I´m in Quito with the O and C. it´s great to be with them again and funny as always. quito is a crazy nice city. i´m really glad we decided to come. i had no idea it was going to be like this. it´s beautiful and clean and has a lot going on and the people are really nice and the architecture is really cool. i like it a lot. it feels kind of like a different country from being en el campo though. but equally interesting. this morning we found ourselves in the middle of a giant demonstration trying to get the constitution rewritten and inevitably got teargassed. i miss the farm but this is good too. i´m having trouble thinking of things that would be intersting to put on the blog. it´s ola´s birthday tomorrow (27!!), i bought a watch, i made lots of cool earings with the feathers of a dead mot mot bird that i found on the farm (gross, i know), i might meet up with this boy who went to the UBA last year and lives in Quito, we´re going to Bogota this sunday, eating lots of porridge and funny fruit, getting blisters, writing boring blog posts. basically. send me your addresses and i´ll write you postcards or draw you pictures!

p.s. lots of robberies happen in colombia. do you think i should get some sort of insurance for the month for my camera and ipod. i guess this is directed at the parents. i don´t really know where to look for that stuff.

i left the farm this morning at 6am. off to a whole new part of the trip. i´m sad to go but it was also a good time. Tina found out that her leg is actually broken ans she´s in a cast for another few weeks and most people have left. also i´m really excited to see ola and carolina and spend time with them and see colombia. I just finished leaf storm by marquez which got me really excited for it. i kind of can´t believe i´m going there! i guess i don´t know what else to say right now or how to wrap up the farm. did you know that your body takes in the most vitamin d through the palms of your hands? or that marigolds are really really good in gardens to keep out bugs. and that petunias protect beans. and you should plant spinach and strawberries together. and dandelions actually help the aromatic quality of herbs....

here are a few pictures, me and beth on the trail to the farm in the mountains, everyone getting ready to go to the creek for the afternoon swim, our room! like camp.

beth packed up her stuff and we left the farm today. i can´t believe 3 weeks has gone by already. for the next couple of days i think we´re going to stay with this lady named martha who´s friends with tina and is a breaadmaker and supposedly super buena onda and has phenomenal gardens that are unreal. also tuesday is extra cookie night where you get to eat the leftovers and sometimes there is soccer being played and she has a tv so we can watch movies. so if one of those three things happened i´d be really happy and i think it will be nice. most people have left the farm now, it´s just been 6 or 8 of us. i´ll go back on thursday for a few more days until the swedes get here and then i´m gone too! it´s been a really rewarding time. right now i´m learning a lot about composting and making garden beds and double digging soil and weeding and a little about permaculture and biodynamic techniques. i wish it was more but there are only so many hours of daylight. yesterday was sort of a birthday party for me because we wanted to have a party and people got a little confused. so we made cinnamon buns and had a fire and got sleepy and went to bed at 11. i also bought this tiny instrument called a kalimba from this man Hans who lives on the farm and makes instruments and panella wine. it makes really pretty sounds. i play it every night before i go to sleep. maybe that´s all. oh no, the most important thing, i forgot! i found a cure to mosquito bites! every time i get one i draw a circle around it in ballpoint pen and within an hour it´s disappeared and doesn´´t ever itch again. i guess the pressure of drawing it cuts off the histamine reaction or something. so my legs are covered in circles and everyone laughs at me but it´s totally worth it, the mosquitos here mean business.

so we´re back in vilcabamba for a few hours. things on the farm got a little crazy this past week but they´re good again. i found out i had parasites, i think from bolivia but maybe from the farm, but i took a bunch of medicine and they´re dead and i have so much more energy than i´ve had in a while. then last thursday tina (the lady who owns the farm) was coming home late at night alone and slipped in the creek and dislocated her kneecap really bad. then the next day since it was the weekend everybody else on the farm went to town for this healing ceremony and beth and i were left alone on the farm for the whole weekend to take care of tina without any medicine or anything. that was kind of weird and i thought about leaving but it´s ok now and everyone´s back and we´re doing lots of work again. yesterday i made a bunch of quiches and black capped raspberry pie. we eat like queens here. or more like we feast. my lostboy name is not "la quiche" cause they liked it so much. i´ve been doing lots of hard work digging out beds to put in new gardens which means serious baretta work but i´m getting strong. we bathe in the creek every day which probably couldn´t be more beautiful or refreshing. it´s kind of like one of those weird cliche utopias except that it´s not at all. i think we´re gonna go to this biological reserve this weekend and then i only have one more week! i don´t know what else. i discovered this totally new type of fruit called palmarosa which is literally the taste of biting into a rose. and there are surinam cherries that are like cherries mixed with tomatoes and passion fruit and papaya and pomegrantite and dates and zapote and oranges and grapefruits and a million other things. i´m reading really good books and drawing some pictures and waking up early. we wake up at 7 every day and hang out and eat breakfast until 8 or 9, then work in the gardens or collecting fruit or cooking until 12:30 then eat and go for a swim then work again until 5 or so, swim, cook and eat dinner by candlelight at dusk, practice salsa and go to bed at 9 or 10. i wish i could put up pictures. maybe i´ll upload some sometime soon. hasta pasta.

