The World Tour!

NASA was supposed to launch its space ship Endeavour way back in June, but it got postponed. They kept on pushing the date farther and farther, until they decided upon 11th of July. And we wanted to be there and witness it all! We planned to see the launch before we drove down to Miami. We packed up some stuff and drove towards the coast. Since the launch was gonna be in the evening we had booked a night in Melbourne, but when we got to the hotel we were told that the launch was postponed to the evening after! Bummer! And we already had a hotel in Miami for the next night. We decided that we would stay and see the launch the next evening and then drive down to Miami afterwards. So we spent the first day on the beach soaking up the sun. The next day we drove to the Kennedy Space Centre, and it was crowded! There was so many people there because of the launch that was gonna be that evening. We half rushed thru it all since both of us really hates crowds. But it was really interesting! NASA actually owns a lot of land around there. They have factories, test areas, offices, landing areas, and much more. But most of the area is inhabited areas that has become a wildlife habitat where the animals can thrive and be safe from hunters and other threats. It was therefore a lot of alligators in the small creeks next to the road, I even saw a couple of turtles there. There were a lot of birds as well, we actually saw a huge birds nest which we were told belonged to some eagles and that it was just as big as a king size bed!

Still hours ahead of the launch we found a good spot to see it, just by the water. And ass time passed more and more people came. A couple of feeding dolphins came and entertained us for a while when we waited. They were so cute! When it was 10 minutes left before the launch we heard someone with a radio say that it was cancelled, again. Incredible disappointed we grabbed our stuff and rushed to our car. Smart Morten had parked so that we could just drive directly out on the highway. And there was already complete chaos on the road! But we were on the road before most people got to their cars, so the traffic wasn't that bad down to Miami.

In Miami Morten had booked us in on The Catalina hotel on South Beach. And it was really gorgeous! Besides the great location the hotel was nicely decorated! Our room was a mixture of old and new, and all white and read. Really stylish! The restaurant downstairs was really original as well, so not the boring typical American style that every other hotel have had. The first day we spent at the beach, and South Beach was just as I imagined; skinny girls with big booties, silicone boobs sunbathing just in their tiny strings. Hehe... That evening we dropped by the infamous Miami Ink, Morten had a horrible tattoo on his shoulder that he wanted to cover up. They told us to just come by when his sunburn was gone (yes Morten, there was other than me that said u were sunburned, hah!), and that he needed to figure out what he wanted to cover it with. Giddy like a schoolgirl he told me afterwards that he wanted the Apple logo! Weird weird man. I tried my best to search on the internet for other ideas, but he had made up his mind. So a couple of days later we went back, just when they opened and he got it, his beloved apple on his shoulder It took about 15 minutes to go it, and it turned out great, at least better than the thing he had before :p But to my disappointment none of the guys I've seen on the show was there, what a shame.

But Miami was a gorgeous city, what we got to see anyways, we took a walk down Ocean Drive, did some shopping and enjoyed the city. Even though we got the hotel cheap it was an expensive trip! Food and drinks was really expensive, we used between 120 and 170 dollars each day!

To our delight Endeavour was not launched while we were in Miami, but poor astronauts that got strapped into the space ship two days in a row before they were cancelled mere minutes before the launch. They were finally postponed until they day we were leaving Miami, so we drove up to the Cocoa beach again to watch it. This time there were not nearly as many people as the last time, probably because it was not on a weekend. The last half hour before the launch we sat and listened to the radio where we could follow the progress, and it was so exciting when we sat there listening to all the experts giving the launch a: GO! And when it started up, it was so fascinating to watch! That was totally awesome!

On the way ´home´ to the house we saw something that looked like a starting tornado. That was kinda cool too, but didn´t look like it was gonna build any larger, which I´m happy for. Snapped a couple of pictures of it, nice!

In a week I am actually home again! Shit! I´m really looking forward to seeing my family and spending time with them, but I don´t feel like I´m ready to go back just yet! I´m loving it out here!

Uploading pics from New York right now, still way behind, but I´m getting there...

