Hi
I know it's been a long time since my last update, what's my excuse this time. Well my mum found it, when she had not heard from me in over a week, she likes to know that I'm still alive.
To say it mildly she was shocked at the content, she got the impression that all I do is drink. Yes drinking is a big part of traveling and I do part take when I can and it's a good way of getting to know people. Nobody is as honest as a drunk person and that's when the best stories come out. I love hearing other peoples stories.
So where am I know and where have I been. If I remember correctly in my last update I was on my way to La Serena, with Andy and Kelly from England
Can't check online since I'm currently in a car with my Mexican family on our way to Mendoza a town close to Orisaba in Vera Cruz.
How did I end up here, you ask.
In La Serena we met Leif a Norwegian-American from San Fransisco, he didn't speak one word of Norwegian, but his Father who did to much acid back in the 70s was from Norway, he did not remember where. He came back to Santiago with us
Andy, Me, Kelly and Leif i La Serena
After a few days there, the brits had to go on a organised trip, Andy without his passport, even though the trip was going to Argentina aswell. Me and Leif decided to go some place and flipped a coin to decied where. The coin told us to go to Valparaiso, the second largest city in Chile. After taking the metro to the wrong place and walking around for a long time we took a taxi to the bus stop, where we were suppose to go. Took the first bus to Valparaiso, meet some cool people there, inlcuding an Australian girl who spoke fluent Japanese aftet a few years there, her brotherand and a guy from El Paso who lives in Rio. Even though he lived most of his life right across from the Mexican border, he told me he used to buy lunch there, his father is Mexican and his mother spoke Spanish, his Spanish was useless.
Julian from El Paso, Me and Leif in Valparaiso
We stayed there for a few days, made some good food at the hostel, inlcuding a steak Brimi(famous Norwegian cheif) style. After that Leif headed south hoping to meet up with the love of his life, a British-German girl he'd met on a trip a month back. Acording to him it all started with her stalking him, he has a facebook photo album called "my favorit stalker", with a bunch of pictures of him taken by her from a distance.
Me on top of Valparaiso
After Leif left, I went to Vina del Mar, for a few days, met som okay people there, hungout with them for a few nights, then headed back to Santiago for a few days. It was then that I realised it was time to move on. So I said goodbye to all the cool people at the hostel and took a bus over the Andes to Mendoza in Argentina.
Taken from the bus, while crossing the Andes
There I stayed with a Columbian 20 something writer/translater, pretty cool guy. An American named Greg from Pennsylvania was also staying there. We got along great.
We both stayed in Mendoza for 4 nights, we all drank until morning the three first nights, the last night I stayed back and took it easy. Watched all the episodes I'd missed.
After that Greg and I decided to go on together, he had arrange for us to CS a couch in Rio Cuarto, Cordoba. When we got there however, we could not get a hold of him on the phone, so we checked into a hostel, the only one in town. We found a nice italian restaurant with a couple of old mafia looking guys. Good food, great atsmophere. We stayed there for one night, then I headed of to the capital in Cordoba, Cordoba. While Greg was of directly to Buenos Aires.
I came to Cordoba, late at night and called up a hostel that looked okay, they had room, so took a taxi there. In the street in front of the hostel there was what I'm guessing was a prostitut, judging from the clothes she was wearing and the fact that the taxi driver laughed his ass of when I asked him about it.
The hostel was great, run by a couple of Israelis, who decided to open a hostel instead of returning home or getting a real job. hehe
I tried to go paragliding, but it was always to windy. So I ended up going with a one-eyed american hippi to drive ATV's
Me and The One-Eyed Hippi, ATV'ing outside Cordoba
I met him the day before and we started talking. Turnes out he had quite the story. First he had lived 3 months in the most famous ghetto in Mexico City, Tepito
He googled "earthquake resistand barrio Mexico City", after developing a fear of quakes..
Had been chought growing over a hundre marijuana plants in a national park in California along with a friend, by armed DEA-agents. While on bail and locking down the barrel of a 10 year sentence, in federal prison. He thought himself everything he would need to know about computers to be able to live on the run. The ability to send untracable E-mails etc. Something that would serve him well in future. This was back in the early 90s
His sentence was reduced to 5 years and realising life on the run was not worth it, he went to jail.
There he read everything about his case and found a loophole and appealed his case, while on appeal however you are not convicted, so he was tranfered from medium security, to maximum. His cellmate in maximum was an IRA member who had escaped from the Maze back in the 80s and was cought with a fake driverslicens in Texas.
He also made friends with a bigtime drugsmuggler, who's ship was intercepted by the American Navy somewhere in the Carribian on it's way to Vancouver and 64 tonns of hasish was found. Biggest drug seisure in history. I have there names, but can't put them in my blog, but trust me I have googled them and the drugsmuggler who after being released, is now in jail in Spain for a major cocaine smuggeling case. I think the IRA guy is out aswell, but unable to return to his homeland.
He was almost killed his first day in maximum, after insulting another inmate, during a game of scrabble. The guy was going to stab a pen in his juggular. Seeing as it was his first day, the guy luckly didn't act. So if your ever in Maximum Security Federal Prison in the U.S. don't question the rules in scrabble, it can get you killed.
Had lots more to tell, but these were the most interesting parts. Last I heard from him he was somewhere in Bolivia, the same place Butch Cassedy and the Sundance Kid, supposedly were killed.
Update: Got a mail from him, still in Bolivia. Now he's living in a cave, trying to live of what he can find, in competition with the goats. He made a machete from a a piece of car suspencion. Carries it with him everywhere, even to the bank, says he gets great service.
He was Santa Claus on Christmans, drinks mate(local tea) with the local police officer and is trying to go as long as possible without showing I.D.
