"Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans"

homecoming

2008-03-25T17:21:00.002+01:00

Here is a little intermission in the travel story just to let you know that we are still alive and coming home shortly. We are no back in Cape Town and will arrive in Glasgow on the 29.March and in Iceland on the 6.April. I know that some of you have been waiting for a continuation of the travel story and it will come just be patient.
Well off we go now for some wine tasting. :)
Take care and see you soon,

Jon & Kathleen

Etosha National Park

2008-03-15T13:38:00.004+01:00

As we arrived to Etosha National Park we started our first Game drive. Amongst the animals we saw were Giraffes, Springbok, Gemsbok, and Orix. It was a short drive up to tha camping place that was situated right next to a watering hole where the animals would come to drink. Unfortunately for us it was the beginning of the rainyseason so there were a lot of watering holes elsewere so the animals did not have to come there. At the hole we only saw springbok and some jackals. We even took turns being on shift that night but not much happend. The next day however, things began to happen. Just after leaving the camp grounds we sighted our first lions.

At first we saw three quite far but then we saw a male and a female walking towards the truck and then crossing the road about 5 meters in front of the truck. Quite a sight to see lions in the wild I can tell you. The lions even had a short "romantic moment" practically in front of the truck or "confortable times" as they call it over here;). That day we also saw Zebras, gemsbok, springbok, wilderbeast, Orix, giraffs, ground squirrels, and vultures. The highpoint of the day came though when Brian yelled: "Look! an Elephant!". this was the moment everybody had been waiting for and it was all that we thought it would be. What an amazing animal. we first saw just one but then another a bit closer. We would see lodes of elefants at close range later on in the. but the first time is just incredible.

Swakopmund to Spitzkoppe

2008-03-14T13:42:00.006+01:00

After seeing flamingos and picking rubies in the sand (I found a couple of small ones but you would almost need a magnifying glass to see them) in Walvis Bay we arrived in Swakopmund. A very German town. This is where many people decided do some activities like: Skydiving, Quad biking, sand boarding, see fishing, and so on and so on. Me and Kathleen decided to relax, shop a little and one morning I went for a game of golf with Oliver while Kathleen was busy with one of her favorite activity, which is to read a book on the beach. We had a great time. The golf course was in the middle of the dessert but still green because off irrigation from a nearby river. We were told that some Springbok might be grazing on the golf course but did not expect herds of them more or less ignoring us playing through, only a couple of meters away. Oliver almost hit one once which apparently is not a rare thing to happen on that golf course.
Swakopmund was a small but very likable town and one where I would not have minded staying a couple of extra days. Maybe it was partly because we got to stay at a very nice hostel which was a welcoming break from the tents but also because the town had a nice feel to it.

Leaving the town after 2 nights, we headed to a place called Spitzkoppe, where beautiful rock formations make the landscape (you might have a picture from there on your example wallpaper on your computer. On the way there we stopped briefly at a seal colony. It was very nice to see all the hundreds of thousands of seals but to the same extend not very nice to smell them. uuugggh! As we settled at Spitzkoppe some of us went on a bush walk. I passed on the walk because it was just too hot. We are talking, "can't even think" hot. After the others came back we mosied on to the Bush bar, and finished their stock of beer and sodas which wasn't that big to begin with. We walk back to the camp and saw the sunset over the rocky hills. Reminded me a bit of The Olgas in Australia. As we had dinner, Letitia asked us to fill our plates and then follow her. Then she walked up to the rock face and disappeared behind a tree making it appear as she just walked into the rock. When we followed we discovered a huge cave that had a hole up to the sky where Hermann had all ready made a fire. It was one of the coolest places I have ever dined at, and we even had roasted marshmallows : Pure magic. :) I love Namibia.
Next: Brian spots the first elephant

Photos:

top: A Namibian Springbok

bottom: An areal view of Spitzkoppe (click to enlarge)

In a Big Country

2008-02-16T11:41:00.008+01:00

The name Namibia comes from the word Namib meaning vast. The country used to be under german rule and was called South West Africa until its independence 1990. A small part of it called Walvis Bay, was under British control untill 1994. Apart from the landscape things are still very german. Talking about landscape, our first stop came about 3 hours after crossing the border. Fish River Canyon is the oldest and second biggest canyon in the world and very impressive. We had a walk along the canyon and then had a sunset dinner right next to the edge as we also observed huge lighning storm in the distance. It was interesting how we were the only people there apart from one or two others. Not very touristy at all. We were already beginning to observe some wildlife, mostly springbok but the next day after a long drive and just before reaching our destination we got a pleasant surprise. It was an unscheduled stop at a cheetah park. where we saw Cheetahs, leopards and a Ca racal It was a big moment for all of us to go into the cheetah's enclosure and stand less than 10 meters from it. With the leopard we had to stand outside the fence. When we thought the tour was over we were led into another enclosure where 4 young cheetahs were. They were extremely tame and came up to us to be petted. That was the highlight of the trip so far for me. Not everyday you get to scratch a cheetah behind the ear or let it lick your hand. After this great and unexpected experience we headed on to Sesriem were we saw a small canyon made by flood water just on the edge of the oldest desert in the world: The Namib Desert. Close by we pitched out tents. We had a beautiful view that night over the savanna at sunset and we saw animals like antelopes, springboks and baboons. And the next morning a snake.

The next morning, if we were not fully awake yet, we had an abrupt awakening as a snake slithered from under our tent as we were packing it together. It was not very big maybe 60 cm.
Our driver Herman did not know this perticular snake but found out later that day. It was a Shield nose snake. It is very poisonous and two deadly incidents have been recorded. It was an early morning (still dark) as we had to make it to Dune 45 before sunrise. We scrambled up the dune and sat at the top looking at the sunrise. It was fantastic. Some more adventurous people of our group decided to roll down the dune and one had taken a tent mat with him to slide down, but as it turned out it hardly moved and he had to push himself all the way. I ran down the last bit and it is not far from the sensation you get as you run down loose snow. After this we went on a guided desert walk. To everybody's surprice our guide was a japanese woman. But she had been there for 11 years and knew almost everything there was to know about it. She ran everywhere and showed us spiders tracks bushmans food and took us to Deadvlei a dried up lake bed where there had been a huge lake as a result of flooding that happened a long time ago. It is still happening every 5th year or so but now the water goes elsewhere (Sossuvlei). It was interesting and entertaining at the same time. That evening we camped in a bushcamp at some very nice rock formations where there was only one toilet and nothing else (except of course snakes and spiders and scorpions and hyenas and....good night;).

Next: Swakopmund

Photos:

top: Fish River Canyon

middle: Cheetah & Me
Bottom: Dune 45

Leaving Cape Town. Destination Namibia

2008-02-14T12:39:00.004+01:00

Before leaving Capetown we did a Township tour. Townships were created as living areas for non-whites under the old political system of Apartheid (1948-1994). We started by going to the Apartheid museum that was placed on the street that parted the white area and another non-white area that was compleatly evacuated by the government and then levelled to the ground. Literally, bulldozed until nothing was left. This museum is full of artifacts from that area and it is scary to think that this system was fully funcional until 1994. In a kind of historical museum you expect to see something that happend centuries ago, but all this was really happening less than 15 years ago. The township tour was for me a bit surreal, a part of me thought: Are we really walking through these people's houses? Well off tourists walking through a neighbourhood of people from the very poor to the extremely poor. In some cases 12 people sharing one small bedroom. I normally don't consider myself as financially rich man but there I was. I felt like I wanted to help them and give them some money but where to start? A daunting task indeed. Another part of me thought: It is good for people to see with their own eyes what it was like and still is; and a real eye opener it is. The government is trying to help these people and it is working, but it is a slow and arduous task.
After lunch we hopped on board our "home" for the next 6 weeks and drove off.

The first stop was a campside called the Highlander. There we had a delicious meal followed by some great and plentiful wine tasting.
The next day we drove to the Namibian border where we stopped at a cool campsite with Namibia on the other side of a river. We went for a cool down dip in the river but were told not to swim too far because: "if the crocodiles don't get you, the Namibian border guards on the other side will". I was never sure if that was a joke or a real threat! These first two days were very hard for me because of the heat and therefore it was not comforting to hear when I asked Letitia, our guide, the next morning if this heat would continue and she said: "it will get much hotter". However, I found my self adjusting to the heat in the next couple of days and just as well as it was about to get REALLY hot.

Next: In a big Country

Arriving in Cape Town

2008-02-13T13:13:00.005+01:00

After a night in London we were back on a plane to Cape Town, in South Africa (14 hours). It was a bit weird to come out off the plane and realise that we were really in Africa. My first time. I had once taken a daytrip to Marocco but that doesn't really count does it. There was a guy from the hostel there to meet us and after about an hour of waiting for some other guys we drove on to the city. We stayed in Cape Town Backpackers. A nice and very friendly place.

We had 3 days in Cape Town before heading of on our Overland trip, and it was mostly spent doing last minute preparations and just resting after the long trip from Argentina. We also had a nice walk around the city and a beautiful city it is. It is already on my top 10 lists of favorit cities. The waterfront, the center and the beautiful Table Top Mountain. We were planing to take the famous cable car to the top but did not have time in the end. We also heard stories about people getting stuck in the cable car and on the top of the mountain overnight because of elecetricity shortcuts. Aparently their electricity powerplant is long overdue an overhaul so there are frequent powercuts. I had an interesting encounter one day with the laundery lady as she had to tell me all about the corrupt polititians and the electricity scandal. Cape Town will have to shape up pretty fast if they are to cope with the World Cup that is to be held there in 2010 and many think that they can not do it. Anyway, after the laundry lady let my go we went for a nice lunch at the waterfront, watching seagulls steal fries from neighbouring tables. We will have time to explore more of Cape Town as we come back there at the end of our honeymoon. So we can leave cape town looking forward to out next encounter.

Next: Leaving Cape Town. Destination Namibia

Photo:

Cape Town waterfront with Table Top Mountain in the background

Farewell South-America :( ....hello South-Africa :)|

2008-02-05T17:13:00.000+01:00

Buenos Aires was great as always. We stayed there only one night this time but had almost 2 days to walk around the city center and docks that now have changed their original purpose into restaurants bars and cafes; and we finally had to time to go to a Tango show:).
We went there about 6pm and had an hour long tango lesson before the dinner and the show.
I must say I was impressed. The moves, the precision, the grace...it was a perrfect show. It was also more than just dancing. There was also some acting involved and at one point I got to show off my steps as one of the women asked me for a short spin. None of the men asked Kathleen to dance so I conclude that I must be more good looking. he he. ;) . This was also our last night in Argentina so we had a big steak and I had a lot of Quilmes that is my favorite beer in the world.

Anyway, that was it for South-America for now. We will probably be there again someday. But now we had to get on a plane to be off to our African Adventure. First stop: Cape Town, South-Africa

Cafayate & Salta

2008-02-05T16:09:00.000+01:00

Cafayate is a small town to the north, between Mendoza and Salta. There we had some more wine tasting. and did a half day trekking in the mountains. We basically followed the river up to a waterfall. We had to cross the river about 15 times and it meant that some places we had to get wet. In the beginning I managed to stay more or less dry by jumping from stone but soon I found out it was pointless and just walked across the river in my shoes. Our guide was about 70 years old and was running up and down steep hills and treachous terrain with big cacti like a mountain goat. The waterfall was nice and the brave people had a dip in the freezing cold water. Then we walked the same way back. At the end of the trail there were lots of bushes that have been burned, and we asked why. "to kill the tarantulas" was the answer.

Off we then went to Salta. Stayed at a nice hostel and did a nice daytrip to the Salt Flats (See photo - can you see who is on my head?).The salt flats are in the so called alti plano and the highest point we drove to get there was about 4100m. we drove allmost parallel to the railwayline of the "Train to the Clouds" a famous train ride thru a spectacular terrain. The train itself has not been working for three years because of little or no maintainance due to no funding.

But it is due to start again in April this year. It was on my top five list to do in South America (the other four were wine related;) so I was a bit dissapointed. Anyway, Salta is a nice city and the last day we took a cable car up to a top of a hill and then walked back. Nice view but the steps were over 1500 so we were quite tired as we got to the bus station to take the night train to Buenos Aires.

Next: Farewell South America :( ....hello South Africa :)

Mendoza - traffic, trekking, and tasting (Part II)

2008-01-25T14:25:00.000+01:00

The next day was reserved for wine tasting.

Since first I came to Argentina two years ago I have had a special relationship with Mendoza wines and with a good Argentinian beef, it is pure heaven.

We started out by going to Cavas de Don Arturo a small family run winery that only exports their wine to one place in the US and then sells locally. Of course it was excellent and we were hungry for more.
The next stop was another family-run winery, but this time it was a huge one that exports wine all over the world (unfortunately not to Iceland though). It was the Familia Zuccardi. This was our favorite family in Mendoza. :) They not only produce most of the grapes that can possibly be grown in Argentina, many of which we have never heard of but also experiment with other grapes and mixtures of wines. Their main grape (as in the rest of the Mendoza region) is the Malbec that seems to grow here even better than in it's home country, France. It was a huge place and a beautiful, and tasty experience. We got a couple of bottles from their store and they were put to good use the next few days :).

The day after it was time to do some serious trekking and "tumbling" off cliffs. It took about an hour to arrive at the abseiling place and then we trekked up and down the mountain in roasting heat for about 1 and a half hours until we got to the abseiling site. For you who do not know whar abseiling is, it is when you for some strange reason lower yourself on a rope down a vertical cliff face (see photo). We did three of them. The first was 15 meters, the second was 9 meters and last one was 45 meters. An absolute killer and not for the faint of heart. (or people who tend to faint often). After every body got down we had lunch and chilled in the hotsprings near by; which was great after being in the relentless sun for 5 hours with absolutely no chance of shade anywhere.
It was a tired but happy group that came back to Mendoza that night.

The last day we strolled in a huge Park with a lake and loads of activities for the public like golf, tennis, sailing; with restaurants and cafes, football stadium, a zoo, and a campground. Mendoza is a very nice city and I am sure we will be back some day. :)

Photos.

top: winetasting in Mendoza
middle: Abseiling in Mendoza

bottom: the hot springs

Mendoza - traffic, trekking, and tasting (Part I)

2008-01-25T11:41:00.001+01:00

The ride to Mendoza was quite spectacular. We drove through the Andes, sometimes along sheer cliff faces making me wish i had not picked the window seat. We spent a ridiculous amount of time at the border (almost 4 hours). Argentinians and Chileans (especially the Argentinians) are known for their lack of stress sometimes bordering (pun intended) on the absurd. So even with 10 full buses, trucks and a plethora of private cars there are only 4 guys to take care of everything that is 4 on the chilean side and 2 on the Argentinian). there were maybe 10-15 gates but only 4 are active for some reason. So when you get through the Chilean side you have to wait in another line on the Argentinian side. And there they are leisurely drinking their Mate chatting with the bus drivers and greeting an occasional relative that comes by while everyone in the cue is going absolutely mental. It is funny, however, how this is completely turned on it's head when you put an Argentinian in a car. Then it is his turn to go mental. They drive like lunatics, they never stop or even slow down when you are trying to cross the road, in fact I am convinced that they speed up, thinking that they probably will make it past you before you step in front of the car. In many cross roads in big cities and towns there are no traffic lights. And I once asked a guy in Salta how it worked and he replied: "Well it works like everywhere else" (might have been just referring to everywhere in Argentina), "sometimes it is the car that comes first to the intersection or sometimes it is the bigger car that has the right away". This makes it a considerable challenge every time you want to cross a road because you have no idea...and even if their are traffic lights there is no way of telling if the cars or the pedestrians have the right away. In Cordoba I was almost run over by a mad taxi driver (well they are all mad actually) that came around a corner never even touching the breaks as I jumped one meter in the air and two meters back to avoid him. It was the first time I gave someone the finger in Argentina, as I shouted "Stupido" at the top of my lungs. Chileans are much more civilized and stop frequently and even gesture politely for you to cross.

