Cuba here I come!!

Yesterday my visa to Cuba arrived. I sent the application by mail the 19'th October so it just took a week. Since I sent the application by email a visa to Cuba cost 420 Nkr. It is cheaper if you have an appointment at the Cubanian embassy and go there personal, but the Cubanian embassy is located in Oslo.
What you need to send is the form of the visa application, a copy of your passport, copy of the travel tickets, a reciept of the payment of the visa, and an envelope with stamp so they can send the visa back to you. You do not need to book a hotel or Casa Particular (Bed and breakfast) in advance, even though it says so in the visa application.

I have also gotten an international driving license. I did that at NAF in Fyllingsdalen. The process was very simple. Bring a picture and the norwegian driving license and they will issue the international driving license at the cost of 60 Nkr. The international driving license is valid a year.

I also have worked on buying a motorbike in Los Angeles. So far I have not gotten any reply from the shops I have contacted, but I hope it will work out soon. It is still a long time until I leave Norway, so I am still not in a rush of getting the things fixed. However, the panniers probably need to be ordered from Happy Trail, and I am not sure how long it will take to get it delivered.

Accomodation in Miami and Nassau

Today I made reservations for accommodation in Miami and Nassau.
In Miami I found a hotel that was quite cheap compared with other hotels close to the Miami Beach. It is called The Clay Hotel and is located a couple of blocks from the beach. It looked nice painted in pink.
On Bahamas I found a hotel called Nassau Palm Resort and Conference Center which also was cheap. It is supposed to have a view over the historic island of Nassau. We will see about that.

To enter USA the first night have to be booked in advance. Now that is in order.

Travel plan

Today I booked the flights. I have already started to look forward to travel.
My plane leaves Bergen 9'th of December 2006 and I will return the 4'th og March 2007.

The route is:
Bergen (Norway 9-12-06) - Oslo (Norway 9-12-06)
Oslo (Norway 10-12-06) - Frankfurt (Germany 10-12-06)
Frankfurt (Germany 10-12-06) - Miami (USA, Florida 10-12-06)
Miami (USA, Florida 12-12-06) - Nassau (USA, Bahamas 12-12-06)
Nassau (USA, Bahamas 13-12-06) - Havanna (Cuba 13-12-06)
Havanna (Cuba 27-12-06) - Nassau (Bahamas 27-12-06)
Nassau (Bahamas 27-12-06) - Miami (USA, Florida 27-12-06)
Miami (USA, Florida 27-12-06) - Los Angeles (USA, California 27-12-06)
Los Angeles (USA, California 3-3-07) - San Francisco (USA, California 3-3-07)
San Francisco (USA, California 3-3-07) - London (United Kingdom 4-3-07)
London (United Kingdom 4-3-07) - Copenhagen (Denmark 4-3-07)
Copenhagen (Denmark 4-3-07) - Bergen (Norway 4-3-07).

This gives me 2 days in Miami, 1 day in Nassau, 15 days in Cuba and 64 days for traveling in Central America (Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama
and Belize).

The idea

A friend of mine from Guatemala (Ivo) asked me if I would be interested in joining in on a motorbike trip to Central America. I thought at once it was a great way of traveling and a nice way to meet people, so I was interested in comming along.
I told one of my other friends (Lars Petter) what me and Ivo had discussed, and he also wanted to come along.

As time passed and we planned the trip, first Ivo, then Lars Petter dropped out and that left me alone. However, I think that this was a once in a life time chance and did not want to give up the idea of traveling in Central America, so I continued with the planing.

Since I do not know any Spanish, I need to learn the language. I have already studied a bit on my own and feel relatively comfortable with the idea of going to a Spanish speaking country and manage on my own.

I also needed to get vaccinated before I leave. In parts of Panama you need the Yellow fever vaccine so I took that one just in case I get that far south. It have been some time since my last shots of Diphteria and Tetanus injection so I refilled them again. In additon I took the Polio, the Hepatitis A+B, the Typhoid fever, and have bought a Malaria vaccine. Hopefully I will not be needing any of these, but you never know.

Before I go to motorbiking I plan to go to Cuba. All the people I know that have visited Cuba recommend other people to go there, so I guess I also better go there then. In Cuba I plan to go backpacking from Havanna to Santiago de Cuba. I plan to go by public transportation and stay at "casa particular" which is private accomodation.

I also plan to stay a couple of days in Miami (USA) and in Nassau (Bahamas) before I go to Cuba.