After Cordoba I went to Rosario, the third largest city in Argentina, there I CS'ed with Facundo or Facko for short. Great guy.
Facko speaks Spanish ofcourse, he also speaks English like a brit, French and a little Swedish. Although he had never left Argentina.
I was the last person he hosted, the reason is that he is now sailing the seven seas or he's working on a cruseship.
The first day, I came on a Friday, he took me to a bar were his band had their last gig. He's the lead vocalist
Free food, drink and entry. He even had a song in Swedish, strange sitting there in a bar in Argentina and being the only one to understand the lyrics
Me and Facko in front of some famous monument i Rosario
We went to a resturant, which the locals call vomito, because you eat so much meat that you puke. I didn't
I stayed there the weekend and had a great time.
After that I took a bus to Buenos Aires or B.A. as the travelers call it.
There I met up with Olav a good friend from back home, he'd been studying spanish at a local school for scandinavians. first we stayed at this expencive "hostel" with a pool, but no spirit what so ever. After 2 nights there I checked into a cool little place just down the street, where I payed about half of what I payed at the other place. they did not have a pool, but lots of sprit. The hostels are in San Telmo, one of the oldest barrios(neighbourhoods) in B.A.
It was nice seeing Olav again and meeting his Norwegian friends, but to be honest they were really killing my traveling-spirit. Didn't travel across the world to hangout with friends from back home. So when Olav and 3 other Norwegians headed of on a journey I stayed in B.A. I will have plenty of time to hangout with Norwegians when I get home. Sometime in the spring, if everything goes as planned, not that I have that much of a plan
Me, Marius, Olav and Simen
I stayed in B.A. for about 2 weeks. Didn't really do to much to be honest. A few days after Olav left, me and another Norwegian Marius who had stayed behind at the hostel decided to go parashuting. The first day we went there, it rained so we waited there for about 5 hours for it to clear, it never did.
However when we got there the next day, the sun was almost shining and conditionos were great.
We were several nationalitis represented. Two Norwegians, one British, a Chinese-Malaysians couple and three Israelis. Funny fact the Malaysians can't enter Israel, it says so in their passport.
We picked papernotes from a hat to decied the order, I was picked second to last.
Don't think I've ever been so nervous, but it's worth it. I can't really describe how it feels to jump out of a plane at 3000 meters and fall freely to the ground for 35-45 seconds, at a speed of several hundre kilometers, before the instructor opens the shute, but you get the picture.
I also went cykeling around Palermo, a nice neighbourhoos with a Portugesh, Polish, Irish girl and my friend Zach from California. You can read a great story he told me in the previous post.
Me jumping out of a plane at 3000 meters
Also met some cool people in B.A.
Albert from a little junge city a few hours from Kinsengani in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he made his living in the music buisness, making beats and stuff.
A Taiwanese woman who had worked as a Mandarin teacher in Honduras during the coup, she was very suprised that I knew the difference between ROC and PRC, people are always supprised about what I know. Do I really look that stupid? hehe
A woman from The Nederlands who had lived several years in Norway and spoke a pretty good Norwegian, she was with a Scottish-British-Australian who worked in the petrolium buisness. He had been to Norway with her and always complained about how expensice it was.
A South-African sosialist who was in Latin-America to learn about the revolution, she's in Venezuela now.
Cludio a Urugayen/Argentinian who lives in a campingcvan in Spain, who was home to work and see his family. We were a few people talking and the subject of parants came up. Mine are not that interesting. We live in the town were my father is from and my mum is from the town next to it. hehe.
His father however was a revolutionary back in the 60-70s and had robbed banks for the Tupamaros. A former Urugauyen gurilla movment, the current president, "El Pepe" was a memeber.. When Cludio was about 13 if I remember correctly, his father had dropped him of at school and said that they were going to do something afterwords. That was the last time he saw his father. the Military junta put him in jail and dissapeard him, they never found a body.
After over two weeks in B.A. I had about a week to make it to Montevideo International Airport for my flight to Benito Juarez International Airport, Mexico City. So I decied it was time to take the boat across to Uruguay.
The closet city in Uruguay to B.A. is Colonia de Sacramento, also the oldest city i the country and a former pirate port.
I get there at night and, seeing as it's the middle of the week, I don't have a hostel reservation.
Mistake, turnes out that there is some sort of conference in town and every hostel and most hotels are booked.
At the third hostel I met Ian a brit with the same problem as me, so we joined forces and started looking for a place to sleep. after three hostels and one hotel we find a hotel with a room. Only cost 1000 Urugauyen Pesos for the both of us, about 400 more than a hostel bed. It's about 3.3 NOK for 10 Urugauyen Pesos
Walking around the city later that night, we see a lot of people with luggage walking around. So I guess we weren't the only ones without resevations.
One night in Colonia was enough and we took the bus to the capital Montevideo. After spending over 2 weeks in Buenos Aires, one of the greatest cities on earth, Montevideo was no match. After one night there. Ian and a Swede we meet, were of to Punta del Este, the biggest resort town in Uruguay. That was to much for me so I decided to find a more relaxed place. I looked around the brouchures at the hostel I found Punta del Diablo a few hours from the Brazilian border.
A relaxed fishing village 9 month of ther year, the other 3 months are big with turists, I got there just before.
I stayed at a hostel called El Diablo Tranquilo, highly recomended. The only problem was that it was a lot of Americans and Australians, all trying to reenact a college movie if you know what I mean. Another thing about the hostel, not really a problem, but everything at the hostel could be put on a tab. Including at the bar they had down by the beach. The only real bar in town.