In the Mendoza bus station we were greeted by an elderly gentleman who wanted to offer us accommodation. We had not booked, so that suited us fine. Sometimes you can be lucky and get a good price at the bus station because they are desperate for some business and sometimes (as in this case) it might actually be a decent place. We got a hotel room (2 star) for 90 pesos (US$30 or about 1800 Isk.), It was so good that we decided to stay for 5 nights. And breakfast was included. Argentinian breakfast consists normally of a cup of coffee, two small peaces of toasts w/marmalade, or medialunas(croissants) and if you were lucky, orange juice. There, we had all this + a danish and a refill of everything if you wanted. The reason why Argentinian breakfast is so small is the fact that they eat very late. We are used to have dinner between 6pm and 8pm but they hardly ever have dinner before 9pm. Some restaurants don't even open until 9pm. but then they are open until about 1am.

The first whole day in Mendoza I went on a day trip to the Alta Montana or high mountain. Where they drive you to see well high mountain stuff such as Aconcagua 6962 meters, which is the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas. We drove up to altitude of 4300 and as it was not enough for me I practically ran 500 m more up to 4800 meters. For some reason the altitude seamed to have little or no effect on me in this trip. And people were looking at me funny and asking "did u just go up there and back in 10 minutes!?" like it was something they would never have considered doing in a million years. At the top u actually stood on the borders between Chile and Argentina and there was a big statue of Christ to commemorate the friendship between the two nations. It was almost weired because normally the two nations do not communicate unless absolutely necessary. It has something to do with the Falklands war where Chile supported the UK by allowing them to use their airports for their fighter jets. The drive up and down was harrowing the road was narrow breaking up in parts and the guide was busy telling us stories about other buses that had gone of the road or were hit by falling rock...at one time as we came to a massive boulder almost on the middle of the road she said: "wow! that wasn't here yesterday!!" After that we then headed to the Puente del Inca, a natural arch that forms a bridge over the Vacas River, which runs into the Mendoza River. After a late lunch we drove back home.
Kathleen had used the day to do some shopping (she did not do the tour because she did it 2 years earlier), and we ended that day by going to a Tenedor libre (a free fork) which is a buffet place with basically everything you heart desires for a very resonable price.

Photos.

Top: Aconcagua 6962 m

Middle: High in Argentina looking over into Chile

Bottom: Puente del Inca (the Inca Bridge)

The Big Bangs - New year, Vina Del Mar, Chile

2008-01-24T16:10:00.001+01:00

Vina Del Mar had two main purposes for us. One: to celebrate New Year and two: go to Valparaiso which is basically next door (10 min on the metro train) . We came there early morning and our hostel, that looked good on the internet was a total dump. There was nothing in the room except the bed and a small TV. It was right next to a busy street and you could not close the windows properly. There were two shared bathrooms & showers for about 25 people and the showers only worked occasionally. So we dumped our bags (no pun intended) and hit the town in search of another place to stay. It took awhile as it was New Year and most places were packed and/or overpriced because of the New Year. Finally however we found a 1 star hotel with private bath and breakfast included for almost the same price as Hostal TotalDump. We moved early the next morning. Not only was it much better but also very central to everything. That same day: 31st of december 2007 we went to Valparaiso to have a look around. I had been there before (see blog: jan. 2006) but it was the first time for Kathleen. We took the Metro and at the main square we met Tirone and Yasemin who we first met in Puerto Madryn, then in Ushuaia, then on the Navimag ferry and now in Valparaiso. (Hi you two if you are reading this:) . We had a very nice day walking the streets, taking the ascensores and finally ending up at the very interesting La sebastiana, the House of Pablo Neruda (1904-1973). The famous Chilean poet who is considered one of the greatest and most influential poets of the 20th century. Leaving Valparaiso it was time to plan the New Year celebrations. We found a nice Restaurant that had Parilla (Grilled meat). We ordered a parrilla for two, which is usually enough for 4 persons; and got a nice bottle of red wine to go with it. The staff brought us party hats and whistles and the night was well underway. Just before midnight we walked down to the coast, found a really good spot (together with about 20 million other people, and watched the most amazing fire work display I have ever seen. Fire works cannot be bought or used by the public and the show is controlled (the 23 minutes of it, which was the longest one so far). What they do is that they have about 20-25 "stations" off shore in a row in front of Valparaiso, Vina del Mar and the two neighboring towns. On all the stations they have the exact same display impeccably synchronized. And the fireworks are big, and I mean BIG!!
I thought I had seen huge fireworks in Iceland (some legal some illegal) but these were about 10 times bigger, and it made me realize that having it controlled really makes the experience much more enjoyable not to mention safer! I know many people in Iceland that would not agree with me (that includes you Palmi;) but this display just blew me away.
After the fireworks we headed back to the restaurant that now had turned into a nightclub with live music and dancing; and of course we were the first on the dance floor, well maybe not the first, but at least the first gringos. Returning back home to our hotel we opened a bottle of bubbly and continued the celebrations into the wee hours. The next day can be summarised in 2 words: TV & TAKEWAY!
Then suddenly it was time to leave. The New Year was here, and we had people to see and places to go; and as we headed to the bus station the next morning I was excited that we were going back to Argentina and to a place I was looking forward to seeing and tasting....Mendoza.

Photos.
Top: 10 past 8 in Vina Del Mar
middle: An ascensor orFunicular in Valparaiso
Bottom: Happy New Year!

Temuco

2008-01-22T14:17:00.000+01:00

After only a 3 hour bus trip to the City of Temuco, we found a hostel (a total dump) just next to the bus station and went looking for the information center. The plan was to do a tour to Conguillio national park next to the volcano Llaima, and then take the train to Santiago. This, however, was not possible. The tours had not really started yet because the high season had not really started yet and the only tour we could get on would have cost us the equivalent of a week in a five star hotel in Iceland. The train also for some strange reason did not start to run until the 20 of January. Rats! Well only one thing to to then: Leave! And that is what we did. That night we got on the night bus to Vina Del mar. Were we would spend New Year....Three days later the Volcan Llaima started erupting!

Next: New Year with a bang!

Christmas in Pucon

2008-01-22T13:33:00.000+01:00

At this point we were not exactly thinking much about Christmas, other than we decided to find a nice spot to relax over the holidays. That place was Pucón. Although it is a bit touristy, it is an extremely lovely place and it was not as touristy as it was when I last visited (the season was just about to start). It has a lot to offer in the form of tours, spectacular scenery, treks, hot springs, adventure sports, water sports and a lake where you can lie on the beach and jump in the water if you feel like it. The lake lies in the front of the village and behind it rises the constantly smoking, 2847m high volcán Villarica. Since 1558 there have been recorded 61 eruptions and the last on was in 1985. According to the locals a new big one is due any minute. Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending how much of a volcano fan you are) nothing happened while we were there. One morning (boxing day) Kathleen went up to the top. I had been there before (see blog: January 2006) and as it was very expensive (not to mention pretty hard) I had a sleep in while she got up at 4 in the morning climbed up to the 200m wide crater at the top and slid back down in the snow. (see Kathleen's blog with photos HERE.) She was back around 13:00 where I met her with a rose to congratulate her on her achievement, a mayor achievement if I may say so. Well done Kathleen! :)

The Chilean people celebrate Christmas differently than us. Maybe it would be accurate to say: less obviously. While we decorate everything short of the family cat, they are more modest. If you were travelling on your own with no-one to remind you of Christmas it might actually pass you by unnoticed. The Chileans go to church though; not like us just at Christmas, maybe Easter and special occasions but all the time and, they being Catholic like most of south America, their churches are very spectacular. Many places before Christmas you see the very common nativity scene (baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, an angel, shepards and the three wise men in the stable.) You do however not see Jesus in the crib until the 25. of December, simply because he isn't born yet. This we found out in Puerto Varas and thought maybe someone had stolen it or it had fallen out of the crib.

Apart from Kathleen climbing the Volcano and us taking it easy for the most of the holidays, we went to a hot spring one night. It was nice enough but for me they were more like the "luke warm springs". We did though have a great view of a sunset over the volcano. The funniest thing for me was taking a shower afterwards as there was no hot water in the showers!! In this area there are about 7 or 8 hot springs around the volcano but the water in the showers is cold...weird if you ask me.

On our last night a strange thing happened: Every day at 12 noon there was a test of the warning system a siren that would tell everybody to evacuate in case of an eruption. (it was funny to be downtown at noon and watch all the tourist who had just arrived looking with great concern up towards the volcano) Anyway, on our last night, about 11:15 the siren sounded!..I must admit that something like that has the tendency to send shivers down your spine. I of course rushed out and looked up but there was nothing unusual. Then it stopped. The locals did not seem to be too concerned. So I went back to the room hoping that it was just a technical failure and it probably happened all the time...but I hardly slept a wink that night...believe you me.

Chile - The Lake district

2008-01-15T16:07:00.000+01:00

A short status:

When this is written, we are in Salta, Argentina(north). It is hot, we are beeing eaten alive by mozzies (well me at least) and the trip to South-America is coming to an end. We have four days here, and then we go back to Buenos Aires to fly to London and from there to Cape Town, South Africa where we will be on the 22. january. There we are taking a 41 day trip to Nairobi travelling thru: South Africa, Nambia, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya. We especially look forward to Kenya as it is supposed to be a very "exciting" country to travel thru at the moment ;).

To tell the truth, we have heard nothing from our tour company about how they are going to handle the situation or if they have any alternatives planned. My gut feeling is that Kenya will probably be dropped and ppl. given some money back or a different route will be taken.

Well, back to the travel story:

We stayed in Puerto Varas 3 nights and would have liked to stay longer. Not because there was so much to do there but because it was a nice place to just take time of and relax; sit outside at a café-bar and sip Café con leche (which is not so much coffee with milk but rather coffee in milk) or a nice beer. Having said that, I must admit that Chileans don't really seem to have mastered the art of making beer. It is not bad, don't get me wrong...I will still drink it. But it is missing that last "aaaahhhh que bueno" if you know what I mean. They can though be very proud of their wine and we made sure that the average wine intake per person per year went up at least one percent.

Puerto Varas looks like a town in Switzerland. Founded by Germans "back in the days" ( a good sentence to use if you have no idea when or can't be bothered to look it up). It has an abundance of old houses that many of which are in dire need of restoration. It is located on the shore of the Lake Llanquihue, one of the largest natural lakes in South America. And from the lakefront you can clearly see the snow capped cone of Volcan Osorno. On the second day of our stay we rented a car with our swiss friends Pierre and Anna and drove around the lake. Stopping at a hot springs on the way. We had to cross a river to reach the hotsprings so a local woman Shella, about 70 years old rowed us across the river. The current was pretty strong but Shella was in full control. The hot springs were just by the river and there was no-one else there. They were muddy so we had to rinse off in the icecold river afterwards(iiiks!). To get back we had to call the old woman´s name across the valley and after about 15 minutes 2 young men appeared. The young man who was rowing us back seemed to be struggling a bit but made it in the end (hats off to Shella). We drove up to the volcano and hiked up a to crater in the side of the mountain (at the snowline) which also provided us with some wonderful views. The rest of the way we stopped mostly to take pictures and get refreshments. Had some wonderful Kucken (German cheesecake) at Puerto Octay. Our next stop was Valdívia. A big town close to the pacific coast. We took a bus to a place called Niebla from where we took a boat to see an old Spanish fortress. The next day, after walking around the town we observed the fishmarket on the banks of the river Calle-Calle. It was the most amazing sight as there were sealions, comerants and seagulls fighing for the fish scraps that the fish mongers threw in the river. And some of the sealions were huge.

Next we were going to Pucon, one of the most touristic places in Chile and one of my big favorites since last time I was there. Christmas was coming and we decided to take a break for the holidays...

Next: Christmas in Chile

photos:

Top: Puerto Varas & Volcan Osorno

Bottom: Valdívia with it's fishmarket

The Navimag. Puerto Natales - Puerto Montt

2008-01-06T21:53:00.000+01:00

The navimag trip is a bit like a cruise with all the amenities that go with it. We had guides that let us know where we were and when there was something to see...which was not too often I am sad to say because it was more or less cloudy most of the way. There was breakfast, lunch and dinner included and we had bunk beds in the cheapest section allthough somewhat private as our salesperson at the Navimag office, Oscar, found us a semi private bunkbeds. There was also movies, informative meetings or "chats" as they called it in english (charla in spanish) and most important: a bar. So now it was just to sit back and relax. We quickly made friends with other ppl and spent time reading, playing chess, scrabble, looking at the scenery and drinking wine...(one of our favourite activities). One night we even got a clear sky for an hour or so and James from England gave us a star tour. It was all good and well, except for the part where the ship goes into the "open water". Not protected from the fjords of southern chile, and forced to sail on the Pacific Ocean for 12 hours, and let me tell you, the Pacific Ocean is all but pacific!
I have never been seasick and was not about to add that to things I have done, so I took a seasick pill just in case. We went through the roughest part in the night so for the most of it we could manage to sleep. I remember barely manging to fall asleep around 1 in the morning just to wake up an hour later when I was sliding back and fourth in my bed (fortunately not sideways as I was in the top bunk). I must admit it was not a very enjoyable feeling but somehow about an hour & a half I managed to fall asleep again. When I woke up in the morning the ocean was a bit calmer and just around lunch that day we were back into the relative calm of the fjords. A map of the route can be found HERE.

We arrived in Puerto Montt at noon on the fourth day...and as our Navimag salesperson and tourist information employee, Oscar had suggested, we gave Puerto Montt a miss and headed straight to Puerto Varas only 30 minute drive away. And...we did not regret that.

Photos:

Top: Saying goodbye to Puerto Natales
middle: A shipwrek in the fjords
bottom: Sunset

Torres del Paine revisited (Part II)

2008-01-04T21:43:00.000+01:00

...And then the wind continued through the night occasionally waking me up when the tent hit me in the face. The next morning the storm was not as strong. We managed to pack the tent relatively easy and after making some oatmeal for breakfast, we headed off to the next adventure. In the beginning Kathleen thought we were on the wrong trail because it was marked for horses. It was a bit weird I admit but I had seen ppl. coming from there with backpacks the day before so we pushed on, hoping for the best. It turned out to be the right way luckily and as the morning continued the weather seemed to be getting better. It was raining when we started off and we had our rain gear on but that only meant that we got wet from the inside out instead of the outside in. Things were going well and at the cross roads where the path leads up the mountain to the torres or down to the refugio, we decided to have lunch and rest before the big push up the mountain. However, as we were about to finish lunch a cold breeze swooped in and soon after it started to rain. We had a decision to make. Over the Torres, black rainclouds hovered and over by the refugio it seemed nice and dry. So it was not a hard decision to make. We had already done the walk up to the Torres before and saw them both at sundown and sunrise so we took the easy way out and headed to the refugio. The closer we got the more it rained and the more we knew we had made the right choice. We met a couple from the UK coming down who had turned back two hours from the Torres as the weather was terrible with fierce winds and torrential rain (no pun intendend). We were getting soaked and were extremely happy to get on the next bus back to Puerto Natales. There were lots of other people trying to get back and some were panicking when trying to get on the bus...thinking it might fill up and they would get left behind. Scary stuff...but we were pretty calm after our encounter with the pumas two days earlier...JUST KIDDING ;). There are pumas in the park and you do get advice on how to behave if you bump into one, but they are rarely seen.
Back in Puerto Natales, we went to our favorite fish restaurant. It was also where we went on our first date:) , and it was still as great as the first time. The next day we walked down to the Navimag office and booked a 4 day boat trip to Puerto Montt.