XOXO, Gee

Except for the road trip to New Orleans I haven't written anything about my travels since Cuba. But Morten and I have been back in the States for four weeks now. And it has been good! First of all, service! How great isn't it to get good service at restaurants, and stores, and stuff? The first encounter we had was at Alamo when we picked up our rental car in Miami. The man behind the counter was just so genuinely nice and helpful!
When we drove up to Kissimmee, just south of Orlando we drove thru a huge storm. And it was a lightning storm greater and more fascinating than any fireworks on either 4th of July or New Years! I had my face pushed up towards the windows to see it all! Amazing! But then the rain started hitting even harder, and it was difficult to see the other cars around us! We drove super slow, and had the emergency flash on, but it was kinda scary! Luckily we drove out of the storm. We've seen quite a lot of strong storms like that, but none of them have been serious. I can't even imagine how it must be to be caught in a serious one, a hurricane or something like that. And there have been a lot of them around Kansas and Texas this summer.

But what have we been up to? A bunch of stuff.... Morten and I have season passes to Universal Studios, so we've been there a couple of times. It is amazing how they have built their two theme parks! So much of the stuff I had in my Experience Economy class at CBS makes sense! Cool to see it and not at least, experience it! Morten is not that found of rollercoasters and stuff, and the lines have been so long that I haven't been bothered to stand there by my self. But we were supposed to try this one thing, it's called 'Jaws' and it's Oceaneering that have built it and in charge of maintenance, so we had to try it! And there was 1 hour waiting time for it... after 1/2 hour the stupid thing breaks down and we ended up going out of the line. Good job there Oceaneering! :p In Universal they also have a restaurant called Bubba Gump, which is based on the movie Forrest Gump, and their seafood is so good there! So we've been eating there every time we've been there. We also saw the third Ice Age movie there. That was probably my favorite one!
We have also been to another theme park called Sea World. It is easy to see that the tourist industry is struggling, even in Orlando, because, like many of the other theme parks the purchase of a one day ticket got us entry for the rest of the year. Bad for the industry, good for us Sea World was really fun! I love to see animals and to learn about them and this was a good park to do so. During the popular killer whale show with Shamu the trainers told us about how they train them and how their daily life is. In the Dolphin Cove you could get a closer look at the dolphins. They even had a shallow pool for small manta rays, here you could buy food for them and you were showed how to feed it to them and pet them. They were so slimy! And best of all they had several large sea turtles that all had been hurt in some way and were rescued and now lived good healthy lives! Some had scars, some were missing some loafers, poor guys!

What else have we done? Morten has been busy in the real estate business. In may he sold the house that we are staying in, but the paperwork has been taking so much time that the buyers haven't taken over the house yet. But it has been frustrating for him, because the company that is supposed to take care of it all is so slow! It takes them forever to fix everything with regards to taxes and stuff. Even more than a month after the process started they they come to Morten asking for details that they should have asked for initially. So that's been frustrating for him. In addition we have been looking at other houses for him to buy, which I have been enjoying! It's so much fun to go house-hunting! Especially with the amazing houses they have over here. Unfortunately for Morten, houses/condos with 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms are not that common. And now that he knows the area better he is a bit more picky about location. So it might take some time.

When we've been here we've spent quite a lot of money on rental cars, so he's been looking at buying a car here. And they are crazy cheap over here! But then there was the insurance issue... He would have to pay at least 1200 dollars a year for insurance! But he was told that it would be cheaper if he had a US drivers license. So he made an appointment to get one. First he had to had to take a short test where he had to answer some questions before he was ready to take the practical test. A censor got into the passenger side of our rental and they drove off. Morten told me afterwards that the test was crazily easy! he had to drive on a short corse between some cones and show that he didn't hit them and could break and stuff. The teacher had actually asked him if he was a race car driver or a professional driver of some sort! Hahaha... But it is crazy that their test is not harder, it seems like they should have a bit more practice before the 16 year olds are let out alone in the car! Something they at least should teach them is that slower vehicles should drive to the right! Annoying! So Morten got his license and called various insurance companies again, but the price did not improve much! And the reason? He was put in the same category as a 16 year old that just got his license! And it did not help that he has had his Norwegian one for more than 13 years! We'll see what happens...

There is a lot of alligators here in Florida, and Morten likes to scare me with stories of them taking kids and dogs. He took me to Gatorland where I could look at them up close. Besides gators and crocks they had a lot of animals, everything from turtles, flamingos, snakes, sloths to a petting zoo. Morten made good friends with some of the goats there :p But we got to see gator wrestling and feeding. Good fun!