View from the hostel
First night at the bar I met a guy from Peckham, London, former drugdealer, now crime repporter for some right-winged newspaper and a bunch of Uruguayen college students. Racked up a nice bartap
I also met a couple of Swedes from Stocholm. One was a photojournalist and had been to the Gaza-strip, Haiti, Afganisthan and many more.
Someone had stolen his bag with all his camera gear on the boatcentral in B.A. The other Swede was a former hip-hop artist, now bartender. Look up PeeWee online.
The photojournalist had some great stories from his travels, Gaza wasn't that nice. Met an Irish DJ who had manage to recive money weekly from the state and decided that he would get more for them in Latin-America.
And two Jewish girls, one was Swedish the other was Canadien, they had met when the Swede was an exchange student in Canada. Both their grandparents had to escape Russia after the Revolution. The Canadian, by way of South-Africa. Really interesting talking to them, because they see themself as first Jewish, second Canadian/Swedish. With us in this discusion I had a German guy. The girls tried to met up atleast ones a year.
I stayed there as long as I could, about five days, then put it all on my creditcard.
After my flightloss in Brussels I decided to go to the airport the night before, especially seeing as my flight left early in the morning. I get there at around 11o'clock and had about eight hours to kill. Slept a few hours, surfed the web and ate a couple of great sandwiches.
Then it was a flight to Lima, Peru, were I had to go through yet another security check. Took forever and I was sure I would loose my flight. I made it ofcourse, but you know me I always expect the worst. I get to Mexico, find my bags and walk out expecting to see my Mexican family waiting for me. How wrong was I. I get out and see no familiar faces. So I check the other 2 exits, nothing. I try to connect to the internet so I could call them using skype, but the receptions is to bad.
I end up havind to take out money, buy a phonecard and after several tries I mange to get a hold of Pasto, the head maecanic at my Mexican fathers garage.
He tells me that Paco my brother is on his way and gives me his number. I call and he says 30min, about an hour later he came.
Turnes out Fer my other brother had his Christmas party at school and my parants and little sister were there.
Christmas in Mexico.
It was very nice to see them all again, but at the same time I rememberd why I missed home so much when I lived there.
Independece is something very rare for Mexican youth, you live at home until your 30 and if your mother says jump you ask how high.
I know I'm overexagurating, it's not like they do it because they want to, it's just the way it's done here and I do still live with my parents, when I'm home.
My mother here still has only two ways of communication, talking very low or scriming at the top off her lunges, she preferes the later.
My little sister however was still as cute as I rememberd, it was especially great seeing her again. She's now six years old.
Before Christmas we went to Saltillo, were I am now, but more about that later. Here the brother of my Mexican father moved with his family a few years back.
Saltillo is about a 7-8 hour drive from Mexico City. We stayed there for a few days, then my family drove north to San Antonio, TX for some christmas shopping. Nuevo Lardo at the border with the U.S. is about 3 hours from Saltillo, Then a few more to San Antonio. I stayed behind, seeing as I'm backpacking, Christmas shopping in the U.S. was the last thing I wanted.
I went there once when I lived in Mexico and it was terrible, when I tell Americans that I've only been to one city in the U.S. they always ask me why would I choose San Antonio. To which I respond that I did not choose the city and that is the one closest major city to Mexico City.
While my famiiy were in the Texas I hungout with my cousin and here boyfriend Estefan. They took me to a museum to look at dinosaurs and we went to Monterrey. In Monterrey we met up with Eduardo, who stayed at Don Santiago when I worked there. He told me to look him up if I ever made it to Monterrey. We crused around the city listening to Datarock in his car and grabed a few great Micheladas(Mexican beer coctail).Both my cousin and her boyfriend work at a bar in the city. Called something El Cerdo(The Pig), went there one night and had some more great micheladas.
Daniela, Estefan, Me and Eduardo in Monterrey
My uncle here is a police commander and through my cousin I heard a story from when he was on patrol. It was the night that "El Chapo" escaped from prison a few days before he was suppose to be extradited to the U.S. on drug trafficing charges. For those of you who don't read the news like I do. "El Chapo" Guzman is the most wanted man in Mexico, the second in the world. He's the head of the Sinaloa Cartel and in the top 100 list of both the richest and most powerfull people in the world accroding to Forbes. While in prison after behing cought in Guatamala and extradited to Mexico, he had most gards on his payrole. Supposedly he told one gard that he was smuggeling some gold out of the prison. Instead of the gold that was suppose to be in the laundry trolley it was him. So an alarm goes of "El Chapo" has escaped. My uncle and his partner are both in their patrol veichle station in a town close to the prison. As the call came through, they see 4-5 pick-ups driving through the town, all with heavly armed men in the back. And when they say heavily armed men here, they mean Ak-47's. So there is my uncle and his partner sitting in their patrol car probably with no more than their Glocks and they have to watch the most wanted man in Mexico drive past and there was nothing they could do.
Maybe I'm to interrested in organized crime and it's effect on society. Strange interrest to have, I know. All in all Saltillo was great and I promised to come back.
Fernando, Karin, Me and Paco
After Saltillo it was back to Mexico, for Christmas. Which we spent at the grandparents. both Christmas eve and 25-26.
After that we headed to Vera Cruz and that's when I started writing this. About two weeks ago.
Like I said I'm now back in Saltillo, staying at the new house of Estefan and his friend. I'm sleeping on a matress in the living room.
They moved into a new house my first day here.
Cooking without gas, the first night at the new house
On Friday it snowed here and was below 7. They are always saying that I should be used to the cold, seeing as I'm from Norway. I try and tell them that we have these things called houses as well and they even have insolation, so that when it's cold outside, we can have it warm inside. Here all the houses are made of concrete, so when it's below 7 outside, if your lucky it's 0 in the house.