Happy New Year from Viña Del Mar, Valparaiso, Chile :)

2007-12-31T22:16:00.000+01:00

All the best wishes to you all for the New year!

Gledilegt àr til aettingja og vina naer og fjaer!

Godt nytt aar allesammen!

Feliz Nuevo año todo el mundo!
Happy Hogmanay!

Jòn & Kathleen :)

Torres del Paine revisited

2007-12-26T19:28:00.000+01:00

Hello again, Hope everyone has had a very good Christmas. We had a nice one too... a different one but very nice. Anyways, back to the travel story...where were we...oh yes: Puerto Natales.

The town Puerto Natales has a very special meaning to us especially Torres del Paine national park where we got together. That was the main reason we decided to return to the area. After a day relaxing and preparing for our trek, we headed off on Monday the 10th of December. We started at the Posada Rio Serrano this time, at the Ranger station. This was the only part of our trek we had not done before. Bill, at the Erratic Rock, managed to get us a special deal on a tour bus so we could see the Cueva de Milodon - A huge cave where the biggest one was 50 meters high and 200 meters deep - and also to get us to the start of our walk about 3 hours earlier than with the normal bus as they were taking the new road. There was, though, a slight problem. It turned out the bus was driving exactly the same route as the regular bus making us almost 4 hours behind schedule. However, the cave was cool, and we saw condors up close, plus a lone fox that was begging for food from the tourists practically sniffing their hands. So finally when we started our walk around 2 in the afternoon we had a big task ahead of us. Not only did we have to walk about 6 hours to the refugio at Pehoe but we had to walk against the wind...and I am talking gale force winds. I got blown off the trail at least 20 times sometimes by at least 5 meters; but luckily it did not happen while scaling narrow paths overlooking an ice cold glacial river. The views were pretty spectacular. For most of the trek we had panoramic views of the whole Torres del Paine mountain ranges.
We got to the camping place about 20:00 and after pitching the tent (with difficulties in the strong winds) we headed to the Refugio for some supper. We had decided to have dinner at the refugios this time so we did not have to cook and so we did not have to carry so much food, it is after all, our honeymoon and we deserve small luxuries once in a while ;). It was a canteen and only one menu for everyone. As we got through the queue and to the register this happened:
" Are you staying at the refugio?" the register guy asked me
"No we are camping" I answered politely back, looking forward to having a nice dinner after a hard day of walking.
"Ok, then it will be 38 us dollars per person" he said casually
"What!", my voice was getting a bit less polite by now, "but it says 30 dollars outside?"
"Yes that is for the guests who are staying in the refugio...for you it is 38 dollars...is that ok sir?"
"is that OK!? No it is not OK, it is extortion, it is daylight robbery...it is....it is..."
at this time Kathleen was tugging at my shirt saying in a low voice "Jón, just pay the man and let´s go...your holding up the queue". The cashier guy was looking at me like I was about to smack him one...but then luckily for him I decided to back down and pay the ransom they were holding for my food. And besides, there were more poor campers behind us that would protest about the same inequality and have to pay the food ransom for not staying in the extortionate refugio.
The next morning it was still windy...I remember asking at some point a local guy if it was always windy there and the answer was something like: " no no not at all...I remember one day two years ago where it was almost not windy" Anyway, this was just a sign of what was to come. The day started quite well. We had some sun and the walk was beautiful. When we arrived at the encampamiento Italiano we had lunch and instead of walking to the Valle Francais where we had already been the first time around, we pushed on to campamiento las Cuernos (the horns) to save time and be well rested for the next day. We passed a beautiful pebble beach and cooled our feet in the lake sitting there for a while enjoying the sunshine. Half an hour later we were at the Camping place and just managed to pitch the tent before all hell broke loose. The winds were unbelievable. We heard from people who had to run from tree to tree at the pebble beach between the strongest gusts -where we had been sunbathing half an hour earlier- so they did not get swept into the lake. Two guys trying to camp could not hold on and the whole tent was gone in seconds never to be seen again. Being inside our tent was like being in a tumble dryer and for a short period I realized how it must be getting caught in a tornado. As we were having our dinner in the refugio, it sounded and looked like the roof was going to blow off any minute. The storm was so intense that the water in a waterfall in the mountains above never reached the bottom as the wind just swept it away. And if it was not raining heavily, which it was most of the time, the wind actually drenched us with water it had collected in the lake about half a kilometer away.
And then....(to be continued!!)

Merry Christmas :)

2007-12-24T02:57:00.000+01:00

Ushuaia - The End of the World

2007-12-07T20:43:00.000+01:00

Ushuaia is on longitude 55º South Which makes it the southern most city in the world. And here we are. The weather is a bit like autumn in Iceland and you can easyly get rain, sun, snow and enormous temperature swings in the space of one hour. The landscape here in the Tierra del Fuego So named because the first European arrivals came here they saw smoke everywhere, which turned out to be fires from the natives making their dinner or just keeping warm. Those were hardcore people who lived naked even in the bitter cold of the winter keeping warm by covering them selves in the fat of sealions and whales. However, The Europeans managed to wipe them out in a matter of years mostly due to diseases that were foreign to them.
Anyway, We stayed at a casa de Familia Velasquez (home stay). Our room for the first two nights was a "private room" but had a room where people from the next room had to walk through our room to get in and out. The first morning we had a whole family from France stroll shyly through on their way to the bathroom. And the next, luckily just one older Canadian. He, however, took time to have a ten minute chat with us (still in bed and half asleep) before continuing to the bathroom. We were happy when we heard that a double room (or a Matrimonial, as they call it) was available to us for the following night. The man of the family probably about 75 years old was in charge of basically everything and for what I know did everything. I never saw the women of the house do anything. I asked him once if he knew a place where I could take my pants to get the zipper fixed and he said. "no problem I will take care of it". When we came home that night, my pants had a new zipper that for all I know, he fixed himself. He charged me for this tremendous service the stunning amount of US$ 3 dollars or about 200 Icelandic krona. In the first two days in Ushuaia the weather was pretty bad so we used the time for practical things and just enjoying this nice city and friendly atmosphere. We used the opportunity to buy some things we needed as apparently the whole city if not the whole of Tierra Del Fuego is tax free. We also, almost accidentally, went to an art exibition opening in the Maritime Museum where the prison used to be (Ushuaia started out as a prison colony).

There we saw really nice paintings and talked to the artists. We were even contemplating buying one of the paintings as it was of glaciers on Antartica, but it would have cost too much to send it back home. The busiest day we had there started with a trip up to Glacier Marcial. We took a taxi up to the skilifts and then took the skilift and walked the rest of the way up to the glacier.
(see top photo). It was a bit tough walking up as it was our first real trek for months, hovever we were wearing waterproof pants so we could slide back in the snow some of the way down. After a quick break at the refugio, we took the skilift back and then walked the rest of the way to town, just in time to catch the boat for the 3 hour sailing on the Beagle strait. (see middle photo and bottom photo). It was very pleasant, we were staying in Ushuaia for 4 days and this was the only day this was possible because of the weather. We saw sealions (yep more of those) and cumerants living in perfect harmony(see bottom photo). We sailed to the lighthouse that is very symbolic for Ushuaia. Had a brief break and a picnic on a small island where some natives used to live. The guide and the captain were fantastic. They gave us tea and cakes on the way out and on the way back we had champagne :) . I don`t know if that happens on all of their trips or because they found out that we we´re on our honeymoon, any which way - it was very fitting.

Ironicly, the weather was gorgeous the day we left for our 14 hour bustrip to Puerto Natales.
Normally, long distance buses give you food on the way, but this one did not. We could not have any food with us as we were crossing the border to Chile and there are big fines for bringing most kind of food products into the country. At the border, I had time to run to a small foodplace, for a lack of a better word, and buy a sandwich for us, but that was about it for food on the trip. At least we were lucky to have good seat at the front with a bit more legroom... that is until Puento Arenas where they made us move to the back of the bus because some snotty locals neaded our seats. We still had 4 hours to go and we were not happy at all. We made it to Puerto Natales around 10pm, to our beloved Erratic Rock hostel where we also stayed last time we were there. The hostel is run by Bill and Rustyn, two Americans who also happen to be two of the friendliest and most helpful guys on the planet. Luckily we managed to find a place open for dinner (restaurants are usually open till very late in these parts of the world) and then we got a nice sleep in the squeekiest bed in the universe, ready to take on the adventures that were to come.

Next: Love on the rock!

Puerto Madryn

2007-12-04T19:45:00.000+01:00

At Puerto Madryn we did two major day tours. One was to The Península Valdés, which is a good spot to see whales, sea lions, penguins, elephant seals, guanacos (a member of the camel family, but much prettier), foxes, Armadillos, and a wide variety of birds. Unfortunately the killer whale was not quite in season so we did not see one :( . We started by seeing the Elephant seals and sealions, in two different places and a small penguin colony. It was very funny as the penguins did not seem to mind our precence, so you could get very close. Then it was time to go to Punto Piramide, the only town on Penínzula Valdés and take a 1 and a half hour boat trip. That was an amazing trip where we saw a total of 6 whales. It was the Atlantic Southern Right Whale and they all had a baby whale with them...if you can call a 4 meter long whale a baby!!. This whale species can reach up to 18 meters and weigh up to 100 tonnes so the ones we saw were huge!! And when we reached the shore and looked back, we saw one of them jump as if to say goodbye making a huge splash when it landed.
The next day we headed off to punta tombo . There is a very big colony of Magellanic Penguins. On the way there we stopped to take a take a boat trip out to the open sea to see the Commerson's dolphins, a black and white species that is found only in a few locations in the Southern hemisphere. We saw an abundance of those all around the boat and some even jumped for us even though that is not common for them.
The penguins were great. We were just strolled amongst them as they were nesting their young. A really amazing experience. One of them even nibbled at my shoe. At the most there can be around one million penguins there. At one point a herd of Guanacoes ran across the path just infront of us just to make our day even more spectacular. To finalise the day we went to a little town called Gaiman. It was founded in 1874 by the Welsh who had already founded the town Trelew nearby and started on their huge irrigation system around the river Chubut in the Chubut Valley. There we went for the famous welsh tea to make the experience complete. It was very nice but the funniest thing about it was how it resembled tea time at my Mums with tea, wide selection of cakes and bread with marmelade. Fortunately my Mum does not charge the same price! ;)
The next day we checked out, had lunch and relaxed until we had to take the bus that afternoon to Rio Gallegos even further south. It was a 17 hour trip, but by now we are getting used to long bus trips, so no big deal ;) . Rio Gallegos had only one purpose for us: Gateway to The Tierra Del Fuego and Ushuaia: the southern most town in the world.

Until then: take care :)

Next: At The End Of The World.

Miramar

2007-11-28T19:05:00.000+01:00

Puerto Madryn, 28.11.2007

Our next day in Miramar (loosely translated: Ocean view). We split up for a couple of hours as I wanted to check out the only Links type golf course in South America. I rented a golf set and headed to the first tee. There I met up with two old Argentinian golfers who graciously invited me to play with them. It was a lot of fun but I am not going to go into my performance here, it is strictly on a need to know basis ;). Coming back to the waiting wife, we headed out for Dinner in the very welcoming Soso's. A Sicilian restaurant owned by two brothers. On our last day the chef presented us with 4 very nice table mats as a souvenirs. Our third day, we visited Vivero dunícola Florentino Ameghino. 5.02 km² of woodland that is very popular for ppl. to go on weekend picnics as well as it includes the Bosque Energetico. A strange patch of apparently dead trees that make strange noises. the branches also have the strange quality to stick to each other. You can easily stick a branch into the ground and balance another one horizontally on top of it. It is a mystical place that also has been associated with witches and UFO sightings. uuuuuh! Our last day in Miramar we took a bus 30 minute drive to the neighbouring and nice sounding Mar del Sur. We planned to spend the most of the day there but when we arrived it turned out to be mostly consisting of one main street leading down to the beach. Everything except one restaurant was closed because of it not being the season yet and we could see the whole place in little less than 15 minutes. Its only interesting thing was an enormous (now run down and abandoned) hotel that was build in the 19th century by a German banker (and an optimistic one I might add). We then met a local guy who spoke very good English as he had been living in the US for some years and he told us about a piece of land there, that he had been trying to sell for the last 4 years. He offered it to us for the measly sum of 40.000 dollars. We politely declined his good offer and 2 hours after arriving we were back on the bus to Miramar. Where we packed and headed off to catch our night bus to Puerto Madrin.

Long distance buses in Argentina are very comfortable, you can get a "coche cama" where your seat will almost turn into a bed and they also serve food. This is very necessary for the long drives we take in this huge country.
The ride to Puerto Madryn took us about 15 hours and you will hear all about our stay there next. :)
pasta luego,
J&K
p.s. photos later.

Back on the road

2007-11-23T20:28:00.000+01:00

Miramar, Atlantic Coast, Argentina

Hello everybody,
Now as we have started our "longish" honeymoon, I suppose that I have to write a bit about it for those who still check this blog of mine who don`t seem to be many according to the comments on my last blog (what do you have to do to get some attention!! ;) ).

Anyway, we flew to Scotland on the 1st. of November and after having a relaxing time with Kathleen´s mother 4 a couple of days we headed to Liverpool for a few days. It was a bit rainy and windy but nice.The city has a vibrant feel to it and some very good restaurants and bars. We stayed two nights with Kathleen´s sister Maggie and her family, and one night in a hotel close to the centre. We had rented a car so it was quite easy to get around.

We came back on the 9th. to Motherwell and the next day we had a lovely wedding blessing ceremony in a Catholic church with Father Chromy and Kathleen´s family and friends in attendance. Gerry, Kathleen´s brother, had arranged a Bentley to pick us up from Hotel Bentley (a complete coincidence) and take us to the church and back to The Miners where the reception party was held. The Bentley, which was one of the most comfortable and flashy cars I have ever been in, used to belong to former boxer and heavy weight champion Chris Eubank. The Reception and party was a great success and the DJ was very good making sure that the dancefloor was more or less packed at all times.

After the weekend we headed down south to the coast, to Plymouth, to stay with Kathleen´s other sister Wendy and her family. We had a great time there too with warm, sunny weather which it seems to be always when we are there. One of our highlights there was that Wendy arranged for us to have a private cruise around the bay on a multi million pound, 70 foot yacht which was an unforgettable experience. The ride was extremely smooth and even if the yacht took a sharp turn she stayed level, cutting through the sea like a knife through butter. Friday we headed back up north, driving the 400 miles back to Motherwell. We had some more socialising with family and friends in Scotland, then...

Soon it was time to wave bye bye to British shores and last Monday we headed off to our first honeymoon destination: Buenos Aires. On route we stopped for a few hours in Dulles airport, Washington and I was very surprised to see that they sold Icelandic Water there. So we had Icelandic water and a Root beer. A root beer is one of the strangest drinks invented. The experience is a bit like drinking chewing gum. Basicly I think they take stale coca cola and desolve some gum in it before adding a quart bottle of mouth wash. Then they mix it thorougly and bottle as Root Beer. I can imagine it is good to drink after having some root canal work done.
Buenos Aires was nice and hot, a great change. The capital is noisy, chaotic, colourful but above all, very much alive. We had some interesting experiences like being charged in one restaurant, as part of our bill, for the rental of our place mats, plates, glasses, salt and pepper etc. We kid you not. Another was observing street people, coming out after dark, and rooting through other people´s garbage and recycling plastic bottles, cardboard, tin and glass. It was all very organised and we found out that the government pays these homeless people to even take the garbage to the garbage dump via the underground train system.