Besides this we have been doing a lot of stuff around the house. Been relaxing and sleeping in, getting a tan and working in the garden. I've been making a lot of wok with lots of delicious veggies! Even Morten loved it! he refused to believe it was healthy, because it tasted so good! Yeay on me!

I'm still way behind on uploading pictures on Facebook, but yesterday I uploaded more from Stephs and my road trip in Cali. But there's more to come!

Tomorrow I've got 1 week left! Shit! Not ready to leave yet!

xoxo

As I mentioned last time, Morten and I have really been enjoying getting back to the States and Florida. When I am writing this we are on our way back from a 4th of July celebration i New Orleans. It is quite a long drive, and just like a kid, I need to keep my hands busy in the car. I might also just have a sugar rush after the pancakes I just ate at IHOP. :p But I´m making good of the 10 hour drive, so I'm writing for the blog in stead. Good girl.

Early last week I mentioned that we should try to celebrate USA's Independence Day like the Americans do. Since we're here anyways. And then Morten came up with the brilliant idea that we should do it in New Orleans. We've already talked about driving up there anyway, so why not do it now? Almost all the hotels were full of course, but we managed to book one in the end. We started driving 3rd of July and wanted to stop by Panama City on the way, Morten had heard a lot of good things about the city and from pictures on the internet it had an impressive beach stretching along the coast. But when we got there the city was packed with people!! So we quickly decided to keep on driving and get as close as possible to New Orleans. Like I mentioned, the drive is at least 10 hours long, and more than 1000 km. On the way up it was even longer since we drove by Panama City. (And yeah, we've been talking a lot about 'Den vesle tigeren som ville til Panama', Morten does the voices really good :p ) On our way to New Orleans we actually drove thru most of Florida, spent the night in Alabama before we continued driving thru Mississippi and finally reached Louisiana and New Orleans. Haha, and Morten got pulled over by the police! We've seen a lot of them along the way, stopping speeders, but Morten got away with a warning. The cop only stopped him to let him know that he needs to move over to the other lane when vehicles are standing on the shoulder. Phew...

Before we got into the centre of the city we could really see that they're still struggling in the suburbs after Hurricane Katrina that destroyed so much of the city several years ago. Entire neighborhoods looked empty, lots of destroyed roofs, while some houses were almost completely smashed. I've heard and seen it on the news, but it was weird to see it with my own eyes. After a nap at the hotel, we dressed up and took a taxi in to the center. And the city was packed! Morten had been here a couple of times before, so he knew his way around. It didn't take me a long time to notice that we were almost the only white people there! It was strange, I thought I was used to all the African Americans here, but now were were almost staring when we saw other white people :p But it was fun to look at the African Americans, how they look, dress, do their hair and make-up. They all looked so good, with cute dresses and all. We found a nice restaurant that evidently had a long history in the city, and it was packed! There we got gourmet food for almost nothing! But both of us was mostly looking and listening to all the African Americans in the restaurant, they were so entertaining! We finished just in time to go down to Mississippi river to look at the fireworks. There was a lot of people down there already, families with small kids and all... people were gasping and cheering as the fireworks went a long, but I would have thought that it was gonna be even bigger and better. But they might be saving up now in bad times...? After that Morten took me up to Bourbon street in the French Quarter, and wow, what a street! People were getting drunk and crazy, and loud music was coming out of all the bars down the street. But I was a bit disappointed, New orleans is known for its jazz, but very few places actually played it. Morten said that they had exchanged a lot of if for 'black, horrible, boom boom music' as he calls it. That is hip hop and r'n'b if you didn't know :p But it was good fun walking down the street anyways! The day after we went in to the centre again and walked around the city. Took a stroll along the river, went to the French Market and looked around in the French Quarter, which is so beautiful! And in the marked i found a picture and some masks that we have at home. Dad, ever been here before? :p We also wanted to go to the Armstrong park, but it was under reconstruction, so it was empty. But it was crazy hot walking outside! Around 37 degrees, so it was way too hot to be walking around, and finding some shade to walk in didn't help much either! My dress was almost completely wet from sweating when we got back to the car! Nice!

