Wonderful Jamaica!

Yah, MAN! Jamaica Maaan!

(photos coming soon!)

We got up really early, checked out from our hotel, and took off in a nice Lada taxi.. I thought the Cubans were good drivers until our ride to the airport! They drive as maniacs!

Anyway, we got to the airport, remembered to pay our airport tax (25 CUC) and took off!

Jamaica here we come!

When we got to Jamaica, we actually had a little problem getting past the immigration checkpoint!

We had to try three times (the third one was the lucky one!) first we had not filled in our hotel, as we did not know which hotel we wanted to live in, they said we had to have a confirmed booking so they knew where we were going to stay, I thought that was kind of weird, as we are backpackers, and I myself prefer to see the hotel before I choose to live there.. Anyway, we had to go back to a tourist”office” where they helped us find a room at a cheap hotel in Montego Bay, Gloriana Hotel & Spa, then we tried the immigration again, and this time they found out we had been living in Mexico for a while. Then we were sent to the health department or something like that, just so they could ask us if we were infected with Malaria, we told them we had not been to any area in Mexico where there was a Malaria threat, and they stamped our visa and told us to try the immigration again.. This time it worked! Wee! We were in Jamaica!

We went to the atm, and were pretty confused! How much was a Jamaican dollar worth? Same as the US? Doh! I thought 600 dollars probably was enough for the first days, but how wrong was i?

600 J$ is about 13 NOK, or 2,3 USD! Hehe.. doh!

We took a veeeery short cabride (got suckered, paid 10 USD for the trip) and it was over in about 3 minutes! We should have known!

After arriving at the hotel, we found our room and the biggest double bed I have seen in my life! HUGE!

We went looking around, thinking that Montego Bay was a huge city, as it is known as Jamaica's 2. biggest city after Kingston, but Montego Bay was not so huge, the part closest to our hotel was the “Hip Strip” where all the bars, hotels, and beaches were, and we saw very few people, and it looked like the businesses had little to do other than to try to hassle the few tourists walking around into their shops.

In Jamaica, you have to say a lot of “No thank you`s”, as you get asked if you want to buy just about anything! If they don't have it, you don't need it! :p

Montego Bay is really just a laid back place! The beaches are incredible, with water as clear as crystal! Tons of fish swim around by the corals, we even saw some squid, and a huuuge Barracuda!

The shopping is ok, a little expensive compared to Mexico, and a lot of little Indian shops trying to sucker you with unreasonably bad prices! And they talk shit about the local shops, just to get you to buy something from them.. Bad way to run a business if you ask me! :)

The weather in Jamaica was fantastic! 32°C everyday! We even got a little more colour!

We took a trip to the local tourist office, and they helped us with some trips, the 3. day there we went on a Crocodile Safari up Black River, we saw a couple of crocs, and then a HUGE one! I don't think swimming in this river is a good idea! Our guide told us a lot about the river and about the huge “dreadlock” trees there, and the special birds living in the area.

A nice trip, a little bit short if you ask me, I would have loved to been on the river a little longer..

When the crocodile safari was over, we went to YS falls, plenty of really nice waterfalls, and the water was actually warm! :)

The next day was 6. february and you all know what day that is, right?

Yeah! You guessed it! Bob Marley's birthday! And we were lucky enough to get on with a tour bus going to Nine Mile where Bob Marley lived, and was buried! This was a trip I had been looking forward to, as I have seen a great video on youtube, I hoped to meet the incredibly funny tourguide working there!

And we did! He was just as funny as on the video!

Seeing where Bob lived and the places he sung about, and seeing the burial place was almost a religious experience! The pictures in his room shows he was a real guy, singing about real stuff. And at Bob's pillow, the rock where he used to rest with a joint in hos mouth was also pretty cool! :)

Bob Live!

After the tour, we hung around by a restaurant/scene, where they did some practice sessions for the memorial concert that was going on there at night. Cool music! Cool atmosphere, and just perfect weather! :)

On our way back we saw Rose Hall, where it is said to be a ghost of a former inhabitant, Miss Rosa Parks, she killed 3 housbands and a lover to gain their fortunes, and she was known for being quite evil.

Other than this, we have mostly just relaxed on the beach, gone shopping, and have been eating well!