hello. we came into town to get our poop tested for parasites and ameobas because there´s this really good clinic here and it only costs $1.50 to get it tested so we figured we might just do it and be safe. nothing to worry about. but the farm! i wish i could put up pictures, it´s the most beautiful place i´ve ever seen. it´s one of the greenest places in the world and the farm is in a valley full of fruit between beautiful mountains with a creek that we bathe in every day and fresh water from a spring up the mountain. the food is delicious, the work is fun, the people are smart and nice and great and we´re having so much fun. there is fruit everywhere. there are about 15 people working on the farm so it´s totally full and thére´s lots to do. not so much besides fruit trees are producing right now but we´re working on a lot of new gardens. beth is great, we have fun. we practice salsa dancing every night. using a compost toilet is surprisingly not bad and hardly even smells. we eat dinner by candlelight every night and go to bed around 9 and wake up at 7. the bugs aren´t terrible, there are these giant ones though called picasenor because supposedly they stung jesus and they are like 3 inches long with bright red wings. i take showers under a chirimoya tree and eat papaya and lime for breakfast and am reading good books and drinking lots of coffee and learning a little about biodynamics and planting gardens and how to make bread and there are funny dogs and cats and i´m learning spanish vocabulary for things like ¨to weed¨ and sawdust and other things i probably wouldn´t learn if i wasn´t here. i guess i don´t really know what to say to explain it here but those are some things and i think that´s good enough.

i´m here and it´s amazing like i can´t even explain. i havent gotten to the farm yet but some people met us at the airport and we´ve been doing things all over ecuador and are about to hike out to the farm now. so i have no time to write things now but man the people are great and i´m going to learn so much and there are millions of fruit trees and i already feel like 3 weeks is not going to be long enough. so you don´t have to worry about anything! this is great.

fuck i'm freaking out and i'm leaving in two hours and i miss chile so much already. it was awful saying goodbye to evelyn and melanie and pauline. and everybody else i just didn't even get to say goodbye to. it's pretty unreal that in a day i'm going to be in another country on a farm and all of the people i've made my life around here are not going to be a part of it anymore. but i guess i'm equally asexcited as sad. so. adios.

new years!

i´m in valparaiso with evelyn, ola, and carolina. it´s amazing, i love this city. it makes me love being in chile again. aside from being the most beautiful there are also probably 2 million young people here for new years and you don´t even have to go out to bars, everyone just sits in the streets on the cerros singing and smoking cigarrettes and selling soy burgers and six packs until morning. there are so many people that all of the stores are out of alcohol. it´s weird not to have new years at home with friends but i think this one is going to be exceptional anyway with an hour of fireworks over the harbor that we watch from the top of a hill with millions of other people. so, it´s good. and after this i go to the airport at 4am on tuesday and meet beth and begin lots of new things. i´m going to be pretty m.i.a. for the next two months, so sorry if i don´t answer e'mails or update this at all. in case you are curious the farm is in vilcabamba which is near lagos in the very south of ecuador almost on the border with peru. ok. that´s all.

so in sweden today is christmas. so i have to celebrate it today. we made a compromise that we would open presents tonight at midnight since that´s what they do in chile so it will be funny. we´re making soy swedish meatballs and eggnogg and mango chickpeas and glug and potatoes and pasta salad and spinach and i bought tons of stuff to bake cookies with but then we got home and realized we don´t have an oven. so no cookies. but merry christmas. i miss everyone and wish i was with you. a lot. except it´s cold and cloudy here so it´s not that different from normal weather. we decorated the cabana last night with all the decorations from aunt debbie which was fun and now it looks great.