But we had a great trip to New Orleans, totally a city I would wanna go back to! But not in the middle of summer! When we left today they were awaiting some storms, it was already raining and the lightning was putting on a good show. Then it's better to head off to 'The Sunshine State' Florida.

But as I've said before, traveling with Morten has been really good, and at least not boring. Early on we concluded that he was a musical genius, he had a special gift to pick up and recognize songs. Even the local stuff in Peru, and the Spanish music in Cuba. So humming to any tune is something he absolutely can do! Or really?!? Yes, we love sarcasm. So on this roadtrip we have been singing aloud and in-tune with all the songs on the radio. The loader the better! The more annoying the better! :p But we're having fun, being silly and really really childish, but is there anything better than that? :p Like now, Morten figured out that there was an uniformed police car in front of us, so he slowed down a bit and kept a bit of distance from him. And then we sat there waiting for other cars to come driving fast past him. But sadly, for us, the other cars also discovered that it was an undercover car. All of them jumped on the brakes and pulled up behind the police car. Bummer :p We've also found a 90's channel on the radio, good fun! And the bands I don't know the names of he comes up with clues to let me guess their names. I got a painfull clue when 'Winds of Change' with Scorpions came; he let his fingers crawl on his thigh before he pinched me hard in the arm. When I complained I got a simple answer; 'well, scorpions bite hard'. But when we found the Elvis channel on the radio he impressed me greatly with his knowledge of all the songs. Evidently something he had picked up from his dad when he was younger.

There is still a lot of stuff before the 4th of July that I haven´t written about yet, will try to do it withing the next few days.

Lots of love!

G and Morten

Or really?

Cuba was one of the places I was looking the most forward to, and so did Morten. Which was one of the reasons why we ended up travelling together. But sadly we were both deeply dissapointed about what this island had to show us.

We had had some lazy days in Peru to re-charge our batteries after all the trekking we did in the Andes and in Machu Picchu, so we were ready to discover the beautiful Havana when we got there. When we landed in Havana Kilroy picked us and three other Norwegians up and drove us to our hotel for the two first nights. This was all we had planned, so after that we were free to do what ever pleased us... But driving to and getting our hotel got me a bit apprehensive, the beautiful city I had heard so much about was just a dirty, smelly, badly held city. This was nothing like I had imagined. But I kept positive and thought that there had to be more. After walking a bit around we finally sat down at a restaurant that looked somewhat okay, and there we had our first bad cuban food and our first mojito. The Cubans are supposed to have the best mojitos in the world, and that is my absolute favourite drink in the world, so I was looking forward to this!! But the firt one we had was really really bad... Day two all of us Norwegians had a guide that took us around the city and told us a lot about it. That was nice! And we finally got to see the Old Havana, the Havana I had imagined. And the guide gave us a lot of useful infomation as well. Like that we should not step on any wet spots in the streets, cuz that´s most likely to be sewage that has leaked from somewhere! Ehh, nice! We should also be aware of people that wants to help us, they want money from you somehow, either they expect you to give them some or they´re gonna steal it. But he took us to Rum museum, where they showed us how they make Havana Rum, we also got to taste some. He also took us to a place where they make chocolate, they are supposed to have the best chocolate, but it could not compare to our excellent Norwegian chocolate... He also took us to a place where they sell cigars. Cuban cigars are known to be the best cigars in the world, so we took the chanse and bought some! Even though we knew the US customs would take them from us if they found them. And the best of all, he took us to the hotel where Hemmingway stayed the first time he was in Cuba, and this place served the best mojitos in entire Cuba. And I gotta say, it was good! The reason why Cuba has the best Mojitos is because of a special herb they use instead of mint which only grows in Cuba. But I do think that the mojito I am used to is better than the Cuban... After the tour both Morten and I liked the city, but felt that it did not live up to its potensial! And a lot of the problems stems from the comunism. The city could have been SO beautiful if they would have renovated it! Fixed up more of the ´falleferdige´buildings! And the way it is now is that no one is allowed to buy or sell properties, then the inhabitants does not care to fix and care for their buildings.

Another thing, extracting money here is extreemly expensive! Since many banks have American ownership any transaction that is made here has to go thru many baks throughout the world, which increases the interest on the transaction. A fee of INSANE 11% had to be paid when subtracting money! And if we exchanged money they took 20%! Crazy!