We found a cool place where they had great pizza, at Jamaican Bob sled restaurant, they show the movie Cool Runnings on repeat, they have sponsor clothes for the Jamaican Bob sled team! Funny place!

Oh! We also had our first KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) in Jamaica! I wish this place was in Norway, I think it would have done well there!

We met a crazy gang from Canada, and went out on a wild night, first going to The Brewery, where the Karaoke was crazy, and one of the Canadians sung his shirt off, and shocked the people working there so much that they gave him a free bottle of champagne! :D After eating, we took off to see Jamaicas casino, which was a little disappointing, as they only had slotmachines, and no real games! I want to play poker and blackjack if I am to waste my money, not boring slotmachines!

After having a quick look in the casino, we were supposed to go to Margaritaville, Montego Bay's party place, but there were hardly any people here.. So we decided to check out another place, called Pier 1.

Pier 1 was crowded, loud, and full of people in all ages! The old creepy guys watching the young girls was not a plus.. We were there for a couple of drinks, then headed back home in one of the local “taxis”

A tough night out, we fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow! :D

The last day was spent on Doctors Cove Bathing Club where the beach is just amazing! We had a great breakfast and got some snorkelling and sunbathing done!

After a relaxing day we fell quickly asleep and took off from Sangster International Airport the next morning! :D

A week was not enough time in Jamaica, I would have loved being there another week!

La buena vida

The life on Isla Mujeres is great!
The reason the posts are running a little behind is just that the beach is soooooo good and the sun soooo hot that sometimes I just have to prioritize a little bit in Islas favour.. I will have a huge update here again soon, hope you will check back! :)

Bye for now! Just got a fruitshake at Comono, a great restaurant with Hookahs(waterpipes) :D

-D-


Ps: here`s a little teaser of whats to come in the update :)











Curious yet? :p

Oh.. And a Happy new 2008 to you all! :)

Finally at Isla Mujeres!

Allright! We are finally here!
After taking the cab from Guanajuato to Leon (cost 300 Pesos) we had to wait there for 4 hours until the plane left for Mexico City, cold and boring at the airport, but we managed fine! :)
Then it was off to Mexico City and we only had time to run past the McDonalds and Burger King at the airport, to Merethes regret.. :D She was hungry!
After running to catch the plane, and after a couple of hours on it, we arrive in Cancùn! But our bags did not! Everyone else got theirs, and we did not! :(
After waiting some more, we got to talk to a supervisor, and he found the bags on another plane, so we had to wait 15 minutes more for the bags to arrive.
We thought some breakfast would be nice, so we ordered 2 cheeseburgers and something to drink, and were shocked when we had to pay 290 Pesos for both.. We can tell we are not in Guanajuato anymore, this here is the tourist area! If you wanna play, you gotta pay!

Anyway.. After getting our bags (woohoow!) we took a cab from the airport (560 pesos !!!!) to Puerta Norte, where the ferry was just about to leave.. 35 pesos (cheap!) to take the ferry from Cancùn to Isla Mujeres, and it's only a 30 minute ride with the express ferry!
When we got there, we found a suitcase carrying guy who helped us with our bags so we could get to Poc-na, our hostal. I talked to the guy and asked him if he knew of any apartments around here for rent for a month or two, he said yes, and we arranged to meet him wednesday to go look for one..

Playa Norte @ Isla Mujeres

Oooh.. guess what, we have wireless internet at the hostal! Sweet!

Check out the view from our room at the Hostal!

It only took us about 30 min before we ran into some friends we met in Guanajuato! We just missed Mirit, as she left Isla on monday.. too bad!

Ooh.. We thought the hostal was a little expensive, so we went out looking for another place to stay, since we are staying for a couple of months, at the first apartment we saw, they wanted 10000 Pesos/ 1000 USD / 5000,- NOK which we thought was reeeeeally expensive!
But after a little looking around we found a place where they had a nice one for only 4000 Pesos/400 USD /2000,- NOK! Sweet!
So tomorrow we are moving from Pocna!
Will post pictures of the new place as soon as I have them!

Me relaxing in our hammock at the Hostal

"Sorry we are open" :D

Penguins @ Isla Mujeres
Merethe packing and looking like she has a lot of work to do!

