Hola!
So we got to Cuba really well, even though it was a really long trip and when we got to Costa Rica there had just been an earthquacke so everything was closed - murp!
No, but we got to Ignacios house at midnight and went to bed.
The next morning we woke up kind of early and went for a walk in the city, just to like, get to know the places, the people, the culture.
And OMG! Even though people have tried to prepare us for the cuban people and especially men, it was nothing like we had ever imagined. You can't walk for 5 seconds without someone whisteling at you, talking to you, contacting you in any way. It is "beautiful" "linda" "guapa" "be my wife" from every street corner and it can really really be too much sometimes.
But well, we got caught and met two boys in the street: Frankly and Erick, two really nice cuban guys, who we have been hanging out with a lot these past days. They have been showing us around, taking us to turist places and really local places and it has been great. They have also given us a goood introduction to havana club rum which we enjoy alot! (:
Mostly we have just been around the city and getting to know everything. Seen where the cannons shoot everyday at 21.00, churches, capitulo, the old obispo street and ofcourse the malecon - the long coastline where everybody hangs out. So so so nice! We have also been to the beach Santa Maria de la mar and what an experience.. I have never seen more clear blue water, whiter sand and palm trees, it was so unbelieveable!
Well, Cuba itself really is unbelieveable and for ever good thing it has it's bad things as well. We have been talking alot to Frankly and Erick about it, about the change and NO-change since the revolution and how they are really stuck here in Cuba and so want to have the same possiblities as us, it really makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world - that I worked and that I am now travelling for real, so so so lucky!
And it is so funny, or crazy, or something, because when Amalie and I are going crazy about all the old cool american cars - Frankly and Erick really don't care, they are going crazy everytime they see a brand new shining car in the street.
What a strange life!
And when I said that there was a smell of revolution in Argentina, I can tell you that it is nothing like here. And Fidel Castro and Che are like icons and there is really like propaganda commercials everywhere all the time.
Everything is SO different, and I wish I could explain better. Even pictures in this case doesn't say enough. But I can just say that besides the men sometimes, I really really LOVE Cuba. And Ignacio is really the best person in the world!
Now we got to Trinidad, in a bus six hours through beautiful landscape and small towns. Trinidad is just as amazing and so different from Habana, here it's quiet - you can ALMOST walk in peace on the streets, they are not so many cars and we might be the luckiest people in the world. We are staying in a woman called Mercedes house and she is the nicest person in the world and already told us that she will be our mom the time we stay here. And even better = we got here just for a culture week with music all day every day all week and party in the streets and markets and it couldn't be better.
So now we can't wait for the beach also, so we can get some tan and look more cuban (as if!)
So, this was it for now I think, I'll try to write soon again, but internet is really not common here - MURP!
I really miss you all and I wish I could share this experience with everybody.
Love,
Tess
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Goodbye Argentina, I love you
So, muy bien people, this is going really well!
Uruguay was amazing. We had 3 hours sailing to Montevideo, so we arrived in the night, went for something to eat, got our room and just chilled around! We had the seriously worst sleep ever, because our room was just out to a street with several pubs, so there was really loud drunk-singing and drinking sounds until 7 in the morning where we had to wake up.
So we spend saturday on walking around Montevideo and seeing the small streets, the brokedown houses, parks, people, everything. In the afternoon we went to the beach which was the best thing EVER and really really really just what we needed. So we were there for some hours, just relaxing in the sun and swimming in the sea and all good. Next day we took the bus to Colonia and had 1 hours with boat back home. A great great trip!
So I forgot to tell you about la Bomba, so here it comes: La bomba del tiempo is this great(!!!) drum show every monday night somewhere in Buenos Aires. (A place called Konex or something!) It start really early, at 8 or something and then it's just drums and dancing and the greatest empanadas in all of Buenos until 10! We have been there 3 times and it was great everytime. The first time we were dancing in the street to reggae music afterwards and everytime we went to this illegal after-place and had a lot of fun. It was also here I meet my new good friend Chiky, so nice! So La Bomba is definitely recommendable (if that is a word!) and I LOVE it.