Daniella, Estefan and Miriam, Yes it's snow
I used 526 peos a few days ago and bought an electric heater for the house, seeing as I'm living for free I wanted to do something nice and it was freasing.
Estefan and his two friends are vegan, while a girl living here is only a vegitarian, which means that all food in this house is vegatarian and the food is mostly vegan seeing as we/they make food togther. Vegan food is supprisingly good, but all that pasta and rice, changes the way your body works.
No need for a fridge, when it's freezing and all you eat is vegetables and rice
I'm currently trying to go 24 hours without food to see if I can do it.
I have about seven and a half hours left. If my calculations are right. Had my last meal at 12 o'clock last night and it's now 16.30.
Stange that when I'm not eating I'm able to write this, I have not left my bed today, becides to go to the bathroom, not because I haven't eaten, but because it's so cold and my bed has blanckets.
Yeah so we were sitting in the car to go to Mendoza, Vera Cruz. My Mexican mothers uncle and his family live there and we've been many times. His son, Raul, my age so I call him my cousin. Has just become a father.
In Mendoza we mostly waited and watched movies. One day we get woken up at twelve, down for breakfast with real coffe, great.
Then we get told that we have and hour to get ready, I take a shower, but not until 7o'clock at night do we leave. Seeing as I had been away from Mexico for so long I had forgottern how much time we just spend waiting around from something or someone. I had my laptop with me and they had internet so I didn't mind the waiting.
We the cousins and my brothers would usually watch movies all night. All in Spanish of course, they really hate watching movies in any other language. I hate dubbing, but more about that some other time.
Then it was back to Mexico for New Years spent at, yes you guessed it, the grandparents. My favoritt uncles were also there, Gil and Carlos, they are married to the daughters of my grandparents. Great guys.
My uncles Gil, Carlos and Me at the Grandparents
Then on the 4th I took a bus here to Saltillo, 12 hours.
Since then I've been eating veganfoad. freezing and generally just hungout with the people living here. Estefan, his two friends Marcos and Elmo who both work at the bar and Miriam an artist supposedly famous here and in Paris, where she lived for a few years.
Estefan and his friends are 18, 19 and 20 and they live alone. Like I said very strange. Elmo justed tattooed "FREE MIND" on his fingers. Estefan has 11, Marcos 2 and Elmo 5 tattoos, if you count "FREE" and "MIND" seperatly. They also have a lot of pircings. The closest I get is a pirced ear I did when I lived here. Also the house has not varm water so when I want to shower I have to boil water.
My bed in Saltillo for the first night, got a matress later on
The people living here have just been to the corner store and bought snacks. It looks so good. six and a halfhour more and I can eat.
Who knows when I can put it on my blog, no internet here. Good for me, I use it to much. It's espesially bad when I'm are traveling, because some days I just end up chating with my friends back home all day or watch all the missed episodes.
My Laptop went out of power an hour or so ago so had to get out of bed and plug it in, now I writing this using the TV as a desk while, standing.
The next day
I did the 24 hours without food, then I had a couple of tortillas with rice and mustard and half a snickers. After that I went to sleep, woke up again later and had rice with potatoes.
Now I back where I started yesterday, in bed with blanckets over me and an electric heater pointing towards me. Hungry and freezing.
It's now about a week later, I'm back in Mexico City with my former hostfamily.
I got her on Saturday after a 13 hours busride back from Saltillo. I had to get back by then, because they were trowing a surprise party for my little brother here, turned 15 years.
So they hired a company called "fiesta en tu casa", they turned our house into a disco with a DJ, lights, tables with blue lights and a clown.
The Clown at Fer's Birthday party
For food my father had bought about 30kilos of Tacos al Pastor, my favorit. Two guy come and make it just like in the street. There was also an open bar and practically all of my little brothers friends and a lot of family. Many I had not seen since I lived here. It was nice, but after a few to many rum & cokes on an empty stomach and then a mountain of Tacos, I called it a night.
After about an hour of enjoying beeing able to respond my E-mails and checking the news, I get a message from my other brother, that someone want's to talk to me. Drunk of his ass is one of my uncles here, along with another uncle and his sons. They all seem to be under the impression that they have to speak English to me, just like the clown and the waiter who immediately asked me for tips, or he said we could take care of it later.
Tacos al Pastor
And then it was the same questions over again, how cold is it in Norway, are you all as tall as me, do you love Mexico, why and what do we eat. I mostly don't mind aswering these questions, but their comes a point when your just fed up with beeing ask the same questions over and over again. Especially after a 13 hour busride and a few coctails.
The next day, yesterday I woke up first at 10 o'clock, didn't feel that good so I desided to sleep som more, woke up at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
Then last night after spending over hour reading about escaped nazi warcriminals, Russian politics and a little bit of about the role of immigrants from former Soviet in Israeli politics.
Came across this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Zhirinovsky
Let's just say that contemplating the major issues of the world doesn't exactly help me sleep.
So after laying in my bed for a few hours I did a comeback online a 3 o'clock, after realising that I had a great facebook update. How much I dislike the fact that I live up to the stereotype that every white man speaks English.
Which made me read another hour about why ignorance is bliss on allfilosophy.com.
Didn't really help me sleep eighter. So at 5.30 o'clock this morning, after not so much as a minutt of sleep I got up made the table for breakfast. Then I eat a few slices of bred and waited for the rest of the family to wake up, while listening to some tunes on my iPod. Check out Terra Naomi - Vicodin Song.
To be able to get through this day and maybe be able to sleep to night, I slept a couple of hours this mornig. Really wanted to sleep all day, but don't want the same thing to happen tonight.
Now I'm finished with my strangest blog update ever, hope you were able to follow.
Please leave a comment. Brings me great happiness.