After two getting-organised days in the Argentinian capital, we packed our backpacks and headed south. 6 hours later we arrived in the delightful town of Miramar on the Atlantic coast. Now, remember that when you are in Argentina and head south it is getting colder not warmer. The day we arrived it was like a warm summer day in Iceland but today it has been windy, rainy and cold. about 10 degrees I suppose. The town is very quiet as the high season has not started yet; not for another 3 weeks. So we expect it to be even more cold as we head even further south in a couple of days.

Well off to buy some more warm clothes ;) . Take care everyone,
Jón & Kathleen

Wedding Photos

2007-10-03T21:49:00.000+02:00

The wedding of Mr & Mrs Fridriksson 25. August 2007 :)

For more photos click here

Running

2007-06-23T23:19:00.000+02:00

Today we ran the 10 km. in the Myvatn marathon.

Inspite of strong headwinds for the last 4 Km.,
We both ran under 60 min and are pretty happy about that,

as you can see on the photo :) :)

------------------------------------

Jón: 55:32 (personal best)

Kathleen: 56:29

------------------------------------

Hasta la pasta

In Memorium

2007-06-22T22:59:00.000+02:00

In memory of my dad Friðrik Jónsson 16.December 1924 - 4.February 2007

A more dedicated person
and hard working was hard to find.
Someone to look up to and admire.
He was a man of the world
even if he had never been outside of the country.
He had an opinion on everything.
He was just and kind and had compassion and character.
He was, and will always be in my heart, my Dad,
and I miss him.

Goodbye dad and may you rest in peace
You will be remembered.

Testing

2007-06-20T21:20:00.000+02:00

testing 123
Gleðilegt sumar :)
somebody there???

Gleðilegt Nýtt Ár :)

2006-12-29T02:12:00.000+01:00

Happy New year everyone! :)

More Mývatn photos

2006-10-27T16:13:00.000+02:00

I must say that the autumn is the nicest time in Mývatn..for photography anyway. Here are some more examples from my trip around the lake on the 2nd of october. Please tell me what you think. (click to enlarge)

More photos and the latest News

2006-10-18T21:31:00.000+02:00

After Kathleen came to Iceland we have been busy working and not much time for anything else; but we have been able to do a couple of things like going horseback riding, trip to Dettifoss and Ásbyrgi and a sightseeing flight (there is a photo from the sightseeing flight in an earlier blog from Dyngjujökull...did anyone guess that by the way?). We have also been around Mývatn and to the Nature Baths about 7 times... Nice:).
This October I went to Reykjavík and played with my band Hekkenfeld in Café Amsterdam. It was a big success so who knows maybe we'll do it again next year...a yearly event...why not:)
When October ends, our work place: Hótel Reynihlíð closes for three months, and we move to the south part of the lake and work at Sel Hótel Mývatn until Christmas. After an Icelandic Christmas and New Year the plan is to go to Africa for 4-5 months (cape town to Cairo). Exciting times indeed. :)
This summer has gone by like lightning and now it is winter. I thought the summer was just beginning when it was over. Below are a couple of photos from Mývatn in autumn colors(more photos soon):

Já það er fallegt í Mývatnssveitinni :)

2006-10-05T22:47:00.000+02:00

Sellandafjall, Mývatn og bátur

Mynd: JÞF

Hekkenfeld á Íslandi!!

2006-09-29T19:21:00.000+02:00

Íslandsfrumraun Hekkenfeld

Laugardagskvöld
7.Oktober
Café Amsterdam

Nú tökum við á því af alvöru
og ekki gefið eftir!!!
Þorir þú að missa af þessum stórviðburði??

Frítt brennivín fyrir heppna gesti!

Striking News ;)

2006-08-30T01:01:00.000+02:00

Hello all :)
You might want to check this out ;)

what is this?

2006-08-19T00:26:00.000+02:00

can you guess?

39 years

2006-08-13T09:25:00.000+02:00

Today I am a year older than I was yesterday...
39...wow!

South America in Pictures

2006-07-20T21:44:00.000+02:00

Now I have updated my MSN space with some well chosen photos from South America.
if you are interested click here.
If you are not interested then click here
In either case, let my know what you think :)

Waiting, Working and the World Cup

2006-07-08T20:02:00.000+02:00

Here is finally a wee something for all my fans out there ;). Besides, now I have had this winter picture on my blog for so long that I think that is time to change it. I have also been reprimanded for not writing for now a whole month so it is time. . My time now is mostly spend at work but I do go to my parents place every once in a while to "chill" and watch the world cup. My interest in the World Cup are diminishing though after my team Argentina was knocked out of the tournament and it changed into the Euro Cup. I hope tough that France beets the crap out of Italy as I am still pissed off at them for stealing the victory at the last second in the game against Australia. The most unfair results of a football match ever! The bast...ehem...OK I will try to control myself ;)! I read yesterday about a Chinese woman that thru herself out of a 17 storie window after arguing with her boyfriend about the World Cup, and China isn't even in the World Cup!! I mean it is OK to have an opinion and try to prove your point, but this is ridiculous!
Anyway now the World Cup is over soon (just the final left tomorrow) so then I can begin to do something else with my spare time;).
Now it is only one month till Kathleen comes to Iceland. She is now in Perth, Australia. We have now been apart for more than three months. Crazy eh! But soon the waiting is over with happy times up ahead :).
Well, that's it for now.

I hope you like my summer pictures.

In the blog below there are two of Kathleen's pictures from her trip to Tasmania, I'm definitely going there someday:).

Kathleen in Tasmania

2006-07-07T06:44:00.000+02:00

Light - in black and white

2006-06-07T00:23:00.000+02:00

Carnival in Rio de Janeiro

2006-06-01T23:00:00.000+02:00

Finally here is the last part of my travel story, sorry folks it took awhile but here it is with some crazy carnival photos that border on illegal ;)
It was cool to experience the carnival mood in Rio even though I did not go to the traditional sambodrome (see Rio sightseeing). At this time it was very expensive to get tickets. It was possible still to get tickets but only in lousy parts of the sambodrome. Instead we went to Ipanema beach for two nights and experienced how the locals celebrated. The last night, Marcella took me to a crazy carnival costume party. However, it is beyond me how people, can stand on top of a truck drive through a group of tens of thousands of people and play and sing more or less the same song for hours on end. The mood though is unbelievable. We also went to a place where the the drummers were rehearsing for the sambodrome. About 30 drummers in one band drumming away at the same time and it actually sounded good!!
Anyway here are the photos:

Carnival at Ipanema beach

Ipanema sunset

The "girls" from Ipanema

With friends

Crazy Carnival Costume party!

Locos hombre, locos!

I'm having fun

They're having fun

After the party!

After the carnival...

Relaxing with friends. :)

Here's to you Rio, thank you and goodbye...for now :)

Mývatnsveit 22. Maí 2006

2006-05-24T21:16:00.000+02:00

Rio Sightseeing

2006-05-19T23:50:00.000+02:00

on with the travel story ;)

I guess I was very lucky with the weather in Rio...sunny most of the time with occasional rain showers. However, the heat and humidity was a little bit too much for me and the flies did not help at all. I had a very good time there and my friend Marcella let my stay with her and showed me around town, and just made me feel right at home. I would like to take this opportunity to thank er for all her help and friendship. Thanks Marcella!! :)

Some of the things I did in Rio:

Went to a samba place and danced samba
Ate in a "Kilo" restaurant
Had sushi
Got bitten a lot by mosquitoes
Saw Rolling Stones on Copacabana Beach along with 1.5 million others
Enjoyed the Rio Carnival
Drank a lot of beer
Made some great friends
Heard shots one morning!
Saw a football game at the Maracaná - South Americas biggest football stadium
...it was Botafogo and Flumenese
Ate at a Peruvian restaurant
Ate at a German restaurant
Did a lot of sightseeing (see photos)
Had caipirinha for the first time - dangerous drink (see earlier blog)
Went to a crazy carnival party
Saw the floats before they enter the Sambodrome
Stood in Pele's footprints
and did a lot of other stuff. :)

Below are some snapshots from the Rio trip. Enjoy!
(click on the photo to get full size.)

You have to have some food before a full day of
Rio Sightseeing! Sushi is always nice :)

The food tastes even better with this kind of
view of The Sugar Loaf or Pao de Azucar...

and Botofogo beach.

Heading on up - If you look very carefully
you see a glimpse og the Christ the Redeemer
statue in the background.

Marcella and me almost at the (sugar) top.

At the top of Pao de Azucar -
Copacabana beach in the background.

Copacabana beach - if you look very carefully
you can see the Rolling Stones Stage just behind
the big building in the center of the photo.

Bragging about the big fish I caught yesterday ;)
Christ the Redeemer (Corcovado)

and the view was not too bad either :)

Pele's footprints at the Maracaná
(the biggest football stadium in South-America).
I saw a game there and wow...absolutely fantastic!!

"At the Copa,Copacabana".

A nice view of the city

Walking around the very nice Santa Teresa.

The Favellas or the slums of Rio are
right next door to the posh Santa Teresa.

View over the city from Pao de Azucar.
On the right of the picture is the city center,
where you can see if you look very carefully
a giant poster of Ronaldo, which covers a whole building.

About love - and my 15 minutes!

2006-04-28T21:14:00.000+02:00

Just a wee pause in the travel story. Even though I have now been back in Europe since the 10th of March there is still some things to tell from Rio and the splendor of that city. So you have something to look forward to :).
Anyway, I have been busy since I came back. First, a week after my return in Copenhagen, my girlfriend came to visit me from New Zealand. Yes...for those who did not know, I now have a girlfriend. Her name is Kathleen Carroll and she is from Scotland (photo above). We met in Argentina in January and it was love at first sight :).
She came to Copenhagen in March and stayed there for 3 weeks. We also took a 4 day trip to Scotland to surprise her mother for mothers day (and boy was she surprised) and to see the rest of her family members. That was actually my 5th visit to Scotland and I loved every minute of it:).
On the 4th of April she went back to New Zealand to continue her travels but will return in August.:)
I headed back to Iceland around the middle of April. Since I have been back I have been taking part in a short play (photo left) that will be staged in Borgarleikhúsið (a big theater in Reykjavik) on a short play festival friday the 5th of April along with 12 other plays. I have also had my interview taken by the newspaper Bladid (because of my travels) and for the same reason will be interviewed for the Radio station KissFm on May the 4th. Tuesday I go back to work in the reception at Hotel Reynihlid in Myvatnsveit, the same hotel where I was working last summer and you are all welcome to visit me there:)
Hasta la pasta amigos :)

Ilha Grande

2006-04-10T16:30:00.000+02:00

After a rocking Rolling weekend in Rio me and Marcella went to an island about 4 hours from Rio (2½ hours by bus 1½ hour with a boat) to relax and regain strenght before the carnaval. It was very nice with beautiful beaches, nice hiking and basically great fun with great people.
The best way to describe Ilha Grande and our stay there is with pictures:
Arriving in Ilha Grande a small village (the only village on the island) that gets overpopulated during the holliday season. During the Carnaval weekend there were so many people that some of them were camping on the beach which is forbidden so they were send home with the next boat.
Going by boat is a pretty common way to get around over there. Here is the Ilha Grande gang: (from the left)Marcella,Daniella,Clayton(from Brazil),Kathrine and Chris(from Edinburgh,Scotland).
Trecking can be very hard in 35 degrees celcius with almost 100% humidity.
Maybe it is better to chill at a nice beach (Lopez Mendes) with a good book. (If you think I am very white on this picture it is just because the light hits me in a certain way) ;) The sand was the whitest sand I have ever seen, and when you walked in it, it made a sound like when you walk in dense snow.
It can also be nice to relax at the nearst local bar ...
Even if you have to take a boat to get there.
On the way to the green lagoon to do some snorkling.
A watermelon salesman going from one boat to the next.
Sailing into the sunset.

That night we had a great night out and some of us had way too much caiperinha ;)
The next day it was back to the mainland to get ready for the biggest party in the world.
Next: Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro

A Bigger Bang at Copacabana beach

2006-04-07T16:22:00.000+02:00

I realise that I am just a little bit behind in my travel story but here comes some more:

Shortly after arriving in Rio there happend to be a free consert with none other than the Rolling Stones at Copacabana beach. Of course there was no way that I would miss this opportunity to see four old geesers jumping around on stage like 20 year olds. It is quite an experience to go to a consert with more than one million people I must say!(some sources say it was all in all 1.5 million ppl). However, this was not the biggest consert ever as some might think. In 1994 the biggest consert ever was held at the same place and can you guess who was performing?.....Non other than ROD STEWART!! Anyways, me, Marcella and two of her friends took the metro to the consert and as we came to the beach we found out that we were right behind the stage. So we, a little foolishly perhaps, tried to go past it to get to a better place. Suddenly we were just outside the hotel where The Stones were staying (they had a ramp going from the hotel to the stage) and they happend to come out on the balcony and all went nuts....people were screaming "calma calma! don´t panic" but that only seamed to make things worse...we seperated into pairs and me and Marcellas friend Lisasha managed to get out of crowd and breath again after having all the air squeesed out of us it was a pretty scary experience especially in over 30°C. Half an hour later we met up with Marcella and her friend at the subway station where there was a meating point. We then walked far from the stage and watched the consert on a big screen wich was quite nice and the sound was very good. After the consert (which ended with "Satisfaction", making 1.5 million ppl. go crazy) we found a bar and waited for 2 hours before venturing back home with the subway. I seamed to be relatively well controlled by 10.000 policemen and no-one got hurt.
thats it for now...next: Ilha Grande

Drinking in Rio de Janeiro

2006-03-14T19:59:00.000+01:00

In rio I stayed with my good friend Marcella, who I met in Iceland 1992 (she was in Iceland for two year). I stayed in a part of Rio called Catete which is pretty central between the city center on one side and the beaches (Ipanema and Copacabana) on the other. The first couple of days were used for relaxation as well as tasting the local food and drink. Brasilians produce their own wine, but to be honest with you...it is not very good. The brazilians love to drink beer. They have draft beer or choppies as they call them, and if you ask for one you always get one in a small glass. The reason for this is that it is so hot that beer gets warm quickly and so they drink it quickly and then get another. The first time I had one, the waiter came to me when I still had about one third left in the glass and asked if I wanted another one...yes please I said (or " si uma mais por favor") and when he came back with the new one he removed the old one even if I was not finished with it!!! So do Brazilians not like to drink warm beer that it is normal to remove it when the glas still has some beer in it. In Denmark as in Iceland and other european countries removing a man´s beer before it is finished is one of the deadly sins so I was a bit upset obviously.
After I had the facts explained to me I made sure that when the waiter asked me if I wanted another one, I just finished the glass very quickly. They also have another funny custom: When they ask for their last bill they ask for a "saideira" which both means one for the road and that the waiter should bring the bill over (you never pay the beer right away, everything is on a tab untill you leave). Then you finish the saideira and go home...NOT! Then you ask for saideira number 2 and 3 and 4 and so on so sometimes you have 4 or 5 last beers. Anyway, enough about the beer habits of the Brazilians. Oh...before I leave the subject of beers, the best beer in Rio is a PILSNER beer that was actually started in the early 1800's it is called Itaipava.The most famous alcoholic drink in Brazil is without a doubt a Caipirinha. This drink that tastes a little bit like the Cuban Mochito and it is dangerously good. To make the drink they use Cachaca,a brazilian liquor distilled from pure sugarcane juice. I had three once and I had to call it a day...wow! Later in Ihla Grange a scottish friend had four and the next day she had the worst hangovers of her life(more about that later);). Now if you don´t feel lika having a big hangover then I reccomend Guaraná.It is made from a berry that grows in Venezuela and the northern parts of Brazil. It is getting more and more popular in countries outside of brazil and can even be bought in Copenhagen :).
well enough for now, just one last thing to say:
Saúde!

