Red Cross Youth Camp

 I was there

 With my friends Jonas and Edward, and upcoming delegate Ida

And my Red Cross Youth accomplice Dasha

Inbetween homecoming seminars and going back to Tromsø to attend weddings and the youth camp, I managed to hold on to my head cold a full four weeks, and they sent me home from the camp after I'd been there one day. Anyway, it was nice to be back in Norway, working with "my" Red Cross and seeing all the other delegates again.

The final, green photos of green things being green in the Amazon

 "Sunni, this is completely harmless. Are you sure you don't want to hold it?" I'm fine, thank you. "It's just a centipede." That's all right, I don't need to. "It won't hurt you, it's not poisonous and it can't bite, are you sure?" I'm fine, thank you please thank you I'm fine let me just take a photo.

 There were trees. They were big.

 My guide, Reinaldo, an indigenous ticuna man who spoke Spanish as his second tongue, and way better than my Spanish (as my third tongue).

 OH MY WORD A TARANTULA but it kept itself safe inside it's den and wouldn't come out. 

I was fine with that.

Me, in my canoe, on the small river that left off the big Amazon, being allowed to paddle along at my own speed, listening to the roaring noise of the toads, the cicadas, the birds and the insects on my last day before returning to the roaring noise of the cars, the music and the people in Cali.

That's it from the Amazon, babes.

Dolphins and swimming in the Amazon

 Don't focus on the boat. Focus on the grey spots ahead of the boat.

 Look, there are dolphins! 

I didn't see the pink ones, but the "regular" grey ones were brilliant and playful.

 "Do you want to swim in the river?" Of course I do. Are there things that can bite me? "No, there's nothing dangerous." But are there no things that can eat me? "No, Sunni, it's safe." But are you saying that it's completely safe? "Yes, Sunni." Okay. SPLASH. Nothing ate me.

 I just have too many photos of this because it was too beautiful.

And the sun set and my heart was breaking with the sheer awesomeness and amazingness of it all.

Creeping things (look away, mum)

 No, just kidding, further down for that. This is me, learning how to make bracelets.

 From a brilliant Ticuna woman who told me that they got this material from a tree, 

and the colours were all natural as well.

 Then I went on a night walk. This is not a spider. Nor is it a scorpion. And it's harmless. "Will you hold it, Sunniva?" - No, thanks. "But it's harmless, Sunni." I'm fine, thank you, Reinaldo.

 Another day, we crossed the river and waved at Peru. 

As you can see, it's a completely different country.

 Then we went to the second largest city in the area, Puerto Nariño.

 A big, big city.

 Amazon! Peru! Excitement!

And every other tourist in the Colombian part of the Amazon.

I was staying at the Yoi Ecolodge, which was expensive, but everything was included, from picking me up at the airport, the boat to the lodge, all the activities and travelling on the river I did while there, as well as all the yummy meals I got. And after all, I was paying to stay somewhere far into the jungle, far away from the towns and cities and people, and the only time I saw this amount of people (see photo above) was in Puerto Nariño and in Leticia, where I didn't stay long. I am absolutely recommending it for anyone thinking about visiting the Colombian Amazon, because it is definitely worth the experience.

Then there were monkeys

 We went to a monkey sanctuary, 

which is incredibly important for the preservation of different species

 Like this babe, after someone shot his mum to provide food for their family, 

and they realized she had a baby and brought him to the sanctuary

 He just wanted to cuddle on everyone's head like he used to with his mum (here with guide Salome)

 And then there was this lady who was not in the best of moods

Maybe foreseeing the change of weather that was coming on in the afternoon that day.

This is a typical issue in many countries - there are new restrictions on how many animals and what kind of animals you can hunt for food purposes, but people live far away from the capital, and they need food, and it's difficult to get them to change the habits of generations in a short time. At least this type of sanctuary is working with people, telling them what species are close to extinction, and making sure to take care of babies like the one above, or others, when they come to the sanctuary. The adult primates live freely in the middle of the jungle, and decide whether they want to come to the sanctuary for food and check-ups, or sleep in a tree close by.

The Amazon is green, and we are all surprised

 I just realised that it's been three months since I left the Amazon. 

 It was ridiculously expensive, but I am so pleased that I did it.

 Just sitting on a boat, hours on end, looking at green things and listening to the noisy, noisy nature.

 Oh, and this is the actual Amazon river. And Peru, over there on the other side.

Hello little monkey. He was a cheeky monkey.

I just want to break everyone's ideas of the jungle right now: It's not serene, peaceful and quiet. It's noisy, loud, and crowded with animals. Not the exciting, big, colourful animals either, but lots of tiny frogs, toads, monkeys, birds, grasshoppers, crickets, and things that make a lot of noise. The peacefulness comes from there being hardly any people, no cars, and the few houses and communities often being half-hidden from view.