Runar
I know it's been a long time since my last update, what's my excuse this time. Well my mum found it, when she had not heard from me in over a week, she likes to know that I'm still alive.
To say it mildly she was shocked at the content, she got the impression that all I do is drink. Yes drinking is a big part of traveling and I do part take when I can and it's a good way of getting to know people. Nobody is as honest as a drunk person and that's when the best stories come out. I love hearing other peoples stories.
So where am I know and where have I been. If I remember correctly in my last update I was on my way to La Serena, with Andy and Kelly from England
Can't check online since I'm currently in a car with my Mexican family on our way to Mendoza a town close to Orisaba in Vera Cruz.
How did I end up here, you ask.
In La Serena we met Leif a Norwegian-American from San Fransisco, he didn't speak one word of Norwegian, but his Father who did to much acid back in the 70s was from Norway, he did not remember where. He came back to Santiago with us
Andy, Me, Kelly and Leif i La Serena
After a few days there, the brits had to go on a organised trip, Andy without his passport, even though the trip was going to Argentina aswell. Me and Leif decided to go some place and flipped a coin to decied where. The coin told us to go to Valparaiso, the second largest city in Chile. After taking the metro to the wrong place and walking around for a long time we took a taxi to the bus stop, where we were suppose to go. Took the first bus to Valparaiso, meet some cool people there, inlcuding an Australian girl who spoke fluent Japanese aftet a few years there, her brotherand and a guy from El Paso who lives in Rio. Even though he lived most of his life right across from the Mexican border, he told me he used to buy lunch there, his father is Mexican and his mother spoke Spanish, his Spanish was useless.
Julian from El Paso, Me and Leif in Valparaiso
We stayed there for a few days, made some good food at the hostel, inlcuding a steak Brimi(famous Norwegian cheif) style. After that Leif headed south hoping to meet up with the love of his life, a British-German girl he'd met on a trip a month back. Acording to him it all started with her stalking him, he has a facebook photo album called "my favorit stalker", with a bunch of pictures of him taken by her from a distance.
Me on top of Valparaiso
After Leif left, I went to Vina del Mar, for a few days, met som okay people there, hungout with them for a few nights, then headed back to Santiago for a few days. It was then that I realised it was time to move on. So I said goodbye to all the cool people at the hostel and took a bus over the Andes to Mendoza in Argentina.
Taken from the bus, while crossing the Andes
There I stayed with a Columbian 20 something writer/translater, pretty cool guy. An American named Greg from Pennsylvania was also staying there. We got along great.
We both stayed in Mendoza for 4 nights, we all drank until morning the three first nights, the last night I stayed back and took it easy. Watched all the episodes I'd missed.
After that Greg and I decided to go on together, he had arrange for us to CS a couch in Rio Cuarto, Cordoba. When we got there however, we could not get a hold of him on the phone, so we checked into a hostel, the only one in town. We found a nice italian restaurant with a couple of old mafia looking guys. Good food, great atsmophere. We stayed there for one night, then I headed of to the capital in Cordoba, Cordoba. While Greg was of directly to Buenos Aires.
I came to Cordoba, late at night and called up a hostel that looked okay, they had room, so took a taxi there. In the street in front of the hostel there was what I'm guessing was a prostitut, judging from the clothes she was wearing and the fact that the taxi driver laughed his ass of when I asked him about it.
The hostel was great, run by a couple of Israelis, who decided to open a hostel instead of returning home or getting a real job. hehe
I tried to go paragliding, but it was always to windy. So I ended up going with a one-eyed american hippi to drive ATV's
Me and The One-Eyed Hippi, ATV'ing outside Cordoba
I met him the day before and we started talking. Turnes out he had quite the story. First he had lived 3 months in the most famous ghetto in Mexico City, Tepito
He googled "earthquake resistand barrio Mexico City", after developing a fear of quakes..
Had been chought growing over a hundre marijuana plants in a national park in California along with a friend, by armed DEA-agents. While on bail and locking down the barrel of a 10 year sentence, in federal prison. He thought himself everything he would need to know about computers to be able to live on the run. The ability to send untracable E-mails etc. Something that would serve him well in future. This was back in the early 90s
His sentence was reduced to 5 years and realising life on the run was not worth it, he went to jail.
There he read everything about his case and found a loophole and appealed his case, while on appeal however you are not convicted, so he was tranfered from medium security, to maximum. His cellmate in maximum was an IRA member who had escaped from the Maze back in the 80s and was cought with a fake driverslicens in Texas.
He also made friends with a bigtime drugsmuggler, who's ship was intercepted by the American Navy somewhere in the Carribian on it's way to Vancouver and 64 tonns of hasish was found. Biggest drug seisure in history. I have there names, but can't put them in my blog, but trust me I have googled them and the drugsmuggler who after being released, is now in jail in Spain for a major cocaine smuggeling case. I think the IRA guy is out aswell, but unable to return to his homeland.
He was almost killed his first day in maximum, after insulting another inmate, during a game of scrabble. The guy was going to stab a pen in his juggular. Seeing as it was his first day, the guy luckly didn't act. So if your ever in Maximum Security Federal Prison in the U.S. don't question the rules in scrabble, it can get you killed.
Had lots more to tell, but these were the most interesting parts. Last I heard from him he was somewhere in Bolivia, the same place Butch Cassedy and the Sundance Kid, supposedly were killed.
Update: Got a mail from him, still in Bolivia. Now he's living in a cave, trying to live of what he can find, in competition with the goats. He made a machete from a a piece of car suspencion. Carries it with him everywhere, even to the bank, says he gets great service.
He was Santa Claus on Christmans, drinks mate(local tea) with the local police officer and is trying to go as long as possible without showing I.D.