Iguazu Falls - the biggest waterfalls in the world!

2006-03-08T19:20:00.000+01:00

At arriving to Puerto Iguazu I met Kiernan from Ireland and we ended up going to the same hostel. The next day we took a trip to the Argentinian side of the fall, or Las Cataratas del Iguazú . If was quite spectacular (ekkert midad vid dettifoss samt;). We started by taking a boat trip where we sailed all the way up to one part of the falls and then under it!!. Needless to say...everybody got soaking wet! After that we went to the biggest part and wow...reminded my a little bit of Niagara falls. After a great day at the falls I saw no need to see the falls from the Brazilian side also. I had managed to book a flight from Foz do Iguaçu
(the city on the Brazilian side) to Rio De Janeiro, and left the next morning. But not without having a one last Argentinian steak the night before:).
It is funny how there is almost no communication between Puerto Iguazú in Argentina and Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil...meaning that one side does not know about anything or cares about anything the other side is doing, or how things work there. A girl from my hostel Deb had the same flight to Rio so a guy from the hostel drove us across the border to the Airport in Foz do Iguaçu. He said that we did not have to get a stamp at the Brazilian border because we could get it at the airport...Wrong!!! So as we were checking in we got a little bit of a chock when we found out that we had to go back to the brazilian border go get a stamp!! So we had to get a very expensive taxi to do this....fortunately we were there in good time so we got our flight. Since, I have found out that there is no great love beetween these two nations. Brazilians don´t like Argentinians and vise versa.
It was very sad to leave Argentina as it has without a doubt changed my life. My stay there will always be remember as a the happiest time of my travels in South America. :)

p.s. The next part of the travel story (my Rio de Janeiro adventures) will probably be written from Copenhagen as I will be arriving there the day after tomorrow (friday the 10th of March). So take care and I´ll see many of you very soon!!! :)
p.s.² : I was going to put in some original photos but the internet in Rio basically sucks big time! But you can look forward to some very nice photos very soon :)

A photo from Argentina

2006-03-05T02:30:00.000+01:00

Here is a picture that was taken of us by a
professional photographer in Fitz Roy National Park.
I am the one standing in the lake.

This one time, in Buenos Aires:

2006-02-27T02:33:00.000+01:00

After a farewell in Él Calafate...Kathleen took the plane to Buenos Aires but I had to take the bus. There were no flights for almost a month...I love Argentina, but travelling in January and February can be a little tricky because all the Argentinians are on vacation as well. So a little planing ahead will not be a bad idea if you are heading that way.
As faith would have it, Me and Kathleen were to meet again in Buenos Aires. She was staying at a friends place and could arrange it so that I could stay their too. Argentinians are a friendly bunch, and taking total strangers or ppl they met shortly on their travels into their homes is normal for them...a little bit like in New Zealand I feel...they are proud of their country and want to show it to everybody. Anyways...where was I...a yes..bus to Buenos Aires. I had to take a bus from Èl Calafate (did I say already that is a great place?) to Rio Gallegos on the coast. That took four hours and was the easy part of the trip (counting four hour waiting time for the B.A. bus). The bus trip to B.A. took 36 hours!!! and on the way is absolutely nothing to see!!
I managed too sleep some and that made the trip a little bit easier. It was a nice aircondicioned bus and the food on the way was included. I was happy to see that Kathleen came to pick me up at the bus station. The busstation in B.A. (Retiro) is the biggest one I have seen in my life...It was almost like an airport. After taking a cab to the flat where Kathleen´s friend Celina lived we went to meet her at her work for lunch. The rest of the day was relaxing and I used it to recover from the bustrip. Next day I slept in (had not done that for a long time) and in the evening we made dinner for us Celina and Santiago her boyfriend who just arrived from Spain (he lives in Barcelona, but is from Chile). The third day, it was sightseeing day. We took a tour that took us around the city seeing many interesting places like The La Boca cuarter famous for it´s painted houses(see photo above). We also visited Boca Juniors stadium "La Bombonera" where Diego Armando Maradona played football. We drove past the harbour which is so poluted that if you drank one glas of the water you would be dead within 3 hours (how they came to this conclution I don´t know, maybe they got a volunteer to drink a glas of water from the harbour...anyway, good advise: Don´t fall inn!! After jumping of the bus at the famous obelix(see photo) on avenida 9 de Julio the widest avenue in the world - 140 meters wide - we headed home to Celina´s place where Santiago made dinner for us and some friends. Now, I have to mention the beef again. I have found out that after you have had argentinian beef once you can never eat beef again anywhere else in the world. What can make the experience even better is is to have a bottle of Mendoza with it...O my god! Tasting is beleiving my friends!
So the next night we went to this grill where we got a taste of various meat and the waiter even brougth complimentary champaigne. As that was not enough, he brought me and Kathleen a bottle of Mendoza red wine as a gift from the restaurant, because we were getting to know his country. I was stunned. Something I have never experienced before. WOW! And that was it! I was officially in love with this city and well...basically everything in it.
The day after we went to Celinas gratuation (doctor) and from there to her mothers house for some food (empanadas con dulce de leche!! uummm) and...yes...more wine. I think I drank between 1 and 2 bottles of wine every night while staying in Buenos Aires. Later that night we went with friends of Celina to Puerto Madero(see photo). It is a harbour where there just used to be old abandoned warehouses, but has now been transformed into a buzzling place with restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels. After sitting at a café there fore some time watching an amazing sunset and listening to a scottish guy play the bagpipes we went to have some more beef and wine:). The last two nights me and Kathleen found another acommodation because it was the last nights for Santiago and Celina together. We found this wonderful place with a family in San Telmo...maybe not the greatest neighbourhood but the family was fantastic and even invited us for a barbeque our last night in B.A. I have not eaten so much beef and drunk so much wine in my entire life as this one week in Buenos Aires; and I´m definately going back for more. Well this about does it for B.A. The next day I had a flight to Puerto Iguazú in Argentina, where I spent my last days in Argentina, and Kathleen had a flight to Santiago de Chile from where she would continue to New Zealand on her round the wourld trip. It was sad parting after 3 weeks of traveling together.! However...I just know that we will meet again :)

Next: Iguazu: The biggest waterfalls in the world

A Sort Of Homecoming

2006-02-25T01:01:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note to let everybody know when I will be returning to Denmark.
I managed finally to change my ticket after a bit of a battle and the first date possible was 9th. of March, landing in Copenhagen on the 10th. of March at 15:15 .
I expect a welcoming committee at the airport! ;)
Take care for now...
carnival greetings from RIO DE JANEIRO,
Jon
p.s. My phone is now working again so if anyone feels like calling me or sending me a text message(sms),here is the number:+45 22509731

next:
"This one time, in Buenos Aires"

Torres del Paine

2006-02-07T23:22:00.000+01:00

Finally I have time to continue the travel story after a busy time in Buenos Aires and Rio (Rolling Stones last night at the Copacabana...almost 1.5 million people...crazy stuff). So now I will continue where I left off:

Torres del Paine --- Map of the "W" trek here
Day one
We (Me, Kathleen and José) had an early start from our Hostel, it was hard to get up because the temperature in the room was about 5°c I think, felt like below cero. We got our stuff together and jumped on the bus. After about 3 hours we arrived at National Parque Torres del Paine. We took the ferry (catamaran) to the first camp, Camp Pehoe, where we began our walk. Before even starting to walk the landscape was stunning. I have never seen mountains quite as spectacular as in this national park. We then walked through Grey Glacier Valley up tho the Gray Galcier where we camped for the night. Very beautiful walk but a bit longer than it said on our map and we had very heavy backpacks. I think mine was over 20 kiloes!! It said on the map 3.5 hours but it took us about 6 hours....and at one point we thought we were had taken a wrong turn and were hopelessly lost. But everything went well. We had a nice meal that the masterchef Kathleen made:). The camp, Camp Grey, was right next to the glacier lake so we watched Icebergs float by...the coolest thing.

Day two
The next day we had to backtrack down to Camp Pehoe and the plan was to walk on to Camp Cuernos (another 2 hours) to camp for the night, but I was not feeling so good that day so we decided to stay at Camp Pehoe for the night and make an early start the next day. This was with out a doubt my worst day physically and I was really feeling the weight of my backpack. We managed to camp inspite very strong winds and that night I really thought the tent would blow away...but fortunately it did not:)

Day three
In the morning I was feeling a lot better and we started walking soon after breakfast around 10:00. It was a beautiful day and one of the best days for me. The landscape just kept getting better and better. I am glad that we did the "W" (as this 5 day trek is called) in reverse instead of starting at the Torres like most ppl. do. The landscape was getting more and more spectacular every day and it felt good to know that we were heading towards the big highlight...spirits were hight and the packs were getting lighter. José was struggling a little bit and as we came to camp Italiano he took a rest while my and Kathleen walk half way up the France valley...what views! what splendor! Coming back to Camp Italiano we found that José was already gone of to the next camp, Camp Los Cuernos, leaving a message that he would meet us there. It took us about two hours to walk there. For me this was the best day. The weather was perfect and the views were spectacular the whole day through. A perfect day!
We had dinner and drank a nice bottle of chilian red wine. I saw a fox that later stole some our food...just grabbed a bag and dragged it to the forrest. We were also warned to watch out for our shoes as the fox sometimes stole ppls left shoe!!
Mattias at the hostel in Puerto Natales also told us that the Puma would not bother us as long as we did nut run around as a wounded Guanaco!

Day four
Another perfect day in paradise :) I was beginning to like Torres del paine so much that I was already planing to come again to do the full 10 day hike. The worst thing about the day was that José had to leave us to catch the boat from Punto Arenas the next day to take him on a four day sailing trip to Puerto Montt further north. It later turned out that the boat broke down and he had to take the plane. It was sad for him as he had to give up seeing the Torres the next day to make his bus back in time to catch his boat. Anyway, Me and Kathleen went on up to Camp Chiliano where we had a lunch break before the last hike up to Camp Torres. We arrived at camp Torres at around 18:00 and had dinner before hiking up to the Torres (45 min) we were also going up there the next morning to see the sunrise but thought it was good to do it also that night in case it would be clouded the next morning. we had co climb up steep rocky terrain over huge boulders, but it was fun. Even though we were very tired, we were excited to see the Torres, that had been mine "holy grail" for a long time. An spectacular it was...there is nothing that can prepair you for this fantastic sight...seeing is believing...and you just have to bee there...pictures can not do it justice.
It was hard to sleep that night, and we now had only one tent and to stuff all our things into one small tent AND sleep there was no easy task. I think I got maybe half an hour of sleep that night.

Day five
we got up at 4 in the morning. It was still very dark and we made some coffee before starting the walk up to the torres in pitch blackness. My flashlight had just run out of batteries so we had to count on Kathleens headlight for the two of us. It worked fine and we were up just before sunrise. It was cold and a bit windy so we found a good spot and sat down tucked under my small sleeping bag thad I had grabbed with me.
We stayed there for 4 hours and looked at the magic happening right infront of our eyes...WOW! The pictures on my msn spaces link below will give you some idea how it was...notice the coulor changing. After slowly walking down again we packed out things and headed down to Camp Chiliano. We were suddenly a bit late and to catch our bus we had to walk pretty fast (fortunately it was mostly downhill). Getting close to the last refugio were the bus was leaving from, we were getting worried that we might miss the bus so I took both backpacks and Kathleen ran to the Refugio to make sure that the bus did not leave us behind. Fortunately she is a very good runner (she has run 3 marathons) so we caught our bus in the nick of time. :)
We had a relaxing drive back to Puerto Natales and that night we had a very nice dinner at the very nice Maratimo restaurant by the lake. A perfect end to a perfect trip.

The day after we went back to Él Clafate in Argentina promising to return to this most magic place of all places. Magic that will stay in my mind for all times.

Click to enlarge

More Pictures from my Patagonia trip HERE!
(the first pictures are from Argentina, Fitz Roy National Park and the Perito Moreno glacier)

coming up soon: Buenos Aires

(allt í fína) From Argentina part II

2006-02-04T22:11:00.000+01:00

El Chaltén was great! Small town thet thrives mostly on tourism. People going on trips to Parque Nacional de los Glaciares. The day after arriving we: Me,Kathleen(Scotland), Sara(Taiwan) and Josè(Spain)from the Route 40 tour, took on a four hour trek to see Mount Fitz Roy (the highest mountain on the picture above). Fantastic day with fantastic views. We even met a professional photographer who took our picture with Fitz Roy in the background for his book that he is making about Patagonia. That night I took the bus to El Calafate leaving the others until we would meet agian the next day in El Calafate. El Calafate is a very cool town...I had roasted lamb with mashed potatoes that evening ...jummy!!
The next day a used for practical things like washing clothes and arranging trips for the next days. in the evening I went to meet the others at the bus station and after they got settled at the Calfate Hostel and we had a couple of beers before turning in. Next morning we all went to Glaciar Perito Moreno (photo left, with the gang: José,Kathleen, Sara and myself). A huge glacier where we sailed out to the face of the glacer watching huge pieces breaking off which was quite spectacular. We had a fantastic buffet dinner together that night with a nice Mendoza wine and unbeleavable Argentinian beef (the real thing) wow! The next day Sara had to stay behind in El Calafate as she did not have a visa to Chile. The rest of the gang: Me, Kathleen and José took the bus to Puerto Natales in Chile where we arrived at midday. There we arranged (at the fantastic hostal: Erratic Rock) the greatest trek I have ever been on...it even tops the Inca trail!! You can read all about it soon, and see some unbeleavable pictures, in the next chapter.

