Stefan 2000

	In January Stefan was in India together with our good friend P.K. Mahanandia.  25 years ago P.K. fell in love with Lotta from Sweden.  He bought himself a bicycle and cycled from India to Gothenburg to be with her.  They now live outside of Borås with their two children, Emily and Carl.  Stefan and P.K. are working on a documentary about his life and about Orissa, the area where he grew up.
After P.K. returned home, Stefan and his friend Phil Price from Colorado went to the Andaman Islands to do some diving and sightseeing.  Many of the old British colonial buildings now look like this church.  The jungle has invade them completely. It is amazing how quickly nature reclaims itself.
	In february he continued on to Sri Lanka.  In Macaldeniya there is a tea plantation that has been harrassed by elephants for the past couple of years.  The owner is fond of elephants and doesn't want to shoot them but they are ruining his crops and scaring the workers.  The elephant team with Dr. Atupattu in the lead are trying to capture and move some of these elephants.    The film about this operation will be aired on Swedish Television in 2001.
In March it was time to fly to the USA again. We had gotten a launch date for a river trip down the Colorado River.  We bought a big 15-passenger van and made a trip to Grand Canyon with the kids.  Here Stefan has taken the four oldest children on a short hike down Bright Angel Trail.
April 15th was the launch date and together with 15 other people Stefan began a three week trek down the river, traveling through the magnificent Grand Canyon. They camped by the riverside and encountered many of the canyons inhabitants.
In June we were all back in Sweden.  Since Stefan is working a lot in Dalarna on a film about the relationship between bears and people, the whole family gets to vacation up there.  We try to go with him as much as possible.  Dalarna is a beautiful area of Sweden.  On midsummer eve, June 21, he flew back to Sri Lanka to finish filming the elephant project.  Magnus went with him.  Magnus went with Stefan to Sri Lanka in January too.  On the last day of that trip he met Vashanti, a girl from Negombo.  It was love at first sight, and Magnus wanted to explore this relationship some more so he accompanied Stefan again in June.  Now Magnus and Vashanti are planning a February wedding in Negombo.  We are hopping to be able to attend the wedding.
In August Stefan left for his annual trip to Alaska.  He spent 3 weeks on Kodiak with five Swedes in his group. Here he is working on a film about the marine life around the island.  He did some diving among the kelp forests. They also traveled up to Denali NP for a week.	Then 3 of those Swedes went home and two others, hunters from Vara, joined them and they flew up to Kobuk, Alaska to Boris.  Boris lives far from civilization in a small log cabin.  He spends his time hunting and trapping. He is originally from Russia and has an incredible life story that Stefan is trying to document.

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