Moments we miss: Pierats of the Caribbean 2010

To a fellow traveler

of land and mind

May this book add a new perspective

to your understanding

of human kind

Peace, love and good karma -Kelly, Gato Negro

It is almost 6 months since we came back from our Pierats of the Caribbean-trip. Time flies by, huh? Still, the memories from all our experiences still sticks like peanut butter in your teeth. From every country, there is something to remember. Small hints of fun, love, action, joy; every single thing that makes you smile.

Sharing these feelings is almost impossible if you weren't there, but I'll try to give you a few pieces!

Miami

Look at this beauty! A boa girl!

In fact, Miami is all about the superficial stuff that we don't really care about; looks, shopping, image and so on. But it still became special to us, because it was the first place were we landed. The numero uno destination on the travel we had been planning for so long.

Just taking a stroll by Miami beach, soaking up all the new impressions, was amazing. And we still get that tingling feeling by thinking of what we said back then: "Okay, this is day one. 59 more days left to travel!" Gaaah!

We miss Miami Beach. We miss the feeling of starting our vacation at day 1. We miss the sun. We miss Miami Ink. We miss the daily shot of Starbucks' Soy Latte. We miss looking at amazingly hollywood-like people.


The total feeling of vacation!


Hugging my first palm tree! Epic!

Blog posts from Miami:
Fiiine mon, no problem!

Jamaica: Negril, Montego Bay


Since I was a teen, I had this huge, unreachable dream of going to Jamaica. And suddenly, we were actually here! And everything was just as I was expecting. Tropical, reggae, happiness, ya mon, colours, heat, bliss...totally awesome! Ronny and I really got to see the inside of Negril, since our man Cortney Lewin took us everywhere. People were intense and chill at the same time, and the culutral differences between our contries felt like a welcomed awakening. We needed this. Jamaica was the first of three contries that changed our way of thinking. Jamaica got soul!

We miss sitting at Rick's Cafe, watching cliff divers and listening to live reggae while playing chess. We miss sneaking in to Catcha Falling Star, pretending to have rightful access to the luxury-area. We miss my great diving teacher, Ken Brown. We miss rastafari Abba Jahnehoi and his tranquil place in the mountains. We miss slacklining by the intense blue ocean in Montego Bay. We miss the lovely people at Knightwick. We miss watching the sunsets at The Twisted Kilt.




Ya mon, no problem!



Blissful views at Catcha







rastafari Abba Jahnehoi



Tons of fun learning to scuba dive!

Palm Springs Resort was amazing!

Blog posts from Jamaica:
Fiiine mon, no problem!
Second day of scuba diving, and meeting an old rastafari
First day in Montego Bay!
Slackline between the palm trees
Snorkeling heaven!
Last sunset in Jamaica

Cuba: Havana, Maria la Gorda, Trinidad


What a shock Cuba was to us. I don't know, the media sort of represents Cuba as this traditional, beautiful and colourful country, with people fishing happily by the coast of Havanna.
In reality, Havanna was a city in ruins. Vinjales was in the middle of nowhere, filled with animal abuse that made our hearts break. Maria la Gorda was the place where they tried to drown us by giving us wrecked scuba equipment. In Trinidad, the women in our casa particular tried to trick us and also felt ME up. We found no food and were constantly hungry.

But still, this is the country we talk about the most when people ask us about our travels. Because the cultural differences are so incredibly huge. As a sociologist, seeing the changes made by Castro and the effects of communism is very valuable for my understanding of societies. By closing all import and export, the cubans got locked up in their own country. That really does something to a person.

And wow, we really miss Alejandro, our supaah cool guide, who told us everything about Cuba without filters, who was obsessed with Norway and said "Velkommen til himmelen" in perfectly norwegian, while he showed us the Museum of Chocolate. Man, did he save our day?
We miss Birgitte and Anne, the two great danish girls we met when scuba diving in Maria la Gorda. How sweet you were to hang out with!

I don't think we'll ever go back to Cuba. Too cynical and out of hope for us to thrive. But Cuba is about to change, and we're happy we got to see it from the inside!


Cuban logic


Slacklining in Maria la Gorda


Cuba in ruins


This man spent his whole life pouring water to others, including the pope!


Alejandro:a cuban sweats so much, the sugar doesn't count!


Mojitos the cuban way, like they're meant to be!




I got a friend!


We heart giant chess!


Diving in maria la Gorda


I got a friend #2! his name is Scratch!


Wants!


Mask faces!


The local plummer



Blog posts from Cuba:
Crazy Cuba!
Scuba duba duuuuuu!

Mexico: Cancun, Isla Mujeres, Tulum, Chetumal

Chichen Itza

The day we arrived in Cancun and saw all the food...we almost sh*t our pants with excitement!
I will for sure miss the freshly made fruit juices, the tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas and...yeah! If I could choose my way to go, I would have drowned in a sea of guacamole.
That being said, mexican food didn't exactly thrill Ronny's stomach, so the loss is completely mine (^.^)

We miss the mayan temple Chichen Itza, were we got to go ourselves on a secret adventure. We miss celebrating Valentine's day, while swimming with dolphins and all the drama about my fire opal ring from Ronny. We miss scuba diving in Dos Ojos, one of the world's largest underwater cave systems. With out dive leader who was a sworn copy of Bruce Willis! We miss eating the best fish dish we ever had at 100% Natural. We miss when ordering one beer or piña colada, you always got two! I miss that you could have everything in piña colada-flavor! We miss all the iguanas in Tulum, and sitting by the chess-tables at our hostel El Crucero. We miss the feeling of watching the big nurse shark right next to us while having a drift dive in Cancun. We miss biking around Isla Mujeres and watching turtles and pelicans!


