Home. Well, as most of you know, I've been home for a few weeks and well, already I feel like it's time for me to hit the road again! :) I was meandering along my international pathway for 249 days, and loved every single MINUTE of it! I think i got homesick once (when the Packers were in the NFC Championship Game....it really made me miss my friends and family - MY TEAM!) and only got sick from the strange foods once (my last week in Peru, can you believe it!?) I met so many friends I cannot even count them [View Full Entry]

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Let me just tell you up front, if it's a surprise from your Inca Trail guide, its probably going to be NO BUENO (and most likely, it's MORE STEPS!) Megan and I had limited time together and only 10 days in Peru and Bolivia, so we opted for the 2 day Inca Trail hike instead of the 4 days. We took a train at 5am to Km104 and got dropped off...well...pretty much in the middle of nowhere. We checked in with our guide, and sorted through the 20lbs of food we had with us - between the box breakfast from our [View Full Entry]

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A few days before my birthday, Megan and I were in Lima trying to map out the rest of our week, and I saw the city Copacabana on our map, so we immediately changed course and headed to Bolivia! We arrived in Puno, the last stop in Peru, at about 5pm and had missed the last bus to Bolivia, so we hired a private taxi to zoom us around the lake and take us to the border. We arrived at the border about 15 minutes before closing and were super surprised to find out that entry to Bolivia was going to [View Full Entry]

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An animal lovers dream, I spent my last days in Ecuador relaxing in the alternate universe that is the Galapagos Islands! Of course, as usual, half of my trip was spent underwater, so unfortunately there are no pics to share of that! You will have to trust me that it was AWESOME! Of course my goal of the dives was to see the coveted Hammerhead sharks....they are on every postcard, diving tshirt, and souviner for sale in the Galapagos, and DARN IT ALL, I only saw the tail of one as he swam away, which DOESNT COUNT! I really wanted a [View Full Entry]

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It was time for me to move onward and upward, to the La Hesperia reserve in the Andes highlands of Ecuador! It was a very different experience than my coastal volunteering, mostly in the respect that it didn´t feel so much like a slave labor camp :) but also in the fact that we were isolated from the world and living on an 800 hectare cloud forest rainforest reserve (with horizontal rain, new and exciting!) and working dairy farm! There were a few major projects in the works as I arrived, and I was able to participate in whatever interested me [View Full Entry]

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Wow! I wish you could hear my new way of saying that....as my friends in Muisne have taught me....its more of a Wooowwww. Its been a long time, kids! Speaking of long time, its taking forever to load the pictures, so those will have to wait. But I need to tell you about the absolutely amazing perspective-altering experiences I have been having in Ecuador! I was lucky to have met Rebecca (Georgetown student from DC who was to become one of my best friends at the reserve) at my orientation in Quito the day before, so I met my travel buddy [View Full Entry]

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*sorry this short blog encompasses three countries!! argentina, chile, and ecuador!!!!** Can anyone say CHOCOLATE!?!? I was so excited to see this town of Bariloche that I had heard so much about....and all that I heard was so true! German architechture, the brilliant food (meat) of argentina, and CHOCOLATE! I´m not even a bit sweets eater, and eat less chocolate....I´d usually take a bag of chips over a candy bar any day! BUT, when you walk past store after store with displays of chocolate elephants, chocolate monkeys, chocolate fountains, the smells, the colors (sure, theres white and brown chocolate, but the [View Full Entry]

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As of February the 8th, I officially have the disease! Travel Fever, Mile High Addict, Perpetual Motion Sickness, call it what you want....I have it! I had a very early morning flight from BA to Santiago, Chile and when I landed a too few two hours later, I had absolutely no idea how I wanted to spend my 7 days in Chile. I knew that i had to come back to Santiago at the end of my trip (in order to fly back to LA) so my only idea was....go north or south. I glanced through the Chilean guidebook at the [View Full Entry]

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Hey kids! I found myself back in BA with a renewed energy for touring, traveling, exploration, and SuperBowl Fever!!! Being so far removed from all that is american, I didnt even realize that it was superbowl sunday until I was walking along the riverfront in town and saw the sign outside of Hooters - which said - tonight, American Football Finals! 2100 hrs! I did a double take, a reverse translation, and thought, OH MY! SuperBowl Sunday! I cant believe it! And even though I was still mourning the Packers loss a short two weeks previous, I knew that I had [View Full Entry]

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This will be a quick story, because i think the pictures tell it all! I went up to Puerto Iguazu from BA for a few days to see the world famous, soooo amazing, Iguazu Falls! I stayed at a super fun hostel that had a lot of fun people, a pool, and a foos table! Nice! They even had a barbeque and a brazilian feather lady dance party one night! Awesome! I went to the falls with my roommate John from Canada and we spent and ENTIRE DAY walking around this national park taking pictures and getting soaking wet! WE started [View Full Entry]

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