Salta, Argentina y Tupiza, Bolivia

Salta is the typical place to stop on the way from Argentina to Bolivia (or the other way), and is an 18 hours busride from Mendoza... It is a small town, but very nice. In Salta we went horseriding for a day with to crazy guides, Ramiro and Augusto - loco!! (chiefladeras???) Really nice horses, obeyed every little wink. Which is good since this was Silje`s first time. Me gusto Salteño! Had a very fun day with about 5 hours on the horseback, with a lunch in between. That`s when we met our first Argentinean grandmoter La NOOONI!! We ate traditional Argentinean food, and in the evening they took us to a traditional gaucho (cowboy) place where we ate some more. (After watching so you thing you can dance I have always wondered what a tamale is. Now I know.)

From Salta we took a guided tour through several small towns and ended up in Humahuache. The trip was a waste, not too please with the guide... In Humahuache Silje didn`t feel too well, and we later found out that the altitude is about 4000 m... But it only lasted the afternoon/evening, so hopefully she`s ready for the trip to the salt desert and sorroundings where it get´s up towards 6000 m altitude...

Lonely Planet says that the best way to avoid sickness because of altitude is to walk slowly, eat only a little and sleep by your poor little self... Which means that Kristine has put Silje on a diet. Here she is shopping fruit and vegetables.

If everything had worked after our plans we would be on our way to the salt desert in Uyuni by now. But... this is not Argentina, we`re in Bolivia now. The bus got stuck, everyone had to get out...

Anyways... from Humahuache we took the bus to the Argentinean/Bolivian border. Getting anywhere else was a bit more problematic... We didn`t have any bolivianos and the only ATM was closed... But thanks to captain Jon (thank you!!) we had 20 $ which was enough for the bus to Tupiza and a night for both of us at the hostel there.. Since getting to Uyuni took a day more than expected, we decided to do the trip to the Uyuni desert from Tupiza. Which means we haven`t got time for the mines in Potosi or the jungle in Rurrenabaque, it takes time in Bolivia, but we don`t want to spend most of the time in a bus...

We spend a day in Tupiza on horses, the landscape was specatular! Didn`t enjoy the riding as much as I (Silje) did in Salta, but Kristine is crazy and had a bit more control over the horses..

Colonial de Sacramento, Uruguay

Kristine and Silje Cathrin picked the best day for a boat trip to Uruguay, for sure! It was raining and windy, so the boat was delayed several hours. We had to take the 3 hours in stead of 1 hour, but then we could sleep a bit, so that was ok.

When we got there a woman with a minivan was hijacking tourists, so we went for the easy solution.. and it was worth it! It was freezing, so we would never have gotten anywhere without here.. Historic lessons and proper guiding was a good idea in the end. We saw the old town and the newer areas, and had still time to walk around (read: run around and take pics) before we drank chocolatas calientes (hot chocolate).

Colonial is a Portuguese-Spanish city from the colonial time, and this is the eldest church in Uruguay.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

In Buenos Aires we were ready for some big city life, and shared room with girls from Holland, Luxemburg, Ireland and Brazil. Vi tried our first parrilada, with a lot of meat! Guess if Silje was happy... Later we went to Cafe Tortoni, one of the eldest cafes in Argentina. Famous writers like J. Borges used to go there.

Later we went to La Cabrera, the best steak restaurant in Buenos Aires! Heaven!!! Silje had a 500 gr steak, and after that she tasted some of Kristine`s steak too... It came with all sorts of things, but it obviously normal to have meals with only meat.

There are a few others sights in BA too, like the cemetary at Recoleta. That is where Evita has her grave. A lot of money spent on dead people... but a very interesting place.

This day was for walking, think we walked for 9 hours... Palermo is a colourful part of town, with great shops and restaurants.

The last day we went to La Boca. That is not the best neighbourhood, so better stay on the more touristy paths. All the houses are painted in different colours. The inhabitants got left over paint from ships, as this is close to the harbour. The brilliant ending was to watch Boca Juniors on home ground, even though they got beaten by Godoy Cruz from Mendoza.

Iguazu Falls

After parting the the crew from sailing, Silje Cathrin and Kristine took the bus south west, to the border between Brazil and Argentina. That took only about 20-30 hours in total...

We decided to go straight to Argentina, to check out the waterfalls from there. It was a lot of water!!! and many pretty butterflies.. :)

Seiling i Costa Verde

Ola!

Sailing along Costa Verde, The Green Coast, in Brazil is pretty amazing! even though the weather havent been the best... Silje managed to get sunburned, so we are not complaining =) As you can see, she is a very consentrated Captain Morgan.
Kristine is assisted by Captain Jon.


