So my days as a student are finally over (save one oral exam and a passing grade on the last written one… details, details) and I’m off on an other adventure. This time, to Latin America. The itinerary is as follows: Costa Rica – Cuba – Panama – Venezuela – then make my way through South America by bus and home from Rio, for at least 4 months.

Getting away never seems easy for me, and this time too, there was trouble as I found out two days prior to departure that I couldn’t find my passport! Thankfull the Norwegian Government gave good service for once, and 12 hours before i leave I have a new passport in hand

On the night before I fly out quite a few of my friends are out and I decide to join them, and, eventually also decide to pull an all-nighter. So around 4 o’clock I board my pirated taxi, stop by my mom’s place to get my backpacks and head on to the airport.

I fall asleep before we even leave the ground and wake up as we touch ground in Paris. Still a little bit drunk and very sleepy I consider spending seven hours at the airport, but eventually wake up and come to my senses and decide to head in to the city, which I’ve neven been to.

I have about 3 hours for my Parisian experience and get off on Champs Ellyses, near the Arch de Triumph.

An enormous structure, much bigger than I had expected and a great impovement on the concrete replica I’d seen in Vientinenne, Laos.

I stroll down Av. Marceu towards the river Seine, taking in the atmosphere and decide to sit down at a sidewalk cafe for a bagette and my fist taste of French red wine. Expectations are high! Now I don’t know much about wine, except it gets you drunk, but the glass I’m served tastes like it just came out of a fridge! So much for fine French restaurants. The cafe visit fulfills my steretypical ecpectation of what French waiters are like though, non-English speaking, with a stiff upper lip and a towel ready to woop my ass if I complain about anything.

While the Arch de Triumph was bigger than expected, the Eiffel tower was a lot
smaller.

I’d seen the top from a distance and never imagined that was it. It was still fun to see one of the most famous landmarks in the world though.

My all-nighter seemed to be working wonders as I again fell asleep before we left the ground and didn’t wake up until we were over Texas. I now had 11 hours – a night – to spend in Mexico City. No time to head in to the city, so I decide to sleep on the airport floor. Not an entirely unpleasant experience, I got about 5 hours sleep before getting up for my flight to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.

In San Jose I get a bed in an 8 person dorm, and have a walk around the city. Most people pass through this city, which has very little to offer as a tourist destination, but as I lost my passport I need to get to the Cuban embassy to get a Visa.

Finding the embassy isn’t easy in this city without street names! But I get there ok and finally get my Visa after having first guessed wrongly on every item except my name on the Visa application.

On to the beach, I head down to the Carribean and the small town of Puerto Viejo.

 As you get off the bus you can feel the ganja smoke filling the air and the reggae music massaging your eares, while local business men lounge in the trees.

On the bus i met two Canadian guys who’ve been here before and decide to go with them to their hostel – Rocking J’s,

the most unique hippie compound I’ve ever seen, with hippies from their late teens to their late sixties partying and preparng for the upcoming bluegrass festival that starts the day after. I get a 6 $ tent, and in my jetlag-induced coma, am not disturbed by the "rocking" that lasted till 4 in the morning.

The next morning I move out due to a huge price increase and find myself a shed down the road.

A nice relaxing place, with a wonderfull hamock, great reggae music and the town´s local reggae star as my neighbour. The only downside was the viscious bed bug attack I was the victim of my first night there. I probably have around two hundred bites, but luckily, only one of the little critters found it´s way to my face.

The Caribbean coast has an interesting Creole culture, the quisine consisting mainly of rice and beans, and some delicious coffe. I rent a bike one day and go for a 13 kilometer ride down to smal village that has several kilometers of beatifull – totally deserted – beaches!

On the way the road is flanked by dense jungel

filled with monkeys and other animals.

The other days I´ve spent on the beach,

reading my Sinatra biography, working on my Spanish and surfing. I´ve met lots of nice people, including a group of 4 Norwegian girls who I spent a couple of days with.

Now Cuba awaits me…

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