(allt ì fìna) From Argentina - part I

2006-01-26T15:29:00.000+01:00

Click here for a map of Patagonia:
It was a long busride from Pucón, Chile to San Martin de los Andes, Argentina. The driving was not the worst factor but the endless waiting for something or sometimes, apparently, nothing. The stops at the border were long and teadious...first at the Chilian border and then at the Argentinian border. On the bus i met Sarha and Caroline from Canada and as it was very hard to get accomodation in San Martin, we ended up finding a triple room together... and a pretty expensive one. We had a nice dinner... I had pizza with deer meat!!! and after a short stop at the local market we called it a day. The next day we went bike riding around Lago Lacar (photo above) or at least around half of it (riding 12 km. up a hill) and after a lunch break at the beach we took the ferry back to San Martin. After delivering the bikes we took the bus to Villa de Angostura and from there straight to Bariloche. Two pretty scary busrides. In the first, we had to have the windows open because the aircon. was broken (not unusual here) and there was dust everywere. The driver was trying to fix some box above his seat using boath hands driving at 80km an hour on a narrow road, and we almost drove into a horse. The next bus was a little overcrowded so I had to sit on a box in front of the bus that drove almost one hour in the dark without headlights!
Then we got to the hostal from hell...it seamed to be the only hostal available in Bariloche. It was like cut out of a Stephen King novel. I am almost sure that they filmed the horrior film "The Hostel" here. The owners were also very spooky. I only took one nioght there and found something else for the next night....took a long time and was about us$7 more expensive...but worth every penny!! The next day we chilled in Bariloche went down to the beach and watched a kitesurfing competition (photo below). Then we found a restaurant for snacks with a beautiful view of the lake. I also used this day to find a tour for the next day to Calafate with stops at Perito Moreno (the town...there is also a glacier by the same name) and El Chalten.
That night I said good buy to Sarah and Caroline and the next day I boarded the Route 40 bus heading for Calafate. Buses in Argentina are, as a rule, between one and three hours late and pretty used up with numerous cracks in the front window...this particular bus had 6 big cracks in the front window, the breaks were really dodgy, the oil was leaking and our driver had only slept 3 hours the night before. We sat in this bus for over 13 hours to Perito Moreno where we finally arrived at midnight only to find out that the hostel people had given up on us and there were no longer rooms for everyone. We had to wait while they found something else for us, some stayed with a family and even one guy had to sleep at the camping place. Up early the next morning for an excusion to Cueva de los manos a very nice drive to a very cool place. The Cueva De Los Manos or the Cave of Hands, is situated in a big canion and on the way we also saw lots of animals both domestic and wild. like Guanaco ,Armadillo, and ostrich. After the caves we drove on the last part about 6 hours to El Chaltén where I found my accomodation after a short walk in the dark with silhouettes of the huge cliffs hanging gostly over the town....(To be continued.)

The Ultimate Volcano Experience

2006-01-19T23:45:00.000+01:00

Parque Nacional Conguillio (photo top left) was spectacular. We had a spot of bad weather in the beginning of our walk (very unusual for this time of year) but later it cleared up. We walked for about 4 hours mostly in the forest. There were spectacular views og lake Conguillio and the Sierra Nevada.
the next day I went to the small town of Villarica. Beautiful town right by the lake and it has Vulcan Villarica in the background (photo middle left). After a 3 hour hike in the countryside the next day - just south of Villarica - molested by huge flies that wanted my nothing but harm, I took the bus to Pucòn which is a nice resort town...a little bit turisty but nice all the same. From there I took a tour up to the very active volcano Villarica. If you look into the crater you see the the lava bubbling and sometimes it erupts a couple of meters in the air. Very impressive sight. I took a special early morning tour that started from Pucón at 4:00 in the morning. A group of 6 persons + two guides. As all the other tours start at 7:00 there were just us on the Volcano. After 1 hour in the dark the sun came up and the view was quite spectacular: I think we could see about 4 or 5 other volcanoes from the top. The worst thing was the sulphor gases that the crater emittet. Reminded me of my teargas experience in Quito four years ago. We slided most of the way back so the trip down was only an hour. That night I ran into a guy I had met in Villarica and we had a Pisco Sour and a "few" beers in the Mamas and Tapas bar. Tomorrow I am taking the bus to San Martin de los Andes in Argentina.

Hasta Argentina

All roads lead to......the next.

2006-01-14T16:09:00.000+01:00

Hello from Temuco, Chile!
Now, finally, it should be more intersting to read my blog as now starts the longest travelling part of my trip.
The last days in Quito were uneventful and the flight to Santiago was pretty normal apart from the fact that I had to fly to Bogotà,Colombia to catch my flight to Santiago (two hours north to fly almost six hours south). Santiago (photo above) was nice..I was staying in an OK hostal in the center (placa de Armas) called Navetierra. I walked around the city and went to the park Metropolitan with a nice couple from France, Celine and Pierre, that I met at the ascensor (A kind of a lift thet runs up the hill). All around the town were ppl waving flags with pictures of the two presidential candidates. A man: Sebastian Pinera, and a woman
:Michelle Bachelet. If she is elected she will be the first woman president in chile. The election is tomorrow Sunday.
Yesterday I went to Valparaiso (photo below) and spend the day there with Celine and Pierre. Valparaiso is a very intersting city. It is on the pacific coast and spreads up into the hills. They have lot of ascensores there because of the many steep hills.
La Sebastiana ,the house of nobel prize poet Pablo Neruba was especially interesting, very beautiful both inside and out and the view is spectacular.
After a short stop in Viña del Mar (the twin town of Valparaiso) I headed back to Santiago. The next day I took the train (the only train left in all of Chile) to Temuco. The nine hours felt like four or five hours. There was lots of space in the half emty train and looking at the beautiful landscape and blasting icelandic music (Sàlin hans Jòns Mìns & Quarasi) and spanish music (Juanes & Oreja de Van Goch) on my CD player, made for a very enjoyable mix.
I arrived at 19:30 at the train-station in Temuco and got a hostel just outside of the center. The hostal is near a big moll where there is a cinema where I am going to night to see King Kong :). Tomorrow, as I do not have the right to vote, I am going to visit Parque National Conguillio.
I must say that I really like it here in the south of Chile...the weather is like on a very nice summersday in Iceland. It is also interesting to notice how the landscape changes...it is kind of like driving from spain north through france, into germany and ending up in the south of sweden!! I look forward to arriving in "Norway" next week.;).
hasta pronto
p.s.
If you don't allready know the colombian band Juanes then I highly recommend that you check it out right now!!!!!

It is better to leave, then never to arrive!

2006-01-08T21:30:00.000+01:00

Hello again and a very happy new year to ya´ll!
After a 13 hour trip back to Otavalo (in actually a very confortable bus)I continued the waiting game. This time I was waiting for the pin number for my credit card. It arrived the next day...so now I was all set to continue my travels. I spend the new years in Otavalo. Around 20:00 on the 31th. I went out with the family and we walked around town. Here ppl. dress up for new year...and I don´t mean put on nice clothes, but put on costumes or masks. Many places there were ppl. in the streets dancing in funny costumes. There was a lot of men dressed as women, so it was a kind of a mixture between Halloween and the Gay Parade. They also make live sized dolls that they burn at midnight in the middle of the street with som other stuff...it´s called burning the old year. There were almost NO fieworks! There was not much drinking that night and I went to bed at around 00:45...very unusual for me!
On the fourth of January I packed my stuff and went to Quito. There I met up with Laerke and Ida again. I got a ticket for Santiago for the 10th of January which was kind of unlucky because my visa expires saturday the 7th. I then used almost 2 days going between immigration offices to arange 3 days more so I would not loose my ticket. One officer even told me that I had to go to Colombia and get a new visa there and then re-enter the country. Luckily I found a immigration office in the end that could help me and gave me the days that I needed. Normally it is not a problem to get an extention but the embassy in Panama City had given me a special student visa which is harder to extend. Tipical! Anyways, here in Quito, we have been to the old town, gone to Mitad del Mundo (center of the earth) which is very cool; and today we went to the Park Carolina where there was outdore arobic and drum playing, amongst other things. After a short stop at the moll (El Jardín) We had lunch and here I am.
In two days I´m flying to Santiago de Chile were the third part of my trip begins (the lucky part I hope). I had two choices: To go to Patagonia and continue more or less as planed or go strait to Brazil and and stay there for a couple of weeks before heading home. I took the first option, even though I will be deep in debt when I get back home, because...well, I´m in South America now and who knows when I´m coming back. I will probably be in Brazil around the 10th. of february and back in Denmark at the end of February. Hasta la pasta.
Next time...from Chile!
Juan de Chevere
p.s.
A funny thing happend as I came out of the immigration office the other day...I had just finished arranging my visa, when somebody called my name in the street. I looked around and saw Freddy. He was coming from the coast and had a few hours in Quito before returning to Ibarra. He was going to try to meet me at the hostal but in stead he just happend to see me from his bus. What are the odds of that happening in a huge city like Quito!
J

Happy New Year Everybody!!

2005-12-30T23:11:00.000+01:00

Cheers to your health and all the best for the new year!...
and remember:
"Walk slowly through the doors of joy!"

Christmas in Ecuador

2005-12-29T17:47:00.000+01:00

The holy night revisited

Christmas was kind of different this year. I went with Fredy,his mother and his nephew to visit his brother Danilo and family in Pasaje, just east of Machala (a 13 hour bus tour). Danilo runs a school or a foundation where less fortunate kids can receive education. The first night there was a Christmas gathering for the kids and their parents with entertainment from both the kids and the parents. Even me and Fredy sung I wish you a merry christmas! We were thinking of doing another song: Jingle Bells, but as Fredy always pronounced it as jingle balls, I thought it was a little inappropriate. On Christmas Eve we went out to eat at a very nice restaurant. We had a turkey with sauce, mached prunes, and a fruit salat, very nice. The first meal I have had in Ecuador that was served without rice! After the meal we bought a bottle of wiskey, went home and got hammerd. Not exactly the christmas eve tradition I`m jused to!

Christmas eve with the Garcia bros. Danilo, Fredy and Renato

The 25th. we went to a family gathering and on the eve of the 26 there was again time to get drunk,(or chupar as they call it) this time in my honor as I was leaving for Otavalo the next day.
I was told that the christmas tradition is a little differnt for each family but this family did not really have any gift tradition, maybe one gift on day and another the next and mostly for the kids. Many shops were also open on christmas day, which I found kind of odd.
In otavalo there is a tradition that relatives meet for about 2 hours every night nine days before Christmas. One night in one house the next in another and so forth. There is a reading of thee christmas story, a collective prayer and then everybody gets coke and cake afterwards. One night we even played bingo. It is a very nice tradition that gets all the family together. Which is just the way it should be.
Anyways...this was my christmas.
take care for now!
Nonni

Green ChristmasDay

2005-12-22T20:14:00.000+01:00

Check this out....pure genious!
http://www.care2.com/ecards/build/1/5995

My Christmas Card is here!

2005-12-21T20:42:00.000+01:00

Finally! My mastercard arrived from Denmark today so it looks like I´m going to the south part of Ecuador with Fredy tonight. I am returning to Otavalo on monday or tuesday because I still have not received my pin number. That will probably arrive on tuesday or wednesday next week and then I will be ready for my trip to the jungle:). Cool.
Hasta pronto Y Feliz Navidad a todos!
Juan

Merry Christmas

2005-12-19T20:41:00.000+01:00

Season Greetings from Otavalo, Ecuador
Merry Christmas everyone
and a Happy New Year
Take care,
Jón
p.s.
more christmas photos here!

Status Quo

2005-12-16T00:11:00.000+01:00

Yep, same old same old from Ecuador, not much to tell other then more boring money matters. Must be boring reading this blog! Anyways, I manage to take care og my stundent loan for now with good help from my brother(thanks Sve!). So I do not have that hanging over my at the moment(pheeew!). YESTERDAY,ALL MY TROUBLES SEEMED SO...eh...I mean: Yesterday, my bank told my that there had been a problem with sending my card and they had to start from scratch to order the card and send it when they received my signiture. Today they told me that my card was on the way and I just had to sign some papers and send back when I received it. They told me that hopefully it should arrive before christmas...I really don´t know what to believe anymore. At this moment I have no idea where I will be at christmas...we shall see.
Tomorrow is there is a christmasparty at the school. yeeih! "Jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way" and so forth.
Take care for now,
Juan

Lo Que Pasa, Pasa !

2005-12-11T21:09:00.000+01:00

Down to my last $15! I was expecting my credid card to arrive this week but it didn´t. ¡AY CARAMBA!! If it does not arrive next week, I´m really up shit creek! If I get my card, my plan is to go to Cotopaxi next weekend and from there to a small town called Pasaje just south of Machala, near the coast not far from the Peruvian border. I have been invited to spend christmas there with my friend Fredy and his brother Danilo. After christmas, the plan is to go to the jungle to visit my danish "hermanas" Laerke and Ida (see picture) who are volunteering in a project near Misahuallí. They left Otavalo last thursday and are greatly missed already. (Los chickas locas sin zapatos);).
This week I also got the disturbing news that L.Í.N. (my student loan company) is breathing down my neck. In september they usually, automatically take money from my credid card account, and I assumed that they had done that already. Obviously not; and now they can´t do it because I closed my card in Costa Rica and have not got my new card yet. So they are threatening me with a lawsuit if I do not pay before the 15. December. Great!:( . So, basically I have to get my card next week, so that I can call L.I.N. and clean up this mess and also so that I can continue with my plans here in Ecuador.
I could be thinking: "What next!?" but instead I chose to apply here my new motto: Lo Que Pasa,Pasa! (what happens, happens).

to be continued...

this Blog is bugged!

2005-12-06T23:33:00.000+01:00

We had a fun night friday at the kareoke place, where me, Laerke and Ida sang Barbie girl, by Agua (we are still laughing about it;)) Then we ended up at a Peña dancing until 3 in the morning. We took it slow the next day with a 3 & a half hour walk to the Peguchi waterfall and El Lechero. Sunday we had a fun horse-riding tour. One which I still can feel in my body...I could hardly walk yesterday...last time I went horseback riding was almost 4 years ago when I did well, ehh... the same tour actually. The tour was about three hours and we had a stop at a some hotsprings (that were not very hot)on the way. Monday, me Ida, and Laerke were planing to go to Quito (to the Quito festival) or actually they were planing to go to Quito and were going to drag me a long. After a hearing alot of lot of horror stories about what might happen to you, (you could get robbed,killed or worse, we decided not to go...later we heard that maybe it was not as bad as all that but ppl. had just been too dramatic so we would be careful...they just overdid it a bit! Today I went to the market with Julio Cesar, my teacher, where he tought me the names of various frutes and vegetables and then he bought a bag of fried bugs! which we ate in the school break ummmm!...well have to go to dinner now.
Later,
Juan

Cascada de Peguchi

El Lechero

Jòn Wayne

At the notsoveryhotsprings.
Some ppl. had more fun than others. :)

Me and Fredy tasting fried Catchos (fried bugs...jummy!)

Walk this way!

2005-12-02T21:35:00.000+01:00

Now...where was I...Last week was very nice. Apart from studying I went to cafés, Played scrabble (crusigrama) with Laerke and Ida (the danish girls who are staying at "my" casa), and learned how to juggle. Last weekend we walked up to Fuya Fuya (4250m high volcano). I went with Laerke and Ida and a German couple from the school. It was a pretty steep walk up and we had to take a lot of breaks before reaching the top after 2 hours and 15 minutes. The view from the top was fantastic (picture,above), we could see 5 other volcanos. Imbaburra, Cayambe, Cotacachi, Cotopaxi and Antisana. The trip down was easier. Sunday, the same team went to Laguna de Cuicocha (picture,below). Second time for me but worth it ..a great walk. This time I walked around the whole crater for the first time and it took about 6 hours, with breaks. This time was also different because we saw three condors!!! Amazing!! Also about half way through the trip, two policemen passed us. We found out that two days earlier there had been an armed robbery on the trail. A guy with a gun had robbed some tourists walking the trail. The first thing I thought was..."and it was not me!!!" My luck must be turning ;). (7-9-13).
This week has been more or less with out adventure. Last night we had a big dinner at the school. Students from Holland made a special dutch meal that I can not for the love of god remember what was called even though they told us about one hundrad times. But it was good, I had two helpings and it took me about 5 hours to recover from this extream overeating. Some of us went to dance afterwards in a small bar/café close by. Hard to dance with your stomac full of....eh...whatsitsname. I went to bed around 1 in the morning. To night we are going to a kareoke bar (again) and ahead is another weekend of walking.

I have had some trobles uploading pictures on the net using the msn as I have been doing...if you know of a easy way, other then msn, then please let me know!!!
There are few new pictures from Cuba om my Travel Pictures link. But it just takes too long to opload them one by one like that. Entonces....no muchas fotos.