The guy who took us around the city was also able to help us with booking of hotels and stuff and was able to give us discounts. The Norwegians we met in Peru told us about an all-inclusive hotel in Varadero that was both cheap and good, so we decided to go there for some R&R for a few days. And we were looking forward to some lazy days in the sun, being pampered and getting some good food! After an expensive busride up there we came just in time for lunch. The lunch was not impressive at all, but we figured that we had been unlucky that day. But we quickly figured out that we hadn´t been unlucky, their food was just THAT bad! After lunch we would know what we would get for dinner, and they had some very exciting stuff for every meal; spaghetti, tomatoe sauce, roasted pumpkin and rice. Everyone who knows me know that I´m not a picky eater, but this was really really bad. Morten even concluded that it was an excellent way to diet and become thin! :p But it was not just foodwise we hated that hotel, we experienced, more than once, that they discriminated on us because we were not latin or talked spanish. They served everyone else in the bar before us, and stuff like that. But the sadest thing of all, 3 out of 5 days they did not even have the herb that is needed to make mojito! They pride themselves with having the best mojito in the world, but they are not able to make it! Really bad. But the good thing was that I finally could work some on my tan again, it had been about 1 1/2 months since Fiji and the last time I had been suntanning, so my tan had faded uite a bit. But now it came all back again Poor pale Morten got sunburned the first day and had to spend the rest of the days in the shade! :p The beach and water was absolutely beautiful! Loved it! So if the hotel hadn´t been as shitty we would probably have stayed longer in Varadero. But we were tired and wanted to see more of Cuba. But the dissapointment had been so big that we already had contacted Kilroy to make them change our return tickets back to the US, so that we could fly back a week earlier.

We planned our last days in Cuba, and rented the most expensive car ever. It cost us about 1200 kr for two days! But we took all our luggage and drove off to Santa Clara. And it took us a lot longer time to get there than we were told, we saw the memorial place where Che Gevara is buried and decided to drive further down to the coas on the other side, to Cienfuego. We had seen on CNN that there was supposed to be tropical storms in the Caribbean, and possibly hitting south on Cuba. So I was a bit apprehensive about driving south, but we just drove on! We met some crazy thunder and rain storms on the way, and I screamed a bit every now and again out of fear to make Morten drive slower. But when we reached Cienfuego this proved to be a nice little city that we emediatly liked. We checked in to 5 star hotel, but the bad service was still present! Their system was down so we could only pay in cash, so we drove in to the city again to find an ATM. Morten sat in the car while I went off to get the money. I have never felt more like a piece of meat than there. Everyone stared at me, and shouted comments after me, how they liked me, where I came from and stuff. I ignored them all, kept my sunglasses on and walked quickly with confidence. Luckilly no one approached me. Finally in the hotel we were looking forward to and hoping for some good food over at the palace, that was used as their restaurant. I had to try their lobster, but Morten was not feeling very good so he hardly ate anything. Yet again, the food was not good... Neither was the service.
When we got back Morten is really struggling, he is really nauseous! He tried to get something up, but couldn´t do it.... And then it came! And it didn´t stop.... I didn´t feel to good either, but a couple times on the toilet was enough for me. Poor Morten kept it going all night long.... At 5 in the morning we were out of water and toilet paper, so I went down to the reception to get it. Water was easy enough, the bas was open all night, but toilet paper was more difficult. Thereception was closed, but there were two security guard there, but surprise surprise, they did not talk any english at all! I tried to explain in many different ways, finally I went to one of the toilets to show them. They found a maid and sent her in to one of the toilets, and she came back with a handfull of paper that she had rolled off the big roll. I tried to explain that we needed more, and after a long ´discussion´ they finally found some. Jeez! The service in that country!! The next day Morten felt a bit better, and it was no doubt that he had been food poisoned. But since he had spent most of the night in the bathroom he slept most of the day. I kept occupied with my book and took a walk up the street to the store. And again, all the men I walked by came up to me and said nasty stuff. At least this one guy after I told him that I didn´t speak spanish, he started talking away to me in spanish, and I totally got that it was not nice! I was glad there was lots of traffic and people around so he couldn´t do me anything. On the way back I went on the other side of the street, but be saw me and ran over to say more stuff to me. In the end I had to flip him the finger and start jogging away! What do they expect? That I´m gonna come with them and do stuff? Stupid people!