After Cordoba I went to Rosario, the third largest city in Argentina, there I CS'ed with Facundo or Facko for short. Great guy.
Facko speaks Spanish ofcourse, he also speaks English like a brit, French and a little Swedish. Although he had never left Argentina.
I was the last person he hosted, the reason is that he is now sailing the seven seas or he's working on a cruseship.
The first day, I came on a Friday, he took me to a bar were his band had their last gig. He's the lead vocalist
Free food, drink and entry. He even had a song in Swedish, strange sitting there in a bar in Argentina and being the only one to understand the lyrics
Me and Facko in front of some famous monument i Rosario
We went to a resturant, which the locals call vomito, because you eat so much meat that you puke. I didn't
I stayed there the weekend and had a great time.
After that I took a bus to Buenos Aires or B.A. as the travelers call it.
There I met up with Olav a good friend from back home, he'd been studying spanish at a local school for scandinavians. first we stayed at this expencive "hostel" with a pool, but no spirit what so ever. After 2 nights there I checked into a cool little place just down the street, where I payed about half of what I payed at the other place. they did not have a pool, but lots of sprit. The hostels are in San Telmo, one of the oldest barrios(neighbourhoods) in B.A.
It was nice seeing Olav again and meeting his Norwegian friends, but to be honest they were really killing my traveling-spirit. Didn't travel across the world to hangout with friends from back home. So when Olav and 3 other Norwegians headed of on a journey I stayed in B.A. I will have plenty of time to hangout with Norwegians when I get home. Sometime in the spring, if everything goes as planned, not that I have that much of a plan
Me, Marius, Olav and Simen
I stayed in B.A. for about 2 weeks. Didn't really do to much to be honest. A few days after Olav left, me and another Norwegian Marius who had stayed behind at the hostel decided to go parashuting. The first day we went there, it rained so we waited there for about 5 hours for it to clear, it never did.
However when we got there the next day, the sun was almost shining and conditionos were great.
We were several nationalitis represented. Two Norwegians, one British, a Chinese-Malaysians couple and three Israelis. Funny fact the Malaysians can't enter Israel, it says so in their passport.
We picked papernotes from a hat to decied the order, I was picked second to last.
Don't think I've ever been so nervous, but it's worth it. I can't really describe how it feels to jump out of a plane at 3000 meters and fall freely to the ground for 35-45 seconds, at a speed of several hundre kilometers, before the instructor opens the shute, but you get the picture.
I also went cykeling around Palermo, a nice neighbourhoos with a Portugesh, Polish, Irish girl and my friend Zach from California. You can read a great story he told me in the previous post.
Me jumping out of a plane at 3000 meters
Also met some cool people in B.A.
Albert from a little junge city a few hours from Kinsengani in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he made his living in the music buisness, making beats and stuff.
A Taiwanese woman who had worked as a Mandarin teacher in Honduras during the coup, she was very suprised that I knew the difference between ROC and PRC, people are always supprised about what I know. Do I really look that stupid? hehe
A woman from The Nederlands who had lived several years in Norway and spoke a pretty good Norwegian, she was with a Scottish-British-Australian who worked in the petrolium buisness. He had been to Norway with her and always complained about how expensice it was.
A South-African sosialist who was in Latin-America to learn about the revolution, she's in Venezuela now.
Cludio a Urugayen/Argentinian who lives in a campingcvan in Spain, who was home to work and see his family. We were a few people talking and the subject of parants came up. Mine are not that interesting. We live in the town were my father is from and my mum is from the town next to it. hehe.
His father however was a revolutionary back in the 60-70s and had robbed banks for the Tupamaros. A former Urugauyen gurilla movment, the current president, "El Pepe" was a memeber.. When Cludio was about 13 if I remember correctly, his father had dropped him of at school and said that they were going to do something afterwords. That was the last time he saw his father. the Military junta put him in jail and dissapeard him, they never found a body.
After over two weeks in B.A. I had about a week to make it to Montevideo International Airport for my flight to Benito Juarez International Airport, Mexico City. So I decied it was time to take the boat across to Uruguay.
The closet city in Uruguay to B.A. is Colonia de Sacramento, also the oldest city i the country and a former pirate port.
I get there at night and, seeing as it's the middle of the week, I don't have a hostel reservation.
Mistake, turnes out that there is some sort of conference in town and every hostel and most hotels are booked.
At the third hostel I met Ian a brit with the same problem as me, so we joined forces and started looking for a place to sleep. after three hostels and one hotel we find a hotel with a room. Only cost 1000 Urugauyen Pesos for the both of us, about 400 more than a hostel bed. It's about 3.3 NOK for 10 Urugauyen Pesos
Walking around the city later that night, we see a lot of people with luggage walking around. So I guess we weren't the only ones without resevations.
One night in Colonia was enough and we took the bus to the capital Montevideo. After spending over 2 weeks in Buenos Aires, one of the greatest cities on earth, Montevideo was no match. After one night there. Ian and a Swede we meet, were of to Punta del Este, the biggest resort town in Uruguay. That was to much for me so I decided to find a more relaxed place. I looked around the brouchures at the hostel I found Punta del Diablo a few hours from the Brazilian border.
A relaxed fishing village 9 month of ther year, the other 3 months are big with turists, I got there just before.
I stayed at a hostel called El Diablo Tranquilo, highly recomended. The only problem was that it was a lot of Americans and Australians, all trying to reenact a college movie if you know what I mean. Another thing about the hostel, not really a problem, but everything at the hostel could be put on a tab. Including at the bar they had down by the beach. The only real bar in town.