when travelling kicked my ass

yesterday i was sitting in a park in Calama waiting the 2 hours for my bus reading in the sun. A gyspy came over and asked me for money and i gave her a cien because i was feeling lazy and she only had two teeth. she sat down next to me and took my hands. She told me she was old and pulled up her shirt to show me her wrinkley nipples as proof. i guess she was telling the truth. She told me that I would have a long vacation and then made me tell her about my love history. She told me that she wanted to help me and that she would do it but i had to put a bill of money in my hand, not for her of course, for me. And i said no. And she said, do it now. And I said no, i don't want to. And she said, ahora, ahora! And I said, no, why can't i use this apricot instead of money? and she started screaming, ahora! el dinero en tu mano AHORA! I'm trying to help you and you're making fun of me. Do you want me to have to put a maldición on you? And she grabbed my head and pulled out my hair and grasping it in her closed hands said if i didn't want her to curse me, i'd better get out some money and put it in my hand for her to be able to help me with. I took my hair out of her hands and told her i wasn't putting the money in my hands and she left in a huff and i thought i was safe BUT when i went back to the bus station the bus never arrived and i waited and waited and finally asked where it was and apparently i was supposed to be at the other terminal (even though I specifically asked if i had to switch bus stations of wait in the same one and they told me the same one) so that bus i was supposed to be on was long gone and all the other busses were booked until december 26th. fuck, i thought, i'm stranded in this shitty gypsy cursed city and can't even get back to santiago to celebrate christmas. Then I realized that there were other companies so I went to them. one was booked until december 30th but Pullman Bus had one spot on a bus at 5 o'clock. it was 4:20. i said ok, i'll take it and took out my wallet to pay only to find a giant gaping empty spot where my debit card usually lives. it was more than i could handle and i just sat down on the floor of the bus station and cried. etc. so not only was i stranded there without any buses but also i only had $7 and didn't know anyone. I went back to the other bus station to see if they had made any progress on refunding my old useless ticket so I would at least have some money but the verdict was that it could not be refunded by them because even though i bought it from them it was not their company's bus. i didn't know what to do so i just sat outside of the bosses office and cried and totally freaked out the boy who was working there who had no idea how to handle a girl his age crying and would run by between the bosses office and downstairs as fast as he could without looking at me. But finally they managed to find a bus I could take to Antofagasta and then get a bus to Santiago in Antofagasta later. but it left at 6 and it was now 5:40. twenty minutes. and they could only reserve the ticket if i gave them some money then. so i had to call the bank long distance and cancel my credit card and see if they could send me money somehow from my account. no. ok, western union, that should work. no, only for people with accounts. ok, parents. no, answering machine. fuck, what do i do? I finally got in touch with my dad but at that point i only had $2 and i was calling long distance so i didnt know how long i could talk and it was 10 until 6. he said he would figure it out and i went to leave when the woman working at the telephone office, who had been watching everything, asked me if i was ok and completely amazingly without even knowing me or anything told me she would give me the money i needed. She gave me some water and food to calm down down and then gave me 100 dollars! i can't really get over it. it makes me really happy about people and everything always working out in general. I didn't even ask for it. i'm basically stunned. Just at the same time my dad was trying to figure out how to Western union some money to me and someone told him not to worry, that the chileans were nice and would help me out. and they did. so, after all of that and 24 hours on busses i'm home safely and i had a really nice dinner with Luke Bostian's family and now I'm going to sleep and tomorrow at 4 i'm going to pichilemu for a week with the swedes for christmas. and you will never get to hear about bolivia because i'm tired. it was pretty.

i just got back from bolivia. what, bolivia?! yes. i´ll tell you about it when i get back to santiago on friday.

i´m in the desert now getting sunburnt waiting for a bus so i thought i would sit in an internet cafe for a half hour. the past 2 days have mostly just been travelling and not too exciting but i´m two hours away from san pedro de atacama now which should be exciting. it´s a little weird being alone but mostly i feel safe and not that lonely and i´ve just been reading a lot of pablo neruda and drawing and writing down the things i wish i was having conversations with people about. the desert is a little intimidating. i´ve never been to one before. all i could think about as the bus pulled into antofagasta was why did i come north? this is the scariest place i´ve ever been to. no wonder it was easy for the dictatorship to dissappear people. all there is are grayish tan mountains, gray cement factories, giant mines, and an occasional gray brown pine tree that you almost miss because it blends into the landscape so well. then out of nowhere, still in the middle of nowhere, houses begin to be etched into the mountainside. there are no trees though, not even a cactus. it´s far from an oasis but still it exists which is impressive. then suddenly and totally unexpectedly there are millions of houses and the ocean, all the bluer for the lack of any color surrounding it and still engulfed in mountains on all sides, which is striking enough to see that it makes me glad i came. antofagasta is weirdly like santiago in the way it looks, which means kind of ugly. some people drove me up to see part of the escondida mine which i think is the biggest copper mine in the world but it was actually 2 hours away so i didnt see it, just the processing plant where they turn the copper powder into sheets and load it onto ships. it´s interesting to see the part of chile that really fuels the country´s economy and that´s responsible for starting a lot of the major political movements of the past. chile of course has to buy copper at the world market price. but the people who work in the mines seem to have pretty good working conditions now from what i´ve been told.. i´m in calama now and the half hour is almost up so i guess that´s all. i´m looking forward to spending a bunch of days in san pedro although it is frusterating that it´s a totally tourist place and me going there just continues to fuel that and i hate being excited about seeing people with backpacks or light eyes or hearing english because really that´s not what i want. i could have not come to chile if i just was going to hang out with those people but in practice it´s a lot harder and really all i want to do is meet other backpackers and have something in common and hang out with them. etc...

vicuna, nestled among the mountains, is tiny and delightful. the outside is made up of long walls and chipped paint that sometimes allow a rose bush to peek through giving a tiny glimpse into the wonders hidden beahind those walls: 20 ft tall hollyhocks, apricot trees, creeks, chilli peppers. piles upon piles of rosebushes, grapes, avocado trees, sunflowers, palms, plums, and an assortment of other fruit i can´t even name. and there, as you look past the garden are the neverending mountains. last night i saw red giants and blue giants and megellan´s clouds in clear view without a telescope and through a telescope i looked at future supernovas and other galexies and o´rion´s nebula and more stars than i´ve seen in my whole life. then today i went biciclying in the mountains and stumbled upon a forest of figs ripe and juicy and just waiting for me to eat them! i cooked dinner with a french man and now i am going to antofagasta 12 hours north. being alone is not so bad.