Then we drove back to Varadero to deliver the car and we checked in to another all-inclusive hotel there. A 5 star. An expensive 5 star! But for the first time in Cuba the food was.... not good.... but not bad either: We got served ok food, and I was happy about it. How sad is that?? What else is ubelivable for me is all the europeans that travel all the way to Cuba just to stay at an all-inclusive hotel where they don´t get to see anything else than the hotel and their beach. They could have travelled to the Canary islands for a lot less.

We returned to Havana and had two nights there before flying off to the States. At a 4 star hotel, and yet again, the service is really sucky! At breakfast they were all out of orange juice, they only had grapefruit left, so when we asked for some water instead we were told it was not included, so no.

So when it finally was time to fly out of Cuba we were really happy to leave. The good vibe, the music in the people, good food , and all the other stuff I had heard about Cuba I did not find. Maybe we didn´t look hard enough, but we were taken by a surprise and our high expectations failed us. And for a country that rely so much upon the tourists it is not understandable to me how they can treat us with so little respect and service. Even though it was interesting to see how far behind Cuba is in comparison to many countries, Morten and I felt that what Che and Fidel had done for the country might not have been for the best. Cuba has so much beauty and history that needs to be preserved, and now it isn´t.

We had to fly via Mexico, and one of the first things we did was to go to Burger King and have a good burger! And when returning to Mortens house in Florida we made lots of good food, fresh veggies, fruit and stuff! Mmmm....

I have to tell you about the car we´re driving now! It is totally awesome! It is a brand new Dodge Challenger. They have just started making the old classic again. People are watching us everywhere we go, and it is not unusual that there are people standing around it in the parking lot when we´ve been shopping or something. Good fun!

See ya guys!

Hugs and kisses, G

Peru was totally different from anywhere else I´ve been! When we landed in Lima we were met with people all covered with mouth protectors, I guess cuz of the swineflu, but I got a bit paranoid about it.... We took a taxi to our hotel, and we figured out that we had gotten a nice (expensive) cab. But we were glad, because the other ones were so shabby!! Driving thru Lima was an experience.... The houses was so dirty and half finished and shabby, if people were crossing the road the drivers would accellerate so the people crossing had to run away to not get hit! :p After a while the neighborhood improved, and we got into a nice city centre with restaurants and hotels. But still, when we were out walking we really had to be careful! Like I said, the cars seemed to accellerate when they saw pedestrians... I felt lucky to be alive everytime I crossed the road successfully. :p

In Lima we met up with the other people that was gonna be on our trek. And we had our first briefing about the trek. The day after we flew up to Cusco which lays aprox. 3400 m above sea level. We were gonna stay here for two days to get used to the altitude. And we could really feel it! Walking up to our room on the 4th. floor was extremly hard! The second day in Cusco there was a strike, basically everyone in any profession was striking. The government is evidently shit here... But because of that we could not go to the Sacred Vally like we were supposed to do hat day. In stead we drove up late in the evening, spent the night in Ollyantaytambo and then spent some time in the Sacred Vally the next day. By now we had packed everything we needed for our three day trek. We had our day pack and a duffel bag that we could put 6 kg in... Still not a lot when that includes a sleeping bag and stuff.

Day 1, we got started a bit late because we went to the Sacred Vally first, and after some hours in a bus we were ready to get started! We carried our day packs and the horses/mules and the lamas carried the rest of our stuff. Along with us was our guide Johan (Chichu) and Jose, who was in the back. We really got to know eachother :p Besideds them we had a chef and a sous chef, a waiter, a tent person who set up our tents and 4 porters that took care of the animals. The first day we were starting off hard! We walked from 3500m up to 4100m. Straight up! And I was struggling like crazy! I really felt like an old woman walking, and as we walked further along I got more and more altitude sickness. Headache, nausea and shortness of breath. Halfway up the hill we were having lunch. So out of nowhere this tent arose, and when we sat down by the table we were served a delicious soup and another meal afterwards. We were just so impressed with what the chef had been able to prepare in the middle of nowhere! And then we had to walk even further up hill... I was way behind all of the others, and Morten helped me a lot. First he put all my heavy stuff into his backpack, and after a while he took my backpack and carried it on his stumack. Thank you!! A slight motivator was that we passed the only other group on the same tour as us, there were 3 girls that had to be carried with the mule. That motivated me and I thought that I would have to throw up and pass out and stuff before anyone could force me up on a mule. Stubborn as I am. I´m a very competetive person, and my selfesteem had already gotten a serious hit, so no way in hell would I get up on a mule! And then finally I reached the top! 4100 meters! On the way down everything was easier!! I was now walking in the front, but my altitude sickness just got worse and worse. I had to stop several times because I was close to throwing up... In the end, Jose helped me with some liquid that I had to inhale... So we made it to our camp at 3500m. in 5 hours and 15 minutes. I still felt sick, so I couldn´t really enjoy the wonderful food the chef had prepared for dinner. So by 20:00 i crawled in the tent to get some sleep. It was so cold! But we managed, and at 05:30 in the morning our guides woke us up again.