View from the hostel
First night at the bar I met a guy from Peckham, London, former drugdealer, now crime repporter for some right-winged newspaper and a bunch of Uruguayen college students. Racked up a nice bartap
I also met a couple of Swedes from Stocholm. One was a photojournalist and had been to the Gaza-strip, Haiti, Afganisthan and many more.
Someone had stolen his bag with all his camera gear on the boatcentral in B.A. The other Swede was a former hip-hop artist, now bartender. Look up PeeWee online.
The photojournalist had some great stories from his travels, Gaza wasn't that nice. Met an Irish DJ who had manage to recive money weekly from the state and decided that he would get more for them in Latin-America.
And two Jewish girls, one was Swedish the other was Canadien, they had met when the Swede was an exchange student in Canada. Both their grandparents had to escape Russia after the Revolution. The Canadian, by way of South-Africa. Really interesting talking to them, because they see themself as first Jewish, second Canadian/Swedish. With us in this discusion I had a German guy. The girls tried to met up atleast ones a year.
I stayed there as long as I could, about five days, then put it all on my creditcard.
After my flightloss in Brussels I decided to go to the airport the night before, especially seeing as my flight left early in the morning. I get there at around 11o'clock and had about eight hours to kill. Slept a few hours, surfed the web and ate a couple of great sandwiches.
Then it was a flight to Lima, Peru, were I had to go through yet another security check. Took forever and I was sure I would loose my flight. I made it ofcourse, but you know me I always expect the worst. I get to Mexico, find my bags and walk out expecting to see my Mexican family waiting for me. How wrong was I. I get out and see no familiar faces. So I check the other 2 exits, nothing. I try to connect to the internet so I could call them using skype, but the receptions is to bad.
I end up havind to take out money, buy a phonecard and after several tries I mange to get a hold of Pasto, the head maecanic at my Mexican fathers garage.
He tells me that Paco my brother is on his way and gives me his number. I call and he says 30min, about an hour later he came.
Turnes out Fer my other brother had his Christmas party at school and my parants and little sister were there.
Christmas in Mexico.
It was very nice to see them all again, but at the same time I rememberd why I missed home so much when I lived there.
Independece is something very rare for Mexican youth, you live at home until your 30 and if your mother says jump you ask how high.
I know I'm overexagurating, it's not like they do it because they want to, it's just the way it's done here and I do still live with my parents, when I'm home.
My mother here still has only two ways of communication, talking very low or scriming at the top off her lunges, she preferes the later.
My little sister however was still as cute as I rememberd, it was especially great seeing her again. She's now six years old.
Before Christmas we went to Saltillo, were I am now, but more about that later. Here the brother of my Mexican father moved with his family a few years back.
Saltillo is about a 7-8 hour drive from Mexico City. We stayed there for a few days, then my family drove north to San Antonio, TX for some christmas shopping. Nuevo Lardo at the border with the U.S. is about 3 hours from Saltillo, Then a few more to San Antonio. I stayed behind, seeing as I'm backpacking, Christmas shopping in the U.S. was the last thing I wanted.
I went there once when I lived in Mexico and it was terrible, when I tell Americans that I've only been to one city in the U.S. they always ask me why would I choose San Antonio. To which I respond that I did not choose the city and that is the one closest major city to Mexico City.
While my famiiy were in the Texas I hungout with my cousin and here boyfriend Estefan. They took me to a museum to look at dinosaurs and we went to Monterrey. In Monterrey we met up with Eduardo, who stayed at Don Santiago when I worked there. He told me to look him up if I ever made it to Monterrey. We crused around the city listening to Datarock in his car and grabed a few great Micheladas(Mexican beer coctail).Both my cousin and her boyfriend work at a bar in the city. Called something El Cerdo(The Pig), went there one night and had some more great micheladas.
Daniela, Estefan, Me and Eduardo in Monterrey
My uncle here is a police commander and through my cousin I heard a story from when he was on patrol. It was the night that "El Chapo" escaped from prison a few days before he was suppose to be extradited to the U.S. on drug trafficing charges. For those of you who don't read the news like I do. "El Chapo" Guzman is the most wanted man in Mexico, the second in the world. He's the head of the Sinaloa Cartel and in the top 100 list of both the richest and most powerfull people in the world accroding to Forbes. While in prison after behing cought in Guatamala and extradited to Mexico, he had most gards on his payrole. Supposedly he told one gard that he was smuggeling some gold out of the prison. Instead of the gold that was suppose to be in the laundry trolley it was him. So an alarm goes of "El Chapo" has escaped. My uncle and his partner are both in their patrol veichle station in a town close to the prison. As the call came through, they see 4-5 pick-ups driving through the town, all with heavly armed men in the back. And when they say heavily armed men here, they mean Ak-47's. So there is my uncle and his partner sitting in their patrol car probably with no more than their Glocks and they have to watch the most wanted man in Mexico drive past and there was nothing they could do.
Maybe I'm to interrested in organized crime and it's effect on society. Strange interrest to have, I know. All in all Saltillo was great and I promised to come back.
Fernando, Karin, Me and Paco
After Saltillo it was back to Mexico, for Christmas. Which we spent at the grandparents. both Christmas eve and 25-26.
After that we headed to Vera Cruz and that's when I started writing this. About two weeks ago.
Like I said I'm now back in Saltillo, staying at the new house of Estefan and his friend. I'm sleeping on a matress in the living room.
They moved into a new house my first day here.
Cooking without gas, the first night at the new house
On Friday it snowed here and was below 7. They are always saying that I should be used to the cold, seeing as I'm from Norway. I try and tell them that we have these things called houses as well and they even have insolation, so that when it's cold outside, we can have it warm inside. Here all the houses are made of concrete, so when it's below 7 outside, if your lucky it's 0 in the house.