Sundown @ Playa Norte!
Abandoned car in the streets of Isla Mujeres

Is this some new rule? First we have to put all liquids in small plastic bags, and now it's illegal with lighters as well? Looking forward to when everybody has to go naked because of "the terrorists"

This sign was by our boarding gate.. A little late to tell us no guns or knives, no?


More to come! Keep checking in! :)

A wonderful trip to the beach!

Maruata is beautiful!
There! I said it!
I'll even say it again! MARUATA IS BEAUTIFUL!


We were getting a bit ready for the beach, and when we heard some friends from school were going, we were allowed to tag along with them.. :)

Check out the slideshow i made from the trip!
(thanks to Heidi for downloading the Zumba music)



We started at 21:00 and left for the Central de Autobus in Guanajuato, there we took the PrimeraPlus express to Leon, which takes about 45 min.In Leon we had to wait for the other guys/girls to show up.. They had bought the tickets for us. :)
They show up around 22.00 and we have to wait some more, because our bus to Colima was not leaving until 23:30.
Luckily for us, the bus we were taking was 1.class, airconditioned and had comforable seats.. :) We wake up around 06:00 and quickly get on the next bus leaving for Maruata.. That took around 2-3 hours, also it was more comfortable than you would think..
And when we first arrived it was a warm, pleasant beach we layed our eyes upon!

This place doubles as a beach/turtle reservation.. :p In the daytime there are a few people enjoying the beach, but it's not too crowded. And in the night, the seaturtles crawl up on the beaches to digg big holes to lay their eggs in.

This was the only turtle we saw on the beach.. :( (a rare and endangered animalcrackerturtle)

We were told that some of these eggs usually got stolen by thieves trying to make a quick buck, but we did'nt even get to see any turtles, or egg-thieves for that matter... :(


The first day, we just had to buy a hammock, and instead of buying one each, we opted for the double one.. :D Fits 2 people easily! Comfy too!
It was actually too comfy, because I hardly got out of it after we bought it! :D
We got the other two couples to buy as well, probably because we were having such a nice time in ours.. :D

Anyways... The first night was great, we were a bit tired after the trip so we took a early night, around 20:00 (!!)


The next morning, I woke up early to catch the sunrise, listen to the waves and all inn all just enjoy the beach, but quickly found out that 2 backpacks had been stolen from one of the tents of our travelfriends.. They had gone to the toilet for 5 minutes, and when they came back, both their backpacks were missing from the tent.. :( SUCKS!
They had their money, phones, mp3players and all their clothes.. :/
Luckily, we had enough money so we could share, and they had everything they needed.
Even though they drank mostly mescal, cheapcheap booze, (20 pesos / 10 Nok)
they were happy! :D

The beach was lovely, but now we always had to have someone guarding the tents so we knew our valuables were safe.. And we suddenly got more suspicious of the people passing by all the time..


As I was writing, the beach was lovely, and it had these huge kickass waves coming in all the time, with some crazy undercurrents, so we had to be a bit careful..
But the water was lovely, there were lots of different fish in the water, but they weren't that easy to spot because of the waves.. Merethe found a Blowfish dead on the beach, and I found what looks like a Barracuda head.. :p Maybe it was eaten by a shark? hehe.. who knows?

They had bathrooms and showers close to where we camped, and we had to pay 5 pesos for every time we used it.. a little expensive, but not to bad..

We drank and ate good fish at the "restaurant" on the beach, they had good fish there, even though it was a little expensive.. (70 pesos for a plate of fish, chips, salsa, lime, and some more salsa)
But it was good enough to return there, and I even got Merethe to eat fish!! (WOW!)

This night was a little more comfortable than the night before(it was hot as hell in the tent!)
but we still went to bed early.. hehe.. It must be the sea air or something.. Lazy days.. ;)

The next morning the unlucky couple found out that their sandals were now stolen, and had nothing to wear on their feet.. :( Really unlucky!
We got more suspicious, but got the others to watch our tent while we took a little walk to a nearby hill.. After walking some steps, and through some bushes we came to the top, and WHAT a view! It was really beautiful!
And next to our beach was another nice area where we found a little cave through a rock, a huge cove with some scary waves and some more huts.

