Goodbye Jamaica ...

But hello DR:)

We have swapped Jamaica with the Dominican Republic. We found the spot, the hotel and found out that this is where we should be - we have actually already booked it too:) We are going to Cabarete in the Dominican Republic. It sounds a bit like a developing country:) But it looks super-cool. The island is called Hispaniola (the island where both DR and Haiti is located, it is split down the middle between the two countries)

There are several reasons why we have made the swap. Firstly, there are a million things in Jamaica, and none of it looks pretty nice, if you ask me. I would really like to go to the island, but we will certainly get enough beach, etc. both before and after (we have a few stops along the Caribbean Sea down through Central America and we have the coast of Brazil later). We have found a pleasant small local place without too many tourists, with a view over the sea, where we can drink rum and eat local food:) We will also listen to the lovely merengue rhythms :) It is some kind of dance and music that is prevalent in Latin America, you can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruiwZIzM2kI

Flights from San Jose, Costa Rica to DR can be done much cheaper than Jamaica (2,000 instead of 6,000 DKK to Jamaica), and the hotel looks local and cozy. The beach is known as a surfers paradise (maybe we should try to learn it while we are there:)) It is called the surfers paradise bacause of the constant see-breeze on the place. If it becomes too much, we can go 14 km. away to Sousa where the is snorkel options (a coral reef is present). Cabarete town is within walking distance with local bars, restaurants etc. We just have to explore the night life too:)

It may rain a lot on the north coast of DR at the time we are planing to visit but if it should rain for a day or two we would proberly survive:) I think it will be fine - nice to sleep when you hear the rain pouring down outside:)

Our hotel can be found here: http://barefootbeachpad.com. We have picked the Oceanfront Suite, which has both a balcony to the sea and the poolside, and we have sea view from the bathroom as well:) We have booked from December 22nd to January 2nd.

We are really looking forward to this place. The hotel looks really nice, we've written together with Hector, the owner:) The view looks great, we all have many opportunities; local restaurants, bars, surfing, beaches, etc. All without it being too touristy ... :)

Couchsurfing

Has anyone heard about the concept of couchsurfing? :) Trine found this excellent concept through servas.dk (actually one of the contacts referred us to it) You can check it out here: www.couchsurfing.org. In brief, you crash other peoples couches :) Nice concept.

The plan is to use the Servas concept (Take a look at: www.servas.org), and couchsurfing some places, like one place per country. In that way, we can experience the the culture that is present in the countries we are planing to visit.

Trine has been very excited today:) It has been fun to receive calls from her, with her telling about what she had found out of:) "Now you just listen; we need this and this and this...', etc. :)

Now I have also been wildly hooked on the idea. Our travel ideas were already good, but now it just got 1000% better:)

Resigned and 'final' plan

I have just resigned my job! Weird feeling...
  
It was with a weird feeling in my stomack that I met the manager. But it had to be done. It's actually a very ambivalent feeling I am left with. I very much like being at Solar - great job. I'll miss the place and good colleagues, and especially the good work (yes, that was before I started working with SAP MDM, it was when I had the cool jobs, I'll remember that for later :) ). Of course I have also been looking forward to getting out, so I haven't had the same spirit and energy as 6 months ago. Surely this is very natural and I think everyone would feel the same way. But the worst day is still waiting ... Last day! I really fear that day. 
Travel plans have progressed. We are now, finally, actually ready with a rough plan:) It's the first time that we had something we both believe will not be changed that much :)

• America (2 ½ months)
• New York
• Washington (where the car is picked up) 
• Driving across the U.S., the plan has not yet been established (and we don't really want it to be planned to much in detail ) Who would ever do a planned vacation. No, then I would rather stay home :)) But we will visit Memphis (yes, I would like to see where Elvis lived, I think Trine doesn't care ) But she is good at pretending that she also thinks it is a good idea :)), New Orleans , the deep south, Las Vegas, a lot of national parks and more. (Who said eating burgers?:) Yes yes, I'm starting to lose weight, so I can afford to gain a little weight again in the US :))

• Take the plane from LA to Mexico City
• Central America (2 ½ months)
• Spanish course in Mexico City (or somewhere else in Mexico) 3-4 weeks
• Take the bus with Bamba Experiences down through Central America, to San Jose - Costa Rica Lots of stops along the way, where we will encounter a completely different culture. There are plenty of opportunities for stops with Bamba Experience, and we still control it by ourselfs as we decide when we will leave for the next stop along the route. Kind of hop-on hop-off concept.

• Jamaica (10-12 days, will fit with Christmas and New Year)
•  Here we'll relax, drink lots of jamaica-rum, drink lots of drinks and listen to reggae music:) (I wonder if I would look good with dreadlocks?:))

• South America (5 months)
• Peru (Hiking the Inca trails from Cusco and jungle trips from Iquitos) 
• By bus through northern Chile, northern Argentina all the way to Brazil. What we'll do? Well ho knows :) Not quite sure yet, but I know they have good steaks in Argentina, so that was one thing:) The rest will prob. come all by it self :)
• Foz the iguazu (If you do not know what it is, try google it :) One of the world's largest waterfall ) 
• Rio and carnival ...!!! (If we end up in Brazil when Carnival is there ). Lots of sexy Brazilian women :) Soccer :)  Trine would like to see sexy Brazilian men too :) We look forward to a nice carnival :)
• A trip up the coast in Brazil, either to Fortaleza or Recife. 
• Bolivia and the coolest animal project:) (at least on paper) which camp we choose we don't know yet, but you can see it all on http://www.intiwarayassi.org/. Here we'll stay a couple of months or until we get tired of it, or we run out of money :)

Well, see you again in 2012 :)

The dream

I have a dream... And that is actually good just remember to live out the dream as well - That is what it is all about! :) Do something about it instead of just thinking it. Now we will do this and it will (hopefully) be a nice experience.

It all started with a dream a long time ago. About the same time Trine and I moved to Jelling, Denmark. She started studying - wanted to become a teacher. (that is about 5 years ago). We wanted to go travel Africa - go from project to project. Some projects for 3 months other maybe just 2 weeks. All from homeless people to HIV kids, to animal projects or maybe building projects. It should be so nice in Africa after dark - Congo they all said :) Well we just had to check it out on our own... 


But then we started planning our trip and when we found the first animal project in Bolivia which was just what we where looking for then we where already in South America... And you can't really go to South America without seeing something else :) Then the entire planning of our trip kind of took a different turn than what whe originally thought it should be. We now have a rough plan for around 8-10 months of travel. 2-3 months in USA, maybe a trip through Central America. Jamaica, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil (As it looks right now - but it is changing all the time :))


The Africa dream is still alive - we just have to do it later. We have checked out so many things about Africa and we have many ideas. But it just has to wait until next trip... It is really interesting to plan the trip but also kind of hard. There is so many things to take into consideration. We visited Kilroy travels today where we met a great guy, Mirza. A great guy with tons of ideas. He made us think things over twice and there is quite a number of details that has to be corrected before we are ready! :) 

The blog is now started and our preparations in moving into the final fase.