de la revolucion, and half-way interested read about the revolution, till we came to the last room, which interestingly enough, was not about the revolution, but about all the bad things the U.S have done to Cuba, so they had basically made a we-hate-the-U.S room.. Weird..

Ernesto Che Guevara, one of the revolution's most important men.

Our last night in Cuba, the 16th of April, we celebrated Tinas 21th birthday. We dressed up and went out for dinner in Havana Vieja and ate some delicious food. After dinner we wanted to find a place to dance and have a couple of drinks. On our way a cuban guy came and wanted to help us find a club, and after a while of walking we come to this place, and it's closed! He said he knew another, but it costs 10 dollar for the entrance with a "free" drink. We told him thats a bit expensive so we wanted to find a place ourselves. Then he got really pissed of and just went without even saying goodbye, so it was quite obvious he was trying to take advantage of us as well. We spent the night at the hotel bar insted, drinking cuba libre and smoking cigars! :)

Birthdaygirl :)

Havana was beautiful, full of old, classic cars, charm and nice buildings, and the casa particulare was really nice to try, but we also learned that Cuba is an interesting, complicated country, which you need more than 7 days to understand.

Lots of love from the fantastic 4! :)

From Bolivia to Peru, and all the places in between..

This blogarticle is dedicated to Tina's grandparents, and will therefore be written in Norwegian! :)

Fra Tupiza i Bolivia dro vi på en 4-dagers tur gjennom ørkenen i de sørlige fjella i Bolivia. Vi fikk se alt fra fantastiske fjellformasjoner, til varmekilder, geysirer, og verdens største saltørken, som helt klart var høydepunktet. Vi dro i en jeep ilag med 2 engelske jenter, Izzie og Lucy, som vi ble gode venner med, og møtte igjen i La Paz, hovedstaden i Bolivia. Bildet ovenfor viser de fantastiske fjellene på starten av turen. Fjellformasjonen blir kalt "salen", fordi det er formet som salen til en hest.

Her er bilde fra Salar de Uyuni. Verdens største saltørken, som også befinner seg i høgdene i Bolivia. Saltørkenen dekker 12000 km2. Vi var her når hele greia var noen CM under vann, og fikk noen utrolige refleksjoner på bildene våre. Vannet var iskaldt å stå i, og saltet vondt å gå på, men hva gjør man ikke for bra bilder? :) Vi sto opp 4 om morningen for å dra hit tidlig nok til å se soloppgangen, noe som var helt fantastisk. På grunn av vannet sine refleksjoner så man ikke horisonten, det var vanskelig å skille mellom hvor saltet endte, og himmelen begynte. Utrolig kult!

Etter 4-dagers turen dro vi med buss fra Uyuni til La Paz, hovedstaden (verdens høgste hovedstad vel å merke) i Bolivia. Her tilbragte vi noen dager å møtte Izzie og Lucy igjen, og møtte mange andre mennesker fra deres hostel. Utrolig kjekke dager. Her dro vi også på sykkel ned langs verdens farligste vei, kalt the Death Road, utenfor La Paz. Den begynner på ca. 4000 m, og vi sykler ned 64 km, til vi er på rundt 1000 m høyde. Ganske ekstremt! Gøy med adrenalinkick igjen! :D

Tradisjonelle, men samtidig urbane bolivianske damer tjener til livets opphold i La Paz. Å selge frukt, smykker, armband o.l er helt vanlig her. Etter rundt 1 time i hovedstaden konkluderte vi med at kvinnene her var akkurat som kvinnene fra landsbygdene i Bolivia, bare at de går fortere.. :)

Så gikk turen videre over grensa til Peru, og til Cusco, en av storbyene i landet.. Nå sto Machu Picchu for tur, etter 2 dager med avslapping i byen. Tina var sjuk, så hun var litt slakk, og ringte hjem til mamma Unni og til Lene, bestevenninnen. Marthe dro på sightseeing alene om morningen, og oppdaget merkelige måter for de lokale å tjene penger på. Bildet under er ett eksempel, da Marthe måtte betale damene for å posere med dem. Hehehe.

Så dro vi videre til Aguas Calientes, landsbyen nedenfor Machu Picchu, der vi sov før vi sto opp 5 om morningen for å dra på Machu Picchu. Bare landsbyen i seg selv imponerte oss, da den var bygd på begge sider av en stor foss, og det var mange broer å krysse for å komme seg fra side til side.

Machu Picchu var virkelig ett syn! Så stort, og majestetisk, virkelig imponerende. Hele landskapet rundt, med de høge fjellene dekket i tåke, og tynne skyer. Bildet ovenfor og under er fra toppen av Waynapicchu, ett fjell 1 time med gåing over Machu Picchu. Når tåken letter her får du en helt fantastisk utsikt. På dette fjellet er det kun lov med 400 personer daglig (pga bratte og smale trappetrinn oppover), så det er førstemann til mølla med gjennomsnittlig 2500 personer på Machu Picchu daglig.

Nå går turen videre til varmere, mer lavtliggende strøk, til strendene på Cuba!

Hasta pronto :)