We also found out that the local "shops" weren't what you call too tourist friendly, they need some more stuff in their shops.. a little more choices would be nice.. But we survived! They had tostadas, salsa, and donuts, and of course Beer! :D

The day went by quickly, and the next morning nothing was stolen from the camp and we all felt better! :D
We enjoyed yet another lazy day in the hammock, doing nothing but swimming, eating, drinking and relaxing :D Oooh.. life is tough!
I bet a lot of people back in Norway are a bit envious right now! :p hah!

In your face for not joining us over here! :D

Anyway... we ended the night with playing Pantalones, the dice game (rules can be found in an earlier post) and all got drunk and merry! Pantalones is a dangerous game to play! Everybody gets drunk, and gets to know the "Pinche Sombrero" (which in our case was a Tuk from Canada)
"Pinche Tuk" :p






We got to bed, and were drunk and sleepy, but something was weird when we suddenly woke up and heard voices and saw shadows..
Merethe heard something touch the tent and she screamed for them to get away, I woke up, screamed as well, got my devilstick and kept looking out, but saw nobody..
We slept with one eye open and didn't get the best sleep in the world..

The next day when I was laying in my hammock, I noticed something with the tent, it was cut at the front corner...

The bastards actually tried stealing something through the hole that hey cut!
Luckily for us, we had no valuables close to where the hole was. (Note to self: Keep valuables in the middle when sleeping in tents)
I had some tape and taped it so the ants and mosquitoes didn't come in through it..

But now we tought it was maybe time to get going before we lost anything else... Not to fun to leave such a beatiful beach, but a real shower would not hurt to much either.. hehe

We left around 15.30 and took the bus to Colima, but were stopped on the way, there was a army checkpoint and they were checking "everyones" bags and suitcases for drugs, weapons and other scary stuff.. They were very eager to find something illegal (probably so they could get some bribe money, and scare the tourists a little) But they had nothing on us and had to let us go! :D hah! In your faces!

After this little pause in our bustravels, we finally got to Colima a couple of hours later.. Only to find out that the last bus left 1,5 hours before, but the next one was only 9 hours away and as we already felt as real backpackers, we took a trip to Colima to the giant market they have there! It doubles as a market for cows, horses and other farmanimals.. They even had a quad bike circuit if you wanted to go driving.. :D
There was also a huge fare there, with lots of different rides and horror houses and whatnot..
After eating and looking around for a few hours we took the bus to the center of town to get some cash and eat some icecream.. :D Colima was a nice town, but very quiet at nighttime.. a bit boring actually... I prefer Guanajuato over Colima anyday.. :D

Anyway.. as we had to wait until 04.00 we went back to the Central de autobus, bought some beers and got comfy by some benches.. :)

The time went by fast, and before we knew it we were on the bus to Leòn.. Yet another comfy busride.. not much to complain about on the buses here..
Arrived in Leòn around 0900 and quickly took our last bus to Guanajuato..

Guanajuato is a bit cold now in the evenings, and we could really feel the cold after sleeping on a hot beach for the last few days! Brrr!

I miss Maruata... *sob*

Oh well.. In December it's Isla Mujeres! (the Island of the Ladies)

Check out miss stretchy!

Louis and his best friend, Mr.Tequila

Playing Pantalones

Louis (one of the guys who got robbed) was hungry as hell, and we had just bought him some fries, he was happy as hell, he put on a lot of mayo and salsa and ketchup, and was just about to sit on his chair, when his friend moved the chair, and he fell on his ass, losing his fries, and being covered in salsamayoketchupfries.. Boy was he pissed..
So his friend bought him another plate of fries and Merethe and Sara gave him everything he needed. He smiled a lot after this! :)

Sunrise in Maruata, with one of the local ladies cleaning the beach.

More of the sunrise...

Merethe showing off!

Nice, eh?

Nice, eh?

Far down here, and nothing but big waves to land on!

Omg, teh Crabz0rz!

Some kind of vulture looking birds, there were a lot of these!

More pictures in my facebook gallery, will be coming back soon with a little Spanish update, so pay attention, and visit once in a while! :D Maybe you'll learn something?