So yesterday we walked around. We walked all of the florida-shopping street, which is kind of crazy, because yesterday Buenos Aires was the hottest city of all South America, and yes - we felt it! Soooo hot! In the night we went to La Cabrera, this really famous and good steakhouse, with like the BIGGEST steaks I have ever seen in my life. Some experience for a vegetarian like me, seeing people eat a steak of 900 g (OMG!)
Later we went to a hostel and hung out with our brazilian friends, really nice to see the happiest and nicest man in the world again.
So today is the last day of Argentina and it feels really weird. Only a month has passed and I already have so many great things to look back on. Like the really rude waiter in Pinamar, singing christmas song in the car home, falling in the water in Tigre, dancing all night, making friends with a lot of people, drinking mate and tequila and 1L beers.
It am still surprised by all the homeless people sleeping on every street corner, children and families asking for money, or all the 'homeless' cats and dogs wandering around. It kills me everytime I see it.
But then again - Argentina is truly amazing and I will miss all the nice things here alot.
Now it's Cuba and me and Amalie on our own, and I can't wait for all the new adventures. We are leaving tomorrow morning at 7 with the first plane, and we are going to Peru, Costa Rica and then finally we'll be in Cuba at 23.00!
Love to you all and a promise to try to write often. (And to post pictures soon, maybe!)
Tess
Uruguay was amazing. We had 3 hours sailing to Montevideo, so we arrived in the night, went for something to eat, got our room and just chilled around! We had the seriously worst sleep ever, because our room was just out to a street with several pubs, so there was really loud drunk-singing and drinking sounds until 7 in the morning where we had to wake up.
So we spend saturday on walking around Montevideo and seeing the small streets, the brokedown houses, parks, people, everything. In the afternoon we went to the beach which was the best thing EVER and really really really just what we needed. So we were there for some hours, just relaxing in the sun and swimming in the sea and all good. Next day we took the bus to Colonia and had 1 hours with boat back home. A great great trip!
So I forgot to tell you about la Bomba, so here it comes: La bomba del tiempo is this great(!!!) drum show every monday night somewhere in Buenos Aires. (A place called Konex or something!) It start really early, at 8 or something and then it's just drums and dancing and the greatest empanadas in all of Buenos until 10! We have been there 3 times and it was great everytime. The first time we were dancing in the street to reggae music afterwards and everytime we went to this illegal after-place and had a lot of fun. It was also here I meet my new good friend Chiky, so nice! So La Bomba is definitely recommendable (if that is a word!) and I LOVE it.
So yesterday we walked around. We walked all of the florida-shopping street, which is kind of crazy, because yesterday Buenos Aires was the hottest city of all South America, and yes - we felt it! Soooo hot! In the night we went to La Cabrera, this really famous and good steakhouse, with like the BIGGEST steaks I have ever seen in my life. Some experience for a vegetarian like me, seeing people eat a steak of 900 g (OMG!)
Later we went to a hostel and hung out with our brazilian friends, really nice to see the happiest and nicest man in the world again.
So today is the last day of Argentina and it feels really weird. Only a month has passed and I already have so many great things to look back on. Like the really rude waiter in Pinamar, singing christmas song in the car home, falling in the water in Tigre, dancing all night, making friends with a lot of people, drinking mate and tequila and 1L beers.
It am still surprised by all the homeless people sleeping on every street corner, children and families asking for money, or all the 'homeless' cats and dogs wandering around. It kills me everytime I see it.
But then again - Argentina is truly amazing and I will miss all the nice things here alot.
Now it's Cuba and me and Amalie on our own, and I can't wait for all the new adventures. We are leaving tomorrow morning at 7 with the first plane, and we are going to Peru, Costa Rica and then finally we'll be in Cuba at 23.00!
Love to you all and a promise to try to write often. (And to post pictures soon, maybe!)
Tess
Friday, January 2, 2009
La bomba, new years and a sky filled with paper
Feliz año nuevo people!
So, you see? I am getting better at this. So it's like only a couple of days since I wrote you the last time, but I remebered a lot of stuff that I forgot and new things (obviously) happened!
