In theory we're going to back blog since we've done some pretty amazing things since we last wrote, but the actuality of it, if we're realistic with ourselves, is we'll probably never get around to it.
So here's the briefing...
- Puno and Lake Titicaca, including the floating islands of the Uros people,
- Cusco, with the wonderful hospitality of Juan Carlos and the beautiful architecture of the Incas
- Machu Pichu, there's a reason for all its fame, yet with its hundreds of visitors every day, at one point we were the very first in and it was as if it was a deserted city all to ourselves slightly hidden by the mist of the morning
- Trekking and ice climbing in the White Mountains of the Andes in Ancash, Peru
- Back into Ecuador to sit at the bottom of a currently erupting volcano
- Time with a Harre Krishna community
- Cuenca and the hospitality of Joaquin plus 8 days of sweets for the festival of Corpus Christi
- The third highest waterfall in the world
- The mountaintop fortress of Kuelap
- Floating down the Amazon on a cargo ship to a city that can only be reached by water or air
- Piranha fishing in a tributary to the Amazon River
- Monkeys stealing Donny's hat and dangling it just out of reach from a fruit tree
- Projects where we worked alongside villagers, learning what Quechua we could; or dressing up as clowns helping fundraise for an after school program to keep kids off the streets
- More good timing of attending festivals and celebrations
- Countless new friends through hitch hiking, couch surfing and the generosity of strangers
Nearly a year and a half exactly since we had taken off from Georgia, it was bittersweet boarding our plane in Lima to head back to the United States. While everyone else on our Spirit Airlines flight was complaining about the lack of room and only one soda on offer for refreshments, we felt like the Beverley Hillbillies when they first reached Beverly Hills. We marveled at the bathroom- a toilet seat! toilet paper! a sink complete with soap, and the kicker of it all, hot water! And even with Spirits cheapness, still we didn't have to pay a dime just to use it.
While the Latin American food and fresh tropical fruits and vegetables are going to be severely missed (you can probably tell we like it by how many pictures we took of our food) we are excited to get back to find a new emergence of farmers markets in the states and can’t wait to cover our hands and faces with the deliciousness of fresh sweet corn and blueberries. We are also excited about experiencing some of our own countries “kindness of strangers”. We are hoping we are going to find similarities to our experience in the south when we try hitchhiking on back roads or randomly knocking on the door of a small farmer in a rural area (already tested and proven these past couple of weeks in New York State).
But most of all we are excited to get back to our friends and family whom we have missed dearly over the past 18 months. Seeing the strong family structures (not uncommon to see four generations living together under the same roof) of every place we have visited outside the states has made us realize even more, just how important family and friends are. And for those that have continued to read our blogs for this long, you must really be a good friend and we can’t wait to see you soon.
Thank you to all of those wonderful people who have followed our travels over the last two years. It has been an incredible ride and could not have been done without your support. We hopefully will be adding more blogs as we decipher our journal notes (any one know what “great ride with chicken man on pineapple tortilla” means? Me neither.) to fill in some of the times we missed. Other than that, we will be picking up the blog when we start our Asian trip this fall. Yes that is right, we are heading back on the road. We plan on working feverishly on our non-profit, The GROW Initiative, this summer and will be continuing our projects in the fall in Southeast Asia. Check out www.growinitiative.org in a couple of weeks to see some of our progress.
Its good to be home!
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