Day 2 was gonna be hard! We had a long day ahead of us! And luckilly I felt a lot better, only had a slight headache. After walking 20 minutes we stopped by this familly that lived in the mountains. These are crazy poor people that makes about 200 kr. a month! And when we got there they served us fresh potatos and trout from the river! There we got to see how they live in their small houses! I still cannot understand how they can live like that! One of the delecasies in Peru is Ginnea Pig (Marsvin) and they eat it for special occasions and stuff. And this family breaded ginnea pigs... And they had them running around in their house... So they sendt their youngest kid under the beds to pick one for us. After a cuddle, we paid for it and brought it for our chef so he could prepare it for us for dinner! :p Weird, but fun experience. Before we left the family we handed over gifts that we har brought for them. Morten and I had bought rice and tuna on can, which is stuff they don´t really have. They also got some oil, and other stuff they could eat, which they appreaciated a lot! And then we had to walk again.... up to a new mountain of 4100m. In the beginning I was cursing and being in a bad mood, I couldn´t imagine how I was supposed to finish our trek! But when we reahed the top and we started walking down it got better again. Down at 3500m again, we had a quick break to get some food into our bodies befor we were walking up to 4600m! The climb would take up 3 hours, and lunch in the middle of it... It was HARD!!!! Crazy hard! My only motivation was that one of the ofther girls in our group was struggling, so she was not as far ahead of me as earlier. Evil of me to enjoy her pain, but you gotta take what you can! Again we had an amazing lunch in the middle of nowhere! After lunch we had to continue up hill and then we finally reached the top of our journey, 4600m! I was so extatic, because I knew it was only downhill from here! And after more that 7 hours of walking we finally reached our camp at 4200m. Again it was amazing to see our little camp appear from out of nowhere in the middle of nowhere in the mountains! Since we got there early the guys had a football match against the porters, our guys lost off course :p That evening was the first time I really had an appetite, but we hd to wait a long time for the ginnea pig that we had bought earlier. It was actually alive all up untill they were gonna perepare it, I could hear it making sounds, and then it didn´t :p The ginnea pig was actually really tasty! But since it is so small we only got a little taste of it, suited me fine :p Morten was unfortunatly suffering from altitudesickness, so he was feeling really nauseous, so he went to bed (tent) before dinner. I felt bad for him, but it was so cold outside so I didn´t mind that he went and started warming up our tent... One of the couples in our group had their 10 years anniversairy, so for dessert the chef had made them a cake! We are still puzzled on ho they managed to make it! They only have a small tent to perpare our food in! Crazy! That night I wore my thermo pants and my trek pants, a fleece sweater, a hoodie with the hood up, my hat and gloves, and two pairs of wool socks. And then I put some more clothes in the bottom of the sleeping bag to keep my feet warm and my wool blanket that my mom has knittedaround my body. And it was COLD! In the beginning at least, but I managed to stay warm the entire night. In the morning there was frost on the ground and on our tent! Brrrrr... It had been -5 degrees outside that night! Smiley faced pancakes and coca tea for breakfast warmed us up.