Striking News

2005-11-23T00:13:00.000+01:00

This is my blog nr. 100 and here are the News:

The weekend before last I had a night out with Fredy, Rosa, Julio Cesar (no joke), Silvia, and Paméla from the school. They are all teachers except Paméla who is the secretary. After dinner we went to a karaoke bar. A funny experience. Everybody is sitting down and the mic is brought to you when it is your turn to sing and you pay 25 cents for each song. So for two hours I listened to songs in spanish with an ocational Beatles song thrown in the mix , courtesy of yours truely. Then in the end of each song you are graded. Our neighbours at the next tabel had bought a tequila bouttle and were quite generous;). After that we went to a Peña bar (bar with live local music) and danced until 3 in the morning... good fun. Apart from studying all last week, We celabrated Julio Cesars´ birthday last friday...which almost got out of hand in the end...NOT FOR ME! I always behave at parties as you well know;). Saturday I was supposed to go to Laguna de Cuicocha with Fredy (a volcano crater with a lake and two islands) but Fredy was to hungover to make it so we went sunday instead. It was a great trip but hard, five hours of walking around the crater. A beautiful day and beautiful view. It was possible to see 4 volcanos from there. After the walk we took a camioneta (A Pick Up truck where you sit in the back with 4-10 other ppl.) down to the village at about 80-9o km an hour...I was holding on to my hat all the way! It was shortly after dinner that I went to sleep dead tired but not for long as I got a stomac pain and a headache that lasted thru the night and made me stay home sick the next day. Tuesday I was ready to rock and roll again and went to school again.
You are probably still wondering about the title "Striking News"(A title I borrowed from my brother Sverrir) and waiting for some big motherf..... news. Well here they are:
I found out that the assholes that mugged my in Costa Rica probably managed to us my danish credit card in the short time that passed before I could close it. It seems that they called or used the internet to book a flight to Florid! costing my no less than $1100 US!!!! As all the problems I have had in this trip were not enough!!! What have I done to deserve to deserve this!!!. I`ll maybe be able to get this money back but not until I get back to Denmark so this makes a serious dent in my travelplans. I`m still waiting for my Mastercard to arrive from Denmark and well, considering the problems I have had, I´m crossing my fingers.
Well enough for you to chew on for now.
Hasta la bastards!
Nonni
p.s.
I`m seriously thinking of taking the advice of my friend Halli and changing my email adress to nonninotsocoolanymore@hotmail.com
take care and write soon :)
N

Laguna de Cuicocha

At last som stability

2005-11-10T22:20:00.000+01:00

After recovering of the stomach infection, I had a couple of days in Panama City. Panama City is actually a pretty cool city. It is very modern and I even found a SUBWAY there YEAH!!!. I went to one of the biggest supermarkets I have ever seen and it was open 24 hours all the days of the week, like a huge 7/11 only cheaper, much cheaper! Bought 10 bananas for 25 cents. I used a big part of monday arranging my Visa to Ecuador. First I went to the embassy. I had to get two pictures of me and the ticket to Ecuador. I found a travel agent just around the corner ($426 us) and an hour later I had the pictures. Back at the embassy they arranged the rest of the paperwork and I was all set to go. The next morning I decided to have an early start and got the taxi driver to show me the Panama Canal before driving me to the airport. Very impressive indeed. The flight was short and sweet but I was pretty nervous as I went through the pass control. But it went smoothly and soon I was on a bus bound for Otavalo. There I went to the school where Rosa was waiting for me. Soon I was picked up by members of the family where I am staying. Nice house, nice ppl, nice room, and a very short walk from the school. After having dinner I went to meet my good friend Fredy and Rosa, Rosa and Julio Cesar(who is my teacher)from the school. They had some beers but I could not because of the medication I was taking after the "Panama incident". The next day I started school and at 15:00 I took the bus to Ibarra to meet with Fredy. We had a look around town and then took a taxi to a lake nearby. I had found out that there was a golf course there so we went exploring. We found it and promptly decided we would go next week or the one after and play ($15US for the whole day). After school today I have been walking around trying to find a bookstore which are practically non existing. To morrow I´m going out with my friends here in Otavalo. Enough for now and pictures from Cuba and Panama soon.

Otavalo Market

From bad to worse!

2005-11-07T03:29:00.000+01:00

Last time I wrote, I was in Cuba. I have actually a lot to say about Cuba, but for now I will keep to the essential travelstory. After Arriving in Cuba and finding my Casa Particular (home stay). I had a couple of days in Havana. Did not do much, but on day I had a personal guide (friend of my havana family) who drove me to the most interesting places in town for 20 dollars. Very nice guy. It was so hot in Habana thad I could only walk around couple of hours before becoming soaked in sweat (and it is not even high season). It was easier to stay home with the airconditioning on. Well basicly it was on all the time...apart from when the electricity was out (I`ll get more into that later).
Apart from the Old town of Havana, I did not like the city one bit. Hot, dirty, and ppl. hassling me all the time. "hello my friend where are you from" is a very common start and when ppl. begin like that, they always want your money one way or the other. I learned that the hard way! Im not going into that now...too embarrassing really. Might tell you one day if you ask nicely and promise not to laugh.
So my advise to that kind of hassel is to say "no gracias" politely and walk on...if that does not work then say "no moleste" which is a polite way of saying: "Get out of my face you fucking asshole!" I have some more advise, pointers, and usless information for you later.
After Havana I went for 4 days to a town called Trinidad (about 5 hours busdrive from Havana) and, I must say, it is my kind of a town. It is the third oldest colonial town in Cuba and has got lots of beautiful buildings. There I spent my time roaming the streets, sitting at bars with a cold beer,a book and listening to live Cuban music...sweet. first real time thad I have had to really relax and enjoy myself. The beach is also wery close. I went one day, even if I am not much of a beach person. I took a Coco Taxi which is like a motorcycle taxi. There I found a guy with a sailboat who wanted to take my to the reef for snorkeling for 9 dollars an hour. I jumped at it (together with a french guy) and even though the one hour included the 20 min trip there and 20 min. trip back, it was worth it. After I opend a couple of beers at the beach bar before returning to Trinidad. I stayed at a very nice place in Trinidad close to the center and used every opportunity to go to the Casa De La Musica and listening to some great original Cuban Son music. If you are in cube for a short time then go to Trinidad. The town and it`s surroundings has the essential essence of Cuba.
Now here is where the real trouble starts!
After Trinidad I had two more nights in Havana and then I got on a plane bound for Quito, Ecuador. After couple of hours in Panama airport, I was off to Quito where my friend Fredy was waiting for my at the airport. It was not a long flight and it was a happy man who stepped of the plane at the brand new airport in Quito. I was looking forward to meet my friend Fredy and everything was just dandy when suddenly dissaster struck! As I came to the passport check, this is roughly how it went:
Girl: Passport please
Me: There you go (big smile)
Girl: You are from Iceland?
Me: Yes...Islandia
Girl: And your visa?
Me: What! I don`t need a Visa.
Girl: Yes you do, new rules, you are not allowed to enter the country.
Me: WHAT! It must be a mistake
Girl: Here is a list of countries who need a Visa.
(I quickly looked throug the list)
Afganistan
Albania
Irac
Iran
Israel
Iceland!!!!
Me: Shit Fuck fuck shit O MY GOD!!!! fuck (and so on)
Girl: We`ll have to send you back to Havana or Panama.
Me: WHAT! (I said that a lot) can`t you do anything? arrange it here or something (here I was beginning to panic).
Girl: No sorry, you have to hurry the plane is about to leave.
Me: Fuck!
So that resulted in me now stuck here in Panama City waiting to go to the Ecuadorian embassy to get a Visa and try again.
But wait...I`m not finished:
The night I came to Panama City (which incidentally is the Panamas Independence day) I got sick and ended up in hospital at 5:00 in the morning. It turned out to be a bacteria infection and I was also severely dehydrated (had drunk a lot of weater but it just went straight through me)and had to get a drop. Holy crap, that neadle hurts. It was not until late yesterday that I was feeling better and now I`m fine, just have to take some antibiotics for a couple of more days.
All this crap, has reeked havok on my budget (Cuba was also very expensive). So now it seams like I`m coming home allready in February...maybe even sooner.
Well, now I`m going to bed and to morrow I go to the embassy with my fingers crossed and hope for the best. Wish me luck!

p.s. George W. Bush says Hi!

More of Costa Rica

2005-10-29T02:54:00.000+02:00

Here I am sitting at a Casa Particular in La Habana,Cuba using the familly computer. The connection is so slow that one can almost not be bothered. But I try anyway. The last part of the Costa Rica tour was a success. I took two day trips with Ben from Norway. One was a Canopy tour where you slide on wires through the rainforrest...pretty cool I must say...kind of like horisontal bungy jumping. The longest slide was 750 meters! The same night We got inwited for dinner at the Hostel by John from Scotland who is a chéf from Glasgow. Very nice. Ben and John: If you read this, take care and hope to see you in Iceland or denmark:). The next day we took a tour to the highest volcano in Costa Rica, just over 3400 meters. We drove up to the mayn crater, but I could feel the hight as we walked the last 900 meters to the Punto de más alto (highest point). I really have to get into shape! It was a good trip and we did see the main crater even though it was foggy most of the time. Finally out in the nature and in the moantains where I am in my element...I definately not a city person at least not when I´m travelling. My last day in Costa Rica was for relaxing in the sun that finally showed itself for longer than for few hours in the morning. How tipical.
Any ways...I took the flight from San Jose to Panama very early on the morning of the 25th and from there to La Habana. You will hear about my adventures in Cuba next time.
Take care,
El Guapo

Pictures from Costa Rica

2005-10-25T02:34:00.000+02:00

check out some new pictures from Costa Rica here!

Volcan Arenal

2005-10-22T01:11:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I took a daytrip to the Volcano Arenal in the north part of Costa Rica. After a short stop at a Costa Rican souvenir shop and lunch, we arrived at Arenal. It was quite spectacular because it was not raining (for a change) and we could see the smoking volcano allready from a far. It looks very much like you expect a volcano to look like. Like a cone that somebody bit the top of. After a short stop at some hotels where some my fellow travellers were staying the night, we went to the Tabacon hot springs which are with out a doubt the most spectacular hot springs I have ever been to. Kind of like I would imagine Paradise to look like.After we had a fantastic Dinner Buffet and drove back to San José. Unfortunatly, it became cloudy that evening so we could not see tha volcano at night. Even so, a really memorable trip. Today I walked into town with Ben (form Norway) and we bought a canopy tour for tomorrow...that will be interesting!

Tabacon Hot Springs

Wake up call

2005-10-21T18:51:00.000+02:00

Finally I got my card from Visa so I can do something again. I already booked a day trip tomorrow to a very active volcano. It´s called Arenal and is in the northern part of the country. However it is still raining a lot so my hopes are not to high regarding the weather. I´ve got my fingers crossed and hope I will be able to see the Volcano which is supposed to be quite spectacular with lave running down it´t slopes. I have been following the path of hurricane Wilma for the last couple of days and it looks like it will pass over the northern part of central America, Beliz, Honduras and Guatemala, on it´s way to Cuba and then Florida. So it seems that I made the right decission pospone my Cuban trip. Just hope that there are no more hurricanes on the way.
I have not been doing anything really here in San Jose and I did not go out of the hostel for 3 days after I was mugged. Ther first time I went out it was together with my roommate from Germany and we went to the supermarket. After I got my card yesterday I had to go to the ATM machine to take out some money, and I must say it was not easy. Even if it was in the middle of the day and there were lots of people around. I can´t really describe it but I felt like every one I passed on the way were potential muggers and might suddenly jump at me and demand my credid card. My heart started to beat faster and and my palms were sweating. Even two dogs in a fence that I passed could sence this. They were just laying there half a sleep, minding their own business when I walked by, then they jumped up and began to bark at me. At first I thought it was maybe not me, but when they did the same thing as I was walking back I was not in doubt. Dogs really can sence fear, if you ever doubted that! I had to go to the ATM again that day and I was seriously thinging about asking someone to walk there with me. But, I didn´t and this time it was much easier. The dogs did bark again though...but only on my way back.
Having something like that happening to you does make you think about your life, about what you are doing with it and where you are heading with it. I sure have had nothing but time to think the last few days and I´m sure there will be some changes in my life when I get back "home"...whereever that is! I have allready decided to cut at least one month of my trip...probably more. I hope to be in Brazil in the beginning of february and then heading back to Denmark in the beginning of March.
For those of you who are still reading...take care,
Jón
p.s. more very soon

Everything right is wrong again

2005-10-14T17:26:00.000+02:00

Well, time to let ppl. know that I´m alive. The last days have, however, not exactly been a walk in the park! After a long and tiresome flights to San Jose (via Miami) I got a pick up from the airport and was shown to my room at the hostel. It was not the main part of the hostel but a house on the other side of the street belonging to the same hostel. I had booked a good room just for me for the first night so that I could be alone and get over my jetlag. It seemed that I was the only one in this part of the hostel so it was nice and quiet and the room was fine. Unfortunately things moved rather ("rather" beeing the understatement of the year) down hill from there. I asked the guy in the reception where I could get something to eat at this time of night (it was 22:00). He thought for a moment and then told me about a Costa Rican Restaurant just down the street few blocks and then to the right. Ok, easy enough I thought I´ll just go there have a quick snack and go strait to bed. But there I made my first mistake. I just walked out in search of this restaurant without making any of the precausions I normally make when going out alone...can you see where this is going? It was probably because of the jetlag that I was just not thinking straight so it was basically my own fault running into three muggers just down the road. What happend next happend very quickly: They demanded my money (as muggers do) or else!, and as I was not particularely interested in finding out what "or else" was, I gave them my wallet. I did however ask then very politely (as one does giving the situation) to leave my creditcards and just take the money. This just seamed to make them mad so I just said ok ok ok and slowly backed off. Then they ran away. I spend the rest of the evening calling Denmark and Iceland to cancel my cards, getting them to send my some new ones. So now I am stuck here for at least two or three days more while I am waiting for my cards. I have always wandered what I would do in this situation and unfortunately...now I know! Afterwards I was a little bit surprised how calmly I acted and did not panic. The worst part of this story is that it could so easily have been avoided. If I had gone to the main part of the hostel in the beginning I would have found out that they have a kitchen there that was still open. I´m still mad at the other receptionist for not pointing that out to me. I even asked him why the hell he had not told me about that...and he answered: "the food is not particularly good over there". Then I strangled him! No I did not actually do that, even though the idea did briefly cross my mind. Also If I had been thinking clearly I would have left my credid cards at home and just taken a couple of dolars for the meal.
I suppose I could wander about the what ifs until the end of the earth but I am determined not to let this spoil my vacation. I might have to cut it a little bit short though. Not only does it cost to get new cards but the muggers also managed to use on of the cards before I could close it...so all in all this sets my back about 4500 Danish krona or about ten days in spending money.
Other than this I am fine and am planing to find out what I will do with the rest of my time here, when I get my money that is. I guess the Diving course is off, for the time being at least.
Until next time,
Jon

Now is Strange

2005-10-11T22:29:00.000+02:00

Well now I´m off on my "little" trip, and thease words are written on a Internet café in Madrid. It feels a bit strange to be finally on my way but in a good way:). The trip here was good inspite of some hickups in denmark as I was starting. The metro "broke down" for 15 minutes and the conveyerbelt at the check in was also broken for about 15 minutes also!!. I was beginning to think: "So that´s how it is gonna be" . But then all of a sudden...vamo and everything has run smouthly since (7,9,13) . I was a bit dissapointed in the flight...we had to buy our own food and it was not cheap I can tell you! Then they showed some horrible programs on tv, TWICE! and if you wanted to hear something you had buy a headphone or have your own. Nevermind. I´m staying at a 4 star hotel in Madrid with breakfast included so I´m good ;) . Well better rap this up before my hour is up. Big day tomorrow!
Hasta la Costa Rica

p.s. Skítkast is now number 4. on www.kvikmynd.is everybody check it out!

