So Colombia. I am officially very much in love with it already. From the moment I arrived, I noticed that it is much different than most places I have been to. Here's some of them:

• you can drink the water. and it doesn't taste bad!
  


• you can flush toilet paper down the toilet. so very nice to not see brown-streaked toilet paper overflowing out of the trash bin.
  

• you can pay with credit card pretty much anywhere (very financially helpful for me at this point in the trip...) and all I need is my CA driver's license. Everywhere else I have needed my passport. Not a fun thing to carry around in my purse all day. STRESSFUL

• there is regular, decent, relatively easily navigated public transportation in most cities.
  

• people are so ridiculously friendly, wanting to help you even when unsolicited

• groceries are a little more expensive, but produce still stays cheap cheap cheap. here's to eating vegetables for every meal!

• I am living in a city of 8 million people where I can easily occupy myself daily (for under $5 a day) without work or other obligatory activities.
  

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Thank you, Colombia. Life is good.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

It's been a while.

Funny story. About two weeks ago (maybe even three by now...) I was headed to the internet cafe so that I could write another blog and mention how good I was at blogging lately. But then when I got there I found out that all of my pictures from the entire trip had been deleted off of my little flash drive. (I have no idea how that happened. I just plugged it in once and they were GONE!) So then I was a little preoccupied trying to figure it out so I didn't blog. The pictures are still deleted but it's ok because I have most of them on Picasa. But I did lose a lot of my pictures from Arequipa and the first half of Bolivia. it's a shame. shame shame shame. Gotta figure out some better way to save my pictures so this doesn't happen again.

That was in Sucre. Between Santa Cruz and Sucre I went to a place called Samaipata, which was absolutely beautiful. It's a beautiful little hippie town and I saw tons of animals and stayed at a cute place where I had a feather pillow. Feather pillow! I think it had to have been a mistake, but I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want it to be taken away. No pictures :( they are gone

Then I took a plane to Sucre because I'd heard from a lot of people that the bus ride was at least 17 hours and absolutely terrible. Plus, a plane ticket was only $50 so I splurged! Definitely a good choice.

Sucre was a beautiful city, the former capital of Bolivia. It was stolen away by La Paz years ago and they are still pretty bitter. The supreme court is still in Sucre, but everything else is in La Paz. Outside of Sucre there are dinosaur footprints so I visited those. They are on a vertical wall thing because of the techtonic plates moved. They aren't sure how much longer they will last because it is eroding.

can you see the footprints?

I was there for a day extra since I missed my bus to Uyuni. Caught the bus the next day. Good thing I flew to Sucre because it was a long long bus ride where I was sure that the bus was going to break down any minute. Luckily it didn't break down and I made it to Uyuni by sundown. I was supposed to meet up with friends there to do a tour of the Salt Flats together but hadn't heard from them and couldn't find them in the tiny tiny town of Uyuni so I booked a tour on my own. The tour was incredible. It felt like I was on a different planet. Everyone who had done the tour before told us how horribly freezing it was (-20 degrees celcius at night, which is around -5 farenheit) and you stay in little huts with thatched rooves. I was prepared for the worst, but the nights weren't that bad. The bad part was at 6am when we got a flat tire. I thought my toes were going to freeze off. Luckily, they didn't.

salt flats

At the train cemetery

''Arbol de Piedra'' - Stone Tree

After Uyuni I took an 11-hour night bus back to La Paz. I only had one day there so I walked around doing all the touristy stuff I didn't do last time I was there. Again, I really enjoyed La Paz. It's truly a city unlike any other I've ever seen.

A bus in La Paz

Had a flight the next morning (Tuesday) to Bogota, Colombia that I was SURE was at 11. Unfortunately, when I arrived at the airport at 9, I was informed that the flight was actually at 9. oops. (I am calm about it now, but you can be sure I was the opposite when it happened. not a fun day) So after a series of frustrated phone calls in both Spanish and English, I finally got myself on another flight on Friday to Bogota with ''only'' an $83 fee. With my newly acquired 3 extra days in La Paz, I mostly just lounged around on my friend's couch and watched Grey's Anatomy and Lost.

I made it to Bogota, and now I'm loving the city, hanging out with Linnea and Trish, and planning my upcoming trip to the coast. hooray!