carnaval is basically over now and i didnt take any pictures cause i think it was pretty certain that my camera would be robbed if i took it out of the house. we spent most of it in barranquilla which is one of colombia´s biggest cities and really trashy and ugly but friendly and now we´re in Taganga, a fishing town on the coast where the people are even friendlier. so we spent a bunch of days in barranquilla with a colombian couple Ronnie y Ladeies and the sweetest baby i´ve ever seen Ronnie Jr. there were lots of parades with dancing and funny costumes but mostly it was just realy sponsored and there were also lots of trucks with dancing naked women advertising beer or headache medicine (colombia has the most breast implants of anywhere because plastic surgery is really cheap) and the official stuff didn´t really feel at all like a festival for the people, you had to pay to sit in a chair and watch the parade and you had to pay to go to any of the tent parties afterwards, actually the official slogan of the carnival is ¨quien lo vive es quien lo goza¨which means that you only can enjoy it if you spend a lot of money. but when you got away from that part the streets were full of people and every single house had 10 or 20 people sitting outside on the porches dancing or listening to music at the bars on the corner. so leideis and ronnie took us to the south where the used to live and we all danced and they all laughed at us for not being suave enough and we learned the stories of their lives (they are black market perfume makers among other things) and then they told us that we were their only friends and asked us to come back in june for the baptism and be Ronnie´s godparents and that was kind of weird and sad but mostly we just had fun together and spent all day yesterday at the beach with the baby trying caribbean sweets and eating fish. on our way to taganga we met some argentinian guys and split a cab there and then we got there and every hostel was full so we are staying in their place now which is on the top of a hill overlooking the town in this giant domed house made made of palm leaves in the indigenous style. some italian man built it for vacations but then he got sick and went back to italy so now it´s for us and we really lucked out and it´s only $2.50 each. i´m only writing all these things because i´ve been waiting hours for some pictures to load but it looks like it´s not going to happen. i go back to bogota on saturday and then even bigger things start to happen like school and parents and moving. that is really soon!

it´s carnaval! everything is sparkles! and i got robbed! (for the first time!) but it was only the hotel key and i felt them do it so we ran home and everything was fine except that the stupid hotel didn´t have an extra copy of the key so we had to wait all night for the locksmith to come and drill open the lock and then we had to pay for it all. but it´s carnaval and there is glitter and tacky costumes everywhere and i am going to go enjoy it.

p.s. have you read pilgrim at tinker creek by annie dillard? i´m finding it to be one of the lovliest most wonderful books. i want to read aloud every line and call you and share how alive it makes me feel.

we went to playa blanca, a beach a few hours from cartagena, for a few days with linda and andreas (caroline´s friends from high school) who are funny. the beach was the carribean so turquoise and beautiful and we slept in hammocks under the stars(which is not as romantic as it sounds. mostly it´s just freezing and windy and your legs and arms go numb and you wake up at 7 am to toothless ladies screaming ¨ensalada de fruuuta¨ in your sleepy face and not leaving for 10 minutes even when you breathe bad breath on them and tell them you can´t eat fruit when you are asleep so why are they insisting.) but it was kind of really touristy there of course and the vendors were crazy and wouldn´t leave us alone and we ran out of money because everyone felt bad if they weren´t good tourists buying lots of things all the time. and i thought i couldn´t take it anymore but we couldn´t find any boats to take us back to cartagena so instead i went snorkling and saw the most beautiful fish i´ve ever seen in my life and almost got washed out to sea because i couldn´t take my face out of the water for hours they were so amazing. then i sat on the beach with watercolors and painted five year old pictures of fish and all of the people selling stuff stopped and watched me and told me the names of all the fish i drew and i painted fish tattoos on them and they told me one day they would marry me and my eyes.

i´m in cartagena and it is HOT. i mean HOTT. it´s also super touristy and there are lots of stereotypical americans saying stupid things like ¨look an iguana! i´m gonna go grab that fucker¨ or ¨dude, quick! four chicks are getting on that boat. hot!¨and i feel kind of uncomfortable and i don´t really know what to do about it. i bought some watercolors and that´s fun but basically all i can manage to do every day is stand up and take a cold shower and then pass out on the bed again from heat exhaustion. but maybe i´ll get some motivation soon and do fun stuff. the last nights in bogota were nice. we went out and met really nice colombians and had a good time talking to them even though they were crazy. but who´s not. in bogota they don´t stop at red lights which is not so surprising but when the light is green EVERYBODY stops and waits for the people with the red lights to go through. also if you need to make a phone call there are people on the corners with cell phones and you pay them 10 cents a minute and you can use it. also remember bill nye the science guy? well he is pretty smart and makes complicated things simpler and explained moons and tides really well here: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Features/Columns/?article=BNTides>1=9033 .moons were a pretty prominant part of farm life and are pretty fascinating. so if you think so too, you can read about it! it has a lot to do with when the best times to put seeds in the ground are and other things. did you know colombia´s the third largest recipient of US military aid? coming here our bus got stopped for like an hour in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere in total darkness. man i almost had a heart attack. but actually its pretty calm right now and i feel safe.

i´m in bogota! i like it a lot. but it´s fall and cold and even though i´m on the equator i feel more like i´m at home than i have so far down here. driving from ecuador to bogota looked just like the drive to bard except for the extra big mountains and cumbia coming from the radio. it´s been so long since my last fall and this one is really unexpected. i didn´t realize how much i appreciate seasons. it makes me kind of miss it and i´m excited about settling into Buenos Aires and fall there. i can´t wait to get a job and wear sweaters and cook and go to shows again. we´ve been travelling for the past few days with 2 guys from argentina and one of them is moving to buenos aires in march too and he was funny and piolo and it will be nice to see him there. but colombia is exciting too! now we´re here and hopefully going to stay with caroline´s friends, but maybe ola and i have to stay in a hostal cause there are 5 of us (including a swedish pop star. ooh) i think we´re gonna stay here for 10 days then go to cartagena for a week and go along the coast for a little and then come back and fly home. i´m learning lots of swedish and speaking lots of spanish too. like this is hoe you sing happy birthdaÿ: ja ma han leva ja ma han leva ja ma han leva uti hundrade ar ja visst ska han leva ja visst ska han leva ja visst ska han leva uti hundrade ar! oh i have to go. i never write about what is really going on, lots of other things too. now we´re making earings out of beans and feathers and having crazy conversations with people from here who think bush is the best world leader and are mad at me that i don´t respect him. ...

safely in colombia! i´ll write more soon