Experimental Film

2005-10-05T00:51:00.000+02:00

It worked finally after three hours in front of the computer with my friend Oskar the computer genious/Hekkenfeld Guitar guru, to set up a videoblog. Pretty cool stuff:)! I just hope I will be able to use it in South America inspite of out of date, and slow computers. You can already check out the first test here. It is a video I made of my brother in Iceland this summer using my Canon Power shot A520 digtal camera. If you are thinking about doing this yourself then try this link.
Apart form this breakthru, planing for the trip is going according to plan except I have terrible cold. Hope I will be able to shake it before the week is over.
hasta la pasta

The World Before Later On

2005-09-27T23:37:00.000+02:00

Just a quick note before logging out for the last time here at Hótel Reynihlíð. I have had a fine summer inspite of the weather being unfavorable a lot of the time.
For the next couple of weeks I will be in and out of an airplane 5 times so time of travelling is upon me. So if there is anyone who wants to join me on the whole trip or part...now is the time to speak! ;) Take care for now and NOW I'M GONNA HAVE A BEER!!!
Juan

Snowball in Hell

2005-09-23T23:07:00.000+02:00

Devastating Hurricanes in the USA, winter in Iceland in the middle of september. What is the world coming too!!!?? Now we have almost 10 centimeters of snow in Mývatn and -2 degrees celcius. The same time last year it was sunny and +16 degrees. Some ppl. say that this is caused by global warming but I choose to call it GLOBAL WARNING! There you have it: A new term. Remember you saw it first on my page;). It kind of means: "Face it world, we are going to hell in a handbasket".
Anyways, to less morbit things: After work I'm planning a little snowball fight with the rest of the staff to celabrate that I only have 4 working days left! jiiihaaa! "Same time" next month I will be relaxing in Costa Rica with a margarita (almost rhimes) getting ready to visit Fidel in Cuba...(incidentally, me and Castro share the same birthday,Well how about that!). Well, I´m gonna see if I can´t get the drunk norwegians to go to bed so I can blow this joint...metaphorically speaking of course.
Hasta la Rita.

This man
has a very
cool birthday!
So why is
he so
serious?

Narrow Your Eyes

2005-09-14T16:24:00.000+02:00

I was commenting not long ago that my travel plans had changed. Well, here are final travel plans for Denmark and South America:

2005
30.Sept. Mývatn - Akureyri - Reykjavík
1.Okt. Reykjavík - Keflavík - Copenhagen
11.Okt. Copenhagen - Madrid
12.Okt. Madrid - San Jose, Costa Rica(via Panama City)
25.Okt. San Jose,Costa Rica - Havana,Cuba(via Panama City)
4.Nov. Havana,Cuba - Quito,Ecuador(via Panama City)

2006
10.Jan(ca.)Quito,Ecuador - Santiago,Chile
Then I will travel to Patagonia (south Chile) and then Argentina and end up in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
16-17.Apr. Rio De Janeiro - Copenhagen (via Madrid)

There you have it! Any comments?

Torres Del Paine National Park,Patagonia,Chile

Mývatn Open

2005-09-06T20:13:00.000+02:00

I was in a golf tournament last saturday. I came in as number 15 of 32 players, not bad considering they lovered my handicap from 30 to 24!!! So having a 30 handicap did not help me at all!....fore those who think that now I might just as well be talking swahili here are some nice pictures I took just before the tournament started.

No One Knows My Plan

2005-09-05T23:03:00.000+02:00

Back on the news desk here in Mywater where absolutely nothing is going on! (a contradiction in terms if I ever wrote one). So, actually I´m just back at the desk with time snailing on. However, I did realise today that I´m going to Denmark in a month and then to South America. So I have been surfing the net looking at possible places to see and things to do. There will, very possibly, be a slight change of travel plans but as it is not official yet I´ll keep you in the dark for another couple of days more. I will give you a hint though (for you clever ppl out there this is a dead give away, but what the heck):

Hasta la turista,
Juan El Guapo

When It Rains It Snows

2005-09-02T17:57:00.000+02:00

Last weekend I took it upon myself to travel "all the way" to Akureyri. It turned out to be a good thing. I staid for two night at a friends place (thanks Tóta & Palli) in Akureyri and on saturday night we had a very nice dinner (lobster as a starter and rudolf the reindeer as the main course). As the lobster was brought to the table I decided to have a piece of toast on the side; but then disaster struck! I broke a tooth! (on a piece of toast...think about that!) I excused myself from the table to assess the damage. The tooth had split almost in the middle but since I was not in any pain at that moment I decided not to say anything to my hosts so as not to spoil the dinner (which was, by the way, the best meal I have had in a long time). Now you are probably wondering what was the good thing about all this. Well, as I was in Akureyri (as opposed to Mývatnssveit) it was easier to get to a dentist which I did early monday morning. After three hours in the chair and som kind of a bloddy miracle the dentist managed removed the piece that had broke of and somehow made another piece in its' place, and she did this relatively without pain. RESPECT I say, respect! I took a couple of days of work which I survived mostly on mouthwash and painkillers but now I´m back to Mywater and it´s buisiness as usual.

Friday night was also "interesting". I got a call from two Erna & Silvia, who work at the hotel, and they asked if I wanted to join them at Kaffi Akureyri. As I am not the type to refuse and offer from two beautiful spanish girls (now I will surely get a comment;) I got a lift to town and joined them. Half an hour later we went to Sjallinn to dance. After little over an hour on the dance floor I had a very sobering experience. I realized that I was probably 20 years older than EVERYBODY in there. I getting flash backs from my highschool years! I would have had to drink alot to get drunk again so I opted for the less expensive option and left.

Well enough for you to chew on for now (no pun intended).
hasta la dentista

p.s. When it snows in August there is something seriously wrong!

2005-08-26T16:56:00.000+02:00

Grein um Hekkenfeld
í Fréttablaðinu í dag 26.08.05 !

Memo To Human Resources

2005-08-22T08:00:00.000+02:00

I read in Morgunblaðið the other day that hugging was good for your health (mental as well as phisycal)...something I was well aware of but something not everybody knows. I therefore took it upon myself to declare the 20th of August, here at work, as Hugging Day.
It was generally well received by all even though some people just laught. But I would say that it was a great success. On person even said that she wanted all days to be hugging days.
I reccomend that you do this at your home or workplace or both and I garantee that the day will be a good one! :)

The other day, the reception staff went for a night out. We had dinner at Hótel Gígur - which by the way has a very big and nice restaurant - and afterwards we took a drink in Sel Hótel. I was working at 23:30 so I was the driver for the night. It was a fun night and there was a big party at Kata´s place afterwards and everybody was there...except me :( . Here are some pictures from the occation.

And now for the weather report: Rain, windy and bloody damn cold! What is the world coming to!!??

Older

2005-08-16T15:02:00.000+02:00

You're older than you've ever been
And now you're even older
And now you're older still
tmbg

Last saturday was a very busy birthday indeed. To begin with I had a "bit of a party" the night before in Reykjavík and had to sleep very fast before joining some other passengers on a sleepy flight to Akureyri. There I met my sister (and sons) who drove my to a birthday coffee in Brekka (the family manor). It would be a bold-faced lie to say that I was the life of the party. I managed to have one slice of birthday cake, one other cake and a biscuit and then I sat down in the living room and rested my eyes for a while. I took the bus back to Mývatn at 18:30 and was back to work around midnight. What els did I do in Reykjavík...let me count the deeds:
Saw Árni´s (I drove with him to Reykjavík) and Sigga Lára´s new flat; a pretty cool place in the center of the city.

Met a lot of friends...would have liked to meet more friends (you know who you are;)but that´s the way aha aha. Went to see Four Brothers (a movie, not me and my brothers) with Halli. Walked around town, did lunch, brunch and so on and so forth, bla bla bla. The last night after the party I went to Ölstofan and there....eh...never mind. Anyways, a good trip.
thats all folks,
hasta la pasta
p.s. remember to check out the Askja pictures below

Askja 2/8 2005

2005-08-16T00:08:00.000+02:00

The pictures from my Askja trip are here!

2005-08-08T22:51:00.000+02:00

Hverfell

2005-08-08T22:50:00.000+02:00

Náttúrulega 4

2005-08-08T22:49:00.000+02:00

Náttúrulega 3

2005-08-08T22:48:00.000+02:00

Náttúrulega 2

2005-08-08T22:47:00.000+02:00

Gamli Bærinn

2005-08-08T22:46:00.001+02:00

Hotel Reynihlid

2005-08-08T22:46:00.000+02:00

Hótel Reykjahlíð

2005-08-08T22:44:00.000+02:00

Sigrún,Tinna,Guðbjörg,Konni og Villi

2005-08-08T22:39:00.000+02:00

Náttúrulega 1

2005-08-06T19:12:00.000+02:00

This is a little test to see how "hello" works to put pictures on my blog ....this picture is called: "Hummm..."
"Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind." Basically, it's made up of two separate words - "mank" and "ind". What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind."

Moving to the Sun

2005-08-06T07:41:00.000+02:00

I´m going to Reykjavík next week for three days. I leave on tuesday for the "big" city and go back to Akureyri on my birthday 13th of August. If there is anyone over there who would possibly want to meet me for a cup of coffee or something like that, then let me know and we´ll get together and feel allright :) I´m hoping that I will be able to celabrate my birthday over there on friday but don´t know excactly where that should be...hummm...anyone have any ideas?. We´ll see, I´ll let you know. Well ya´ll, take care for now.
Hasta la pasta
p.s.
Þess má geta fyrir þá sem hafa gaman af slíku að hér hefur verið eindæma kallt að undanföru svo elstu menn muna bara ekki neitt enda hálf kalkaðir greyin. Nú í morgun kl. 06:00 var 2 stiga hiti ....jææææks!!!
Smá íslenskt innskot..."svo elstu menn muna" virkar ekki alveg á ensku (so that oldest men remember!!??!?!) Jæja nú er ég farinn að röfla...best að drífa sig í háttinn enda nógu andskoti stutt þar til ég þarf að fara að vinna aftur!!
h.l.p.

Destination Moon

2005-08-05T06:19:00.000+02:00

Finally I managed to kick myself in the ass and go to Askja as have have been planing now for quite some time. I had been invited by a good friend of mine Pétur Gíslason to go with his Jeep on a guided tour to Askja. We started kind of late as we had to wait for a german couple that were coming from Akureyri. One of them was a doktor at the Hospital in Akureyri and she came directly from her nightshift. Respect! The other two girls were their friends from Germany. Then there was me and the guide Gunnar. We started rather late, around 09:30 but took it easy and never rushed, a good thing. It was a big adventure to go on this kind og trip and see all the unbelevable landscape...even for an icelander.
There is no wonder that the astronauts came to this area to rehearse for the very first moonlanding in 1969! After a lunch stop in Herðubreiðarlindir and a fantastic walk through the amazing Drekagil (Dragon Gully) we came to Askja Caldera and Víti. It takes about 25 minutes to walk from the parking place to the caldera and what a sight as we came over the last hill.
Of course we then "crawled" down (pretty hard to get down actually) into the carter Víti and had a nice bath. Around 22:00, after a fantastic trip back stopping at Möðrudalur, we drove into the sunset over Mývatn tired but happy about this great trip. I can really recommend this trip to everyone.
I took some pictures (with a camera I borrowed from the guide) and hope to be able to post them on the my page soon. I also bought a new digital camera yesterday so you should expect some more pictures in the future. That is as soon as I have figured out how that works.
More very very soon.
Hasta la pasta

Reprehensible

2005-07-30T18:40:00.000+02:00

The big icelandic summer fiesta "Verslunarmannahelgin" is upon us and what am I doing? WORKING!! I had a chance yesterday to go out "on the town"(or rather village) as I was not working untill 15:30 the next day. It was not for the lack of wanting or the lack of people trying to get me to do something, but I was just so tired that after 2 beers at Gamli Bærinn(The Old Farm) I went home and slept until noon. That was my verslunarmannahelgi. Two stinking beers! Please don´t tell anyone about this or my reputations will be seriously damaged ;)
But let's not delve more on my boring and monotonous weekend but tell me about your proficient and surpassing weekend :)
Hasta la soðin ýsa!

P.s. There are some good pictures from our Jónsmessa festival here! (click on Jónsmessa)

Absolutely Bill's Mood

2005-07-29T06:46:00.000+02:00

I've been reading some great books lately. One of the authors I have been very fortunate to stumble upon is Bill Bryson. I just read his latest book titled: A Short History of Nearly Everything It is a kind of rough guide to the science history of the world. He tells the the story of the life, universe and everything, in an interesting, easier to understand and very funny kind of way. Bryson is however more know for his travel books and I just started reading one of those: Down Under. It is, to say the least, immensely funny and at the same time very informative. So it you want to laugh and learn then i recommend his books. I can not resist the temptation to add a small excerpt from Down Under:
"Broken Hill was a positively delightful little community - clean,trim,cheerfuly prosperous. Unfortunately this was not at all what we wanted. We wanted proper outback: a place where men were men and sheep were nervous....This wasn´t the outback at all. This was Guildford with the heat turned up."

If, by any chance, you are not into hilariously funny travel books or non fiction, then I can recommend The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, which tells you about a woman in Africa, Botswana to be exact, who decides to open a decective agency. It is funny, makes you think, but most of all makes you want to go to Botswana! Maybe I´ll do that after South America. :)
Well, now it´s time to go home and sleep for 7 hours before going back to work...nice!
hasta la pasta

Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes

2005-07-21T02:39:00.000+02:00

I wrote a blog yesterday a mile long but then I did something wrong (apparently) and woopsy...all gone (maybe just as well as it was kind of boring).
Anyways...a long long time ago in a galaxy...no wait...ehh...I have forgotten what I was writing before...this is what the graveyard shift does to you.
I made an unexpected stop i Akureyri on my days of. I was planing to take it easy in Myvatnssveit and maybe go on an Askja Tour, but my brother managed to persuade me to go with him to Akureyri after golf and grill (GG) in Ásbyrgi Saturday evening. Not a big deal apart from that I did not have any extra clothes or my toothbrush as I had been expecting to go back to Mývatn after the GG. After 3 days I was beginning to feel a little bit like an outdoor festival guest wandering around aimlessly in the same clothes. Well I managed to do a couple of cool things in Akureyri, such as:

* See the movie Madagascar ***
* Buy new pitching wedge
* Buy golf shoes
* Eat good food
* bla bla bla
* and so on so forth

I´m going to an Emiliana Torrini concert on next sunday night in Akureyri so if there is anyone interested in joining me then just let me know :)

The hekkenfeld CD (the whole CD or individual songs)is now available for downloading at www.tonlist.is. Please check out our new blog webpage here.

I´m beginning to do some promotion for TMBG (I´m a member of their Street Team) So If you want to know more about the band or be a member of the Street Team (with benefits) then let me know and I´ll send you some information.
I´m planing to have an introductory TMBG party in august so if you are interested then sign up here :).
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS IS MORE THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS FANS.