Easter holiday (I am very up-to-date)

Xiomara and me in Villa de Leyva in Boyacá

I don't even know what happened to time. I was just on holiday, seeing my friend and former youth delegate in Tromsø, Xiomara, and in the city of Medellin, getting to know all the friends of current youth delegate from Colombia to Norway, Franco. Then I came back to Cali, did some work, went out a few times, went to my language exchange, met new people and old people and WHAT I am almost on my way home to Norway and I haven't even finished editing my holiday photos because of all the activities I want to do before I leave this place.

Some day, you might even get to see more of the Amazon photos.

Editing my Amazon photos

Look, there's a river. And a rainforest.

I have a startling amount of boring photos from the Amazon. There are lots of trees. A lot of river. One or two not-so-flattering portraits of me doing amazing stuff and not thinking about how I look, courtesy of my brilliant guide Reinaldo. More trees. And then some more river. But some of the river-and-rainforest-photos did turn out all right, like this one, when we were on our way home to the cabins after a day of dolphin-spotting (but really bad photo opportunities), lake-swimming (one of those portraits I talked about) and piranha-fishing (coincidentally in the same lake I had just been swimming in).

The best thing about being in the Amazon was just this - being out on a river all day, only seeing trees and plants and green things all around me, and listening to the deafening sound of hundreds of toads, birds and cicadas calling for attention.

Now I'm off on another holiday (I do work sometimes, I promise), so we'll just leave this photo as a teaser for what I'll upload mid-April. Prepare yourselves for unflattering photos of me doing things.

The last photos from Cartagena

 Everything colonial and romantic

 Within the old city walls everything is too beautiful to be true (and outside it is the opposite)

 But we were living in a fairy tale and drinking tea in luxurious patios in posh hotels

 With all the flora you could imagine, all more verdant than you could capture in a photo

And with all the other tourists from all over the world

Better late than never, eh? And now, almost two months later, I'm on my way on a new holiday. The main reason I do not post here is that I try to keep my work related stuff on the youth delegate blog, and to be honest I don't take that many photos outside of work. Let's see if I manage to get some on this holiday.

The Palace of the Inquisition which also happens to be the Local History Museum

 Where it was slightly absurd to see replica of torture instruments used more than two hundred years ago, and knowing that the instruments were used on all sorts of heretics, including witches and protestants.

 And then walk outside in the peaceful garden, stepping on to the gallows (here you can see the trap-door)

 In the garden, there was also a modern art exhibition

 and views of the peaceful-looking Palace of the Inquisition.

 In the courtyard, there was a long text in Spanish about the history of the house and of the Inquisition.

There was also a dad on the second floor.

Cartagena is one of the well-preserved colonial cities in Colombia, and was one of the most important ports in the country for a long time (actually, it still is). There were, of course, indigenous people living here before the Spanish came, and they were, of course, robbed not only of their gold, but also of their culture and land. Then the conquerers threw in some good old Inquisitioning on top, to bother even their own citizens. I think it's good to remember these things, especially when walking around in a beautiful colonial city - remember just what "colonial" means.

Cartagena (aka My Caribbean Holiday)

 There were beaches: normal beaches, white beaches with blue sea, overcrowded beaches and almost empty beaches (the non-white ones with a slightly less blue sea), and we visited them all

 There were people, vendors, children, and lots of waves and sunshine

There was also a dad, who came all the way from Norway to Colombia to visit me

As my co-delegate Johanne went home to visit her family in Norway for Christmas, I stayed on in Cali, working almost until New Year's Eve. Then I hopped on a plane northwards, met up with my dad in Bogotá, the capital, and hopped on a new plane towards Cartagena. We stayed about ten days in the sweltering heat and absurd humidity, going on bike tours, beach trips and museum visits, and getting to know pretty much every corner (and café) in the old town.

The latest photos I took with my Nikon

 are over one month old (here: Maria, Stephania and Linda)

 and from the Global Forum of Resilience here in Cali

 with participants from 78 different Red Cross National Societies

talking about how to create resilient communities in face of disaster

And then... I don't really use my own camera much, since we have a "work" camera from the Red Cross, and I'm already carrying around too much stuff to add an extra weight to my backpack every day. It feels odd, because even while working in completely unrelated jobs in Norway, I usually used my camera more, at least to photograph my family and friends, but here I really don't use it. It might be some of the same reason that I am totally neglecting the blog - there is too much blogging, computer work and photography in my day-to-day work already, and when I'm at home I just feel like doing other things to unwind. I'll have to see what I can do about this.