The people on the boat are really nice, we are four Norwegians and three Aussies, so it had to be a success. At the moment we are in the city of Paraty, which is one of the gems from the colonial time. we say: Watch out for the cobble stones!! Small and cosy, we had just enough time to charge our mobile phones, eat a great burger/sandwich and get new Hawaianas. You know, thats what we will need for the next 7 months... most of the time.. ;)

The coast is amazing, green and palmtrees everywhere, small islands scattered along it. After a day of sailing we anchored up in a small bay and swam ashore. The guys found oysters, nice!
After sunset it is amazing just to sit in the boat and listen to the sounds from nature and watching the fireflies...

After a few ok days, where the weather wasnt too good, the last day was fantastic! Blue sky and sunshine all day! Finally.. :) The combination of sunshine and saturday brought out a lot more people, of course a few who showed off all their horsepowers... We looked for the blue lagoon and did some snorkelling, lots of fish. Very small, thank heavens! ;) Later we moved to another bay where we relaxed, swam to the beach and really enjoyed the sun .


ps! if we dont respond to messages the battery might be flat or out of reach. some messages have been delayed too.

Rio de Janeiro

Endeleg vart det tid for den store reisa! Sjølv på flyet til Rio de Janeiro var det ikkje verkeleg, trur ikkje at det gjekk opp for oss før vi vakna i dag og såg rett på Ipanema-stranda. Begge var i ekstase då vi kom fram torsdagskveld, og såg det fantastiske staden der vi skulle bu dei neste dagane. Takk, Lars!

Roberto, Lars sin sjåfør, henta oss på flyplassen. Fredag morgon var han igjen klar, dinne gongen for å ta jentene med på sightseeing. Så alle dokke heime- vi he vorte køyrd rundt av privatsjåfør...

Ein super dag, der vi fyrst tok turen med "toget" (som Fløyen i Bergen) til Corcovado for å sjå på Kristus-statua. Mektig syn. Deretter suste vi ein tur til Santa Teresa. Vi rakk ikkje så mykje anna enn å ete... Det tok så lang tid med maten vår at andre gjestar såg på oss å peika. Men dei så kjenne Silje Cathrin veit at ho er ikkje den enklaste å ha med å gjere når ho er svolta, samt at ho er nok ganske lang i maska... Uten mat og drikke, duger helten ikke!

Før vi måtte heim og sove middag fekk vi tatt taubana til Sukkertoppen, Sugar Loaf Mountain. Der fekk vi tatt endå fleire utsiktsbilete.. Neste på programmet er sambaklubb i Lapa! Vi skal vere i Rio fram til mandag ca, etter det reise vi sørvest til Angra dos Reis, der vi skal segle langs Costa Verde-kysten og til øya Ihla Grande.

Voksenliv?!!

No e den fyrste helga i mitt nye jobbliv snart over. Lenge sia sist det smakte so godt me helg og so fortent! Ikkje at ej fikk gjort so mykje fornufti, men baka faktisk brød (og det he ej kun hatt som måtsetjing i 2,5år so..) og brownies. Samt vaska hus. Veldi voksne aktiviteta.. So det va veldi bra at ej og Wenke ikkje gjorde nåke igår. Gikk en tur på stranda fordi der va berre store og sinte hunda i hundeparken. So mykje frisk luft gjor oss trøtte, so då vart sofaen tilhaldsstad resten av kvelden! =)

Bjynde å finne fram i Stavanger, enda ej va veldi desorientert t å bjynde me.. Kjempenøgd igår då ej kjørte heim. Heilt aleine!!! Jobben e på Randaberg og ej he blitt go på bussen dit.. Der e fint på landet!! Va på sykkeltur me 8. klasse fredag, strålande sol og kjekke eleva. Fikk dog spørsmålen: "ken e ho jenta der" Ej lurte på om han ikkje kjende mej igjen frå dagen før. "å jo, du e den nye læraren frå sørlandet!"

At home... sometimes

Mari and I had such a good time the last days in Naimibia. One night we got the phone number to Namibia's most popular artis- the Dogg!! He brought a friend, Nasty, and met us for a milkshake.

Me and Nasty



Mari and The Dogg

So we HAD to go and get their album... Funny and really nice guys! True Namibians...
But.. before they showed up, we had absolutely no idea what they looked like, so wasn't sure we were going to meet them or someone who pretended to be The Dogg...


It was also nice with the last few days in Windhoek to get used to civilisation before returning home.. enjoyed Joe's Beer house, ate zebra, crocodile, ostrich (not from Austria), kudu... yammi!!


But I miss the times in Ongwediva, just hanging at the Bush Bar, playing music from the juke box drinking Windhoek Lager... Walking around in the sand (tired of wearing shoes all the time..)


Here are the girls eating Norwegian meatcakes... and they liked it!




Our class at the college...









Cultural Dance



Interview on Namibian television... Mari got us invited to the opening of a veeery nice exhibition..