In front of the holy cenote in Chichen Itza (chickenpizza)


I miss these!


Hola, gringo!


The ring...


Awesome!


Where's the turtle!


Hola mamitas!


Backpacker snuggle-time


Best Valentines Day evurrrr




Dos Ojos


Dos Ojos


Iggy!!

Blog post from Mexico:
Mexicoooooo
Shark-dive and bad Valentines-karma
Dolphins, turtles and Mayan temples!
Goood morning!
Cenote Cavediving

Belize: Corozal, Caye Caulker, Half Moon Island, Belize City

Life is goood

Ahh...our second country that got stuck in our hearts. The slogan "Go slow" and "No shoes, no shirt, no shit, no problem" gave the whole meaning to our hippie-ness!

We miss our advanced diving-instructor Israel. Hey man, we actually watched "Darkness Falls" yesterday, as you recommended. Do you wear your pink HannaH Montana-bag that we gave you? (^.^). We miss the whole island Caye Caulker. What a chill reggae-place! We miss the Jurassic Park feeling of deep diving in Blue Hole. We miss night diving among octopus' and parrotfish in mucus-bags! We miss the insanely blue water, and watching sting rays while we where snorkeling. We miss the pack of dogs that always followed us, especially the milky dogs and fatty blob. We miss quiz night at the Sports Bar ("Canada Smells like monkeys" and "Van Gogh killed himself by standing under a palm tree waiting for a coconut to fall", mehehehe). We miss slowdancing barefoot all night to reggae music (Ronny does certainly not miss the coconut rum).




Puppy love


Reggae and Rainbows






In the middle of the Blue Hole


Israel, our man!


Boobieee



The magical forest in Half Moon Island


Fatty Blob!






Perfectly Pierat-normal


Crazy people makes the world look sane!


Laundry service



Blog posts from Belize:
Caye Caulker - a new paradise!
The Blue Hole and Advanced course!
Advanced certification, nightdive and Guatemala!

Guatemala: Guatemala City, Flores


Not that much to say, because we were in a rush through the country to surprise Thora in Nicaragua. But we miss the insane, giggling taxi driver who hit every single speed bump with a bang, we miss the incredibly amazing nature, we miss talking to the man who had backpacked around the world for five years, and we miss all the friendly, talkative people who didn't care our spanish was poor.




Eating out!


The restaurant :)




The neverending bus drive

Blog posts about Guatemala:
Climbing volcanos and surfing in Nicaragua!

Nicaragua: Managua, Granada, Isla de Ometepe, San Juan del Sur


The third country we can't forget. Ohhh, there is nearly not a day where we don't talk about El Gato Negro or the Pier. How insanely much we miss San Juan del Sur! This is where we found our peace as hippie-backpackers. While playing Uno and sipping beer at the Pier, we laid plans for how we wanted to live our lives. Because SJDS gave us the feeling we wanted to carry with us back home!

We miss the Pier. I miss getting up every day at 0700 to have my morning coffee at El Gato Negro, while reading the books I got from Rob and Kelly. We miss the incredible naturegasm we got at Isla de Ometepe while climbing Volcano Maderas. We miss getting to know so many wonderful travelers at Finca Magdalena. We miss surfing in SJDS. We miss chatting and hiking with amazing Helene and Brendan. We miss teaching Martin to slackline. We miss Casa Romano. We miss the rude parrot who told us to fuck off. We miss how Nicaragua was so mindblowing to us, it made us do Facebook-suicide. I miss eating tons of tiny bananas and ripe mangos every day! We miss gallo pinto. We miss miss miss SJDS!

~Come as a guest, leave as a friend~

Surfs up! Silje is doing the backstand-eaglepose!


Isla de Ometepe


Backpackers unite!


Treehugger Silje is quite happy!


Volcano Maderas, with volcano Concepcion in the back


The volcano is steep!


Our dear Helene y Brendan, who became such valuable friends to us


Love at finca magdalena


My little monkey


Volcano Concepcion


Bliss at El gato negro




Kyooote


Ronny rocks my socks


Gallo Pinto!


Rob grinding black heaven


Pierats Play!


The hair-obsessed cat at the Pier


Ronny's Pier-cat


I rock, you rule


Love in SJDS


Relaxing at Finca Magdalena


The parrots in Nica are rude!

Blog posts about Nicaragua:
Climbing volcanos and surfing in Nicaragua!
San Juan del Sur: Come as a guest, leave as a friend
Surfs up!
Facebook suicide
Mindblowing

Costa Rica: San Jose


San Jose is a typical shopping place, and to us, that was not da bomb. Also, we got the feeling of being scared of being robbed for the first time on out travel, it's a concrete jungle out there!
But since it was our last days, we could afford some luxury.
We miss the insane feeling of overly appreciation for everything we took for granted before. Whooa, sleeping in clean sheets, having ac, hot water, a telly and a pool felt totally awesome! Being able to walk around in a city and shopping tee's with weird prints actually felt pretty good - and we hate shopping!
Blog posts about Costa Rica:
Costa Rica
Last day of vacation....


Even here, we managed to find dogs!






Mwahahaha, Bimbo!


Got spice?


Food at the borderline