So first of all we went to Tigre, a place north of Buenos Aires, which is like a city in water. All the houses are build on 'sticks' and there's water EVERYWHERE (how lucky can people be with an all natural swimming pool in their backyard?) So we went there and walked in the jungle-kindof and we actually got lost and chose the wrong path but it didn't matter really.. It was just some more adventure added to the whole trip. One silly thing was just that most of the trails were filled with water because the water was high, so you couldn't really see where you were walking. This ended up with me falling into the woody-gross-water because suddenly there was a BIG invisible hole in the middle of nowhere.. kind of sucky, but luckily it was a hot day and no terrible thing happened!
Then we did some preperations for new years and this day the sky was filled with paper, or like peices of paper were flying around the air and it was so strange, but such an amazing sight and we didn't get what was going on at all. We went through the city and from every building people were throwing tons of paper out the window and it was everywhere in the air and on the street. I loved it, and it seriuosly just looked like something from a movie. Later we were told that it was because it was the last work day of the year and then they celebrate it with throwing out all the paper they don't need anymore or something. Such a nice and messy and great way to celebrate it!
So it was new years! Going from 2008 which was GREAT to 2009 which will, if possible, be even better. New years were really good, we had a grrreat dinner in the appartemen in San Telmo, made some new years calls to home, and then at around 23.00 we went to the appartement in Palermo where we had a BIG party.. It was good and we jumped into the new year, drank a lot of champagne and had a blast. Later we suddenly found ourselves in a big park somewhere in Buenos Aires with music and a lot A LOT of dancing people. So weird and wonderful!
On january 1st we slept until 17 and did nothing all day. So nice! Or, we went for a walk along the harbour, ordered tickets to go to Uruguay and THEN just did some more nothing (I guess we really needed it!)
SO - today we are going to Uruguay for the weekend. Just to stay by the beach and see some of Montevideo and the rest of Uruguay, it will be nice - I'm sure and I can't wait for the beach!
Now it is less than one week left of Argentina and I will go enjoy it.
Hope all is good and that no one got hurt New Years
Miss you all
Tess
So, you see? I am getting better at this. So it's like only a couple of days since I wrote you the last time, but I remebered a lot of stuff that I forgot and new things (obviously) happened!
So first of all we went to Tigre, a place north of Buenos Aires, which is like a city in water. All the houses are build on 'sticks' and there's water EVERYWHERE (how lucky can people be with an all natural swimming pool in their backyard?) So we went there and walked in the jungle-kindof and we actually got lost and chose the wrong path but it didn't matter really.. It was just some more adventure added to the whole trip. One silly thing was just that most of the trails were filled with water because the water was high, so you couldn't really see where you were walking. This ended up with me falling into the woody-gross-water because suddenly there was a BIG invisible hole in the middle of nowhere.. kind of sucky, but luckily it was a hot day and no terrible thing happened!
Then we did some preperations for new years and this day the sky was filled with paper, or like peices of paper were flying around the air and it was so strange, but such an amazing sight and we didn't get what was going on at all. We went through the city and from every building people were throwing tons of paper out the window and it was everywhere in the air and on the street. I loved it, and it seriuosly just looked like something from a movie. Later we were told that it was because it was the last work day of the year and then they celebrate it with throwing out all the paper they don't need anymore or something. Such a nice and messy and great way to celebrate it!
So it was new years! Going from 2008 which was GREAT to 2009 which will, if possible, be even better. New years were really good, we had a grrreat dinner in the appartemen in San Telmo, made some new years calls to home, and then at around 23.00 we went to the appartement in Palermo where we had a BIG party.. It was good and we jumped into the new year, drank a lot of champagne and had a blast. Later we suddenly found ourselves in a big park somewhere in Buenos Aires with music and a lot A LOT of dancing people. So weird and wonderful!
On january 1st we slept until 17 and did nothing all day. So nice! Or, we went for a walk along the harbour, ordered tickets to go to Uruguay and THEN just did some more nothing (I guess we really needed it!)
SO - today we are going to Uruguay for the weekend. Just to stay by the beach and see some of Montevideo and the rest of Uruguay, it will be nice - I'm sure and I can't wait for the beach!
Now it is less than one week left of Argentina and I will go enjoy it.
Hope all is good and that no one got hurt New Years
Miss you all
Tess
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