Day 3 on our trek was my birthday, and I was just so happy that we were having an easy day in the mountains that day! We walked downhill for a couple of hours, and we knew we were done! That was really an enjoyable trek, everyone was in a good mood, fantastic scenery and beautiful weather! All along the trek we had met locals that live in the mountains, especially small children. Our guide had prepared us for that and that we should bring them small presents like colouring pensils, paper, marbels, bread, etc. And it felt so rewarding giving these small children these gifts. Often we saw them running either up or down the hill at an impressive speed to meet us. Already from a young age they got used to work and look after the lamas. Too bad for Morten and I, we had given all of our gifts away the first two days, and on the third day we met the most children, and now we also had more time for them. We were not allowed to give them chocolate, since they do not have the possibility to go to the dentist. But we gave them nuts, and granola bars that we had left. And I snapped so many cute pictures of the kids! Johan, our guide told us that around 40% of the mountain kids die before the age of 4! After meeting the family and all of these kids I really got a new perspective on things!
When we came down to a small village, our busdriver was there to greet us! We were all happy to see him again :p We got a chance to tip and thank all of the people that helped us on the trek and then we were off to Olliantaytambo. We stopped at this small house where our chefs were gonna make us ´the last supper´:p While we were waiting we drank some beers and played a game called ´coin in the frog´. A really easy game where we would throw heavy coins on a board that had holes in it, and every hole would give pionts. So much fun. Wanna make it when I come home! And after dinner I got a cake too Kinda expected it since the other couple got a cake the night before. Johan told me that it was a tradition that the birthday-girl had to take a bite of the cake. I wasn´t that keen on it, but you can´t argue with tradition, so I leened in to take a bite.... And then I felt a hand in the back of my head pushing my face down in the cake! It start laughing while he does it, so i managed to blow most of the frosting off that side of the cake! Hehehe.... Luckilly I didn´t get too much cake on my face Again, good cake!
Then we took the train up to a town called Aguas Calientes (Hot Springs). So when we got there we just got ready and ran up to the hot springs. We were a bit disappointed, but what the heck, that was the first time we had water on our bodies in 3 days! After dinner that night I sat down on my bed and opened the cards I had gotten from my parents and from my sister and her family. They had sent them with Morten when he came over to travel with me. I opened them, and I cried, and I cried, and I cried. It was nice to feel how much I really missed them! My sis even sendt me some pictures of the kids! Loved it! Thank you so much; Mom, Dad, Sis, Morten, Viljar and Marin!

Day 4 we got up at 4:30 to be able to get to Machu Picchu before sunrise. Machu Piccu was beautiful! It´s so amazing that they were able to make that city back in 1536 (or something). Johan took us around and told us a lot of stuff before we had some free time. I decided to walk up to the Sun Gate while Morten took a nap in the grass next to the lamas. He did not feel like walking anymore! While suddently had tons of energy! I even ran all the way down from the Sun Gate. Afterwards we went to the Inka Bridge, which was one of the paths the Inkas had to get into the city. I´ll tell you, they were crazy thouse Inkas! Btw, Machu Picchu was a temple where ther Inka priests lives, and the mountain means; ´where the old people chew coca´! Haha.... While the other mountain next to the city was called Wayna Picchu, which meants ´mountain where the young people chew coca´. Crazy people. We had chewed some coca on the trip, and it is supposed to make you more energized, not tired, hot hungry and some more stuff. Everyone in this country chews a lot of it! But they say it´s not addictive... But this is the stuff they make cocaine from.... well....

We compared our trek, the Lares trek, to others that had taken the Inka Trail, and all 8 of us agreed that our trek probably was the best. Our trek was not crowded like theirs and we got to meet a lot of locals, which really meant a lot for all of us! Our trek was also more challenging due to the altitudes we were in! I think their highest piont was 4100m.... And we had a night at a hotel before Machu Picchu which meant that we were well rested when we were there. So if we were satisfied with our trek? YES! Really recomend it! But work out in advance and take pills for the altitude!

After Machu Picchu we took a train and bus back to Cusco. And after a long hot shower we all went out to eat. Afterwards most of the people went back to get some sleep since we had gotten up so early, but Johan draged some of us to a ´discoteque´ :p They had some salsa music on and the locals were SO good at it! After a while everyone got on the dancefloor and we had an amazing night! Impressive that we managed to dance that much after all that hiking! But we were just having an good time!

After some relaxing days in Cusco, Morten and I are leaving for Lima now. And then tomorrow we are flying off to Havanna, Cuba! That is gonna be nice!! Just relaxing and enjoy the island and the sun! I need to work on my tan again!

Lots of hugs and kisses from G! And Morten, I guess :p