The park.. Bennies entertainment.. miss it so...


It's nice to be home... but I haven't had too much time to enjoy it so far, been all over the place...

A place for me...

One thing about Namibia is the meat. they eat meat. when you're having a couple of beers other places in the world, there is probably a bowl of chips on the table. Not here. Here they pass around plates with meat in stead. grilled meat, dried meat, cooked... I like it very much! (what do you reckon, Kristine?! Never told me about this before i went down here..) At the shop Mari gets some chocolate (ok, sometimes me too) and I get biltong (dried meat)... (they told me that I ate donkey thing the other night...)

Like when we were at the king, we got meat. a couple of kgs! this friday it was graduation, so we went to someone who had grilled a goat. very nice, too spicy for me though.

They for sure knows how to make a good steak here too... oh, when i get to Windhoek... i'm gonna eat zebra, kudu, ostrich (again), crocodile... :)

So I don't learn the Africans to swear or anything, just to say " Ej ete kjöt" (I eat meat).

I didn't climb to the top of the food chain to become a vegetarian!!

Easter in Zambia

After some changes in the plan we ended up with a whole week in Livingstone, Zambia. That was so relaxing and fun!!
Wish I had gone to ALL the markets, but guess i'm already in a lot of trouble getting everything back. but atleast i'm so much better at bargaining!! :)

Aussie Aussie Aussie- oy oy oy!!
As always Aussies are a lot of fun! If it hadnt been for them, we would have done nothing for the first 4 days. But maybe I would remember everything... They did a lot of Africa in four weeks, I just needed to have a relaxing easter holiday. At least for a few days, we could not use all the fun before the Malawi-girls arrived!

On the pic: Jon, Julia (Germany), Anette (Norway), Chris, Donnie and Ben. Ofcourse they were surfers. And life savers at Bondi... Haha, not the

last. Big pool at Jollyboys, the backpacker. Perfect for surfing. A small pond for the big boys.

The boys convinced us to join them on the Gorge Swing, and it was terrifying. (But nothing compared to what comes later) Jumping off cliffs hasn't really been my thing, but I loved it! (Screaming is a part of it!! and i'm good at it!) After 53 metres of free fall you just swing in the Gorge, that's a feeling of peace!! I jumped alone at first, but I prefer tandem. Because then you HAVE to jump. but I dont mind the company when swinging in the Gorge either... great feeling!!!

Bungee in Victoria Falls!!!

Since Mattis and Morten were here, we've talked about bungee jumping in Vic Falls. Mari and Rebecca were termined to do it, I was like.. we'll see. After the Gorge Swinge I thought that I couldnt be bothered, but when standing on the brigde- butterflies in my belly and I knew I had to do it!! Was very happy that I go to jump with Anne.. she had even done it once before. Not too nervous before- like Mari and Rebecca or Anette, but when I was standing on the platform.. SCARY!!!! Really happy that i did it, and i felt like a very brave easter bunny. Dunno if I'll do it again (heroy-brua, anyone?!!)Anette, cape town?! hehe... didn't enjoy being upside down too much though... and had to climb back up on the bridge and my legs were shaky. The Falls are amazing, soo beautiful!! Lots of water.. Christine adn I brought a wash cloth (we're funny), and we all got soaked. should've brought some shampoo, cause the backpacker was having a lot of problems with the electricity. Whenever it was gone (which was every single day the week we were there) the showers didn't work. This is the brigde we were jumping from.

we would've loved to raft there too, but there was too much water in Zambezi. Njami njami, the river god and god of the Falls, was kind to me.

Katima Mulilo and Botswana

Katima Mulilo in Caprivi
Now we're on our 2 weeks travel, and the first stop was in Katima Mulilo in the north east arm of Namibia. There we stayed in the hostel with the students, we even took their beds!! this was very uncomfortable at first, but it ended up as such a great week!! Didnt go to too many lessons though, enough!! we learned that a mountain is a rock, and that the reason for not drinking the water straight out of Zambezi is because they throw things in it. for example dogs!!

we did a sunset cruise on Zambezi, but I didnt see any dogs. Instead I saw a lot of hippos!!! I love them!!!! even though they are said to be one of the most dangerous animals in Africa... The cruise was really nice and relaxing, got couple of beers and sat on the roof.. Didnt see any crocodiles though..

Botswana
More hippos were to be seen in Chobe Nationalpark in Botswana, where we went for one day. But even more amazing was the elephants!!!! they were so many, everywhere and the babies are gorgeous! An elephant with the trunk (the slurp, hehe..) up is supposed to bring good luck. there was also plenty of buffalos (scary animals!!), impalas and things like that, some giraffes. Unfortunately we didnt got to see the lions.
we were taken there by some teachers and students at Caprivi College.

Our good friend Bjorn borrowed us a very rare baby dwarf python...