Daniella, Estefan and Miriam, Yes it's snow
I used 526 peos a few days ago and bought an electric heater for the house, seeing as I'm living for free I wanted to do something nice and it was freasing.
Estefan and his two friends are vegan, while a girl living here is only a vegitarian, which means that all food in this house is vegatarian and the food is mostly vegan seeing as we/they make food togther. Vegan food is supprisingly good, but all that pasta and rice, changes the way your body works.
No need for a fridge, when it's freezing and all you eat is vegetables and rice
I'm currently trying to go 24 hours without food to see if I can do it.
I have about seven and a half hours left. If my calculations are right. Had my last meal at 12 o'clock last night and it's now 16.30.
Stange that when I'm not eating I'm able to write this, I have not left my bed today, becides to go to the bathroom, not because I haven't eaten, but because it's so cold and my bed has blanckets.
Yeah so we were sitting in the car to go to Mendoza, Vera Cruz. My Mexican mothers uncle and his family live there and we've been many times. His son, Raul, my age so I call him my cousin. Has just become a father.
In Mendoza we mostly waited and watched movies. One day we get woken up at twelve, down for breakfast with real coffe, great.
Then we get told that we have and hour to get ready, I take a shower, but not until 7o'clock at night do we leave. Seeing as I had been away from Mexico for so long I had forgottern how much time we just spend waiting around from something or someone. I had my laptop with me and they had internet so I didn't mind the waiting.
We the cousins and my brothers would usually watch movies all night. All in Spanish of course, they really hate watching movies in any other language. I hate dubbing, but more about that some other time.
Then it was back to Mexico for New Years spent at, yes you guessed it, the grandparents. My favoritt uncles were also there, Gil and Carlos, they are married to the daughters of my grandparents. Great guys.
My uncles Gil, Carlos and Me at the Grandparents
Then on the 4th I took a bus here to Saltillo, 12 hours.
Since then I've been eating veganfoad. freezing and generally just hungout with the people living here. Estefan, his two friends Marcos and Elmo who both work at the bar and Miriam an artist supposedly famous here and in Paris, where she lived for a few years.
Estefan and his friends are 18, 19 and 20 and they live alone. Like I said very strange. Elmo justed tattooed "FREE MIND" on his fingers. Estefan has 11, Marcos 2 and Elmo 5 tattoos, if you count "FREE" and "MIND" seperatly. They also have a lot of pircings. The closest I get is a pirced ear I did when I lived here. Also the house has not varm water so when I want to shower I have to boil water.
My bed in Saltillo for the first night, got a matress later on
The people living here have just been to the corner store and bought snacks. It looks so good. six and a halfhour more and I can eat.
Who knows when I can put it on my blog, no internet here. Good for me, I use it to much. It's espesially bad when I'm are traveling, because some days I just end up chating with my friends back home all day or watch all the missed episodes.
My Laptop went out of power an hour or so ago so had to get out of bed and plug it in, now I writing this using the TV as a desk while, standing.
The next day
I did the 24 hours without food, then I had a couple of tortillas with rice and mustard and half a snickers. After that I went to sleep, woke up again later and had rice with potatoes.
Now I back where I started yesterday, in bed with blanckets over me and an electric heater pointing towards me. Hungry and freezing.
It's now about a week later, I'm back in Mexico City with my former hostfamily.
I got her on Saturday after a 13 hours busride back from Saltillo. I had to get back by then, because they were trowing a surprise party for my little brother here, turned 15 years.
So they hired a company called "fiesta en tu casa", they turned our house into a disco with a DJ, lights, tables with blue lights and a clown.
The Clown at Fer's Birthday party
For food my father had bought about 30kilos of Tacos al Pastor, my favorit. Two guy come and make it just like in the street. There was also an open bar and practically all of my little brothers friends and a lot of family. Many I had not seen since I lived here. It was nice, but after a few to many rum & cokes on an empty stomach and then a mountain of Tacos, I called it a night.
After about an hour of enjoying beeing able to respond my E-mails and checking the news, I get a message from my other brother, that someone want's to talk to me. Drunk of his ass is one of my uncles here, along with another uncle and his sons. They all seem to be under the impression that they have to speak English to me, just like the clown and the waiter who immediately asked me for tips, or he said we could take care of it later.
Tacos al Pastor
And then it was the same questions over again, how cold is it in Norway, are you all as tall as me, do you love Mexico, why and what do we eat. I mostly don't mind aswering these questions, but their comes a point when your just fed up with beeing ask the same questions over and over again. Especially after a 13 hour busride and a few coctails.
The next day, yesterday I woke up first at 10 o'clock, didn't feel that good so I desided to sleep som more, woke up at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
Then last night after spending over hour reading about escaped nazi warcriminals, Russian politics and a little bit of about the role of immigrants from former Soviet in Israeli politics.
Came across this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Zhirinovsky
Let's just say that contemplating the major issues of the world doesn't exactly help me sleep.
So after laying in my bed for a few hours I did a comeback online a 3 o'clock, after realising that I had a great facebook update. How much I dislike the fact that I live up to the stereotype that every white man speaks English.
Which made me read another hour about why ignorance is bliss on allfilosophy.com.
Didn't really help me sleep eighter. So at 5.30 o'clock this morning, after not so much as a minutt of sleep I got up made the table for breakfast. Then I eat a few slices of bred and waited for the rest of the family to wake up, while listening to some tunes on my iPod. Check out Terra Naomi - Vicodin Song.
To be able to get through this day and maybe be able to sleep to night, I slept a couple of hours this mornig. Really wanted to sleep all day, but don't want the same thing to happen tonight.
Now I'm finished with my strangest blog update ever, hope you were able to follow.
Please leave a comment. Brings me great happiness.
Runar
posted by Runar at 5:59 AM
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