Lauren in South America

So today Cody and I arrived in Banos after a 2.5 hour bus followed by a 6 hour bus followed by a 1 hour bus. The town is beautiful. It is surrounded by tropical trees and everywhere you look is green...... or is an amazing waterfall. We just got back from three days is Montanita which was fun for the most part. Montanita is kinda a surf/discoteca city.... so not really my thing but we did do one day in Puerto Lopez and Isla de Plata which is dubbed the "poor man's Galapagos". We saw some blue-footed boobies, this bird with a red, inflatable neck, turtles, and went snorkeling with some amazing fish. So plans for Banos include rapelling down a waterfall, a jungle tour, a day of hiking to various waterfalls, and hopefully seeing this ... read more

Hey y'all, So after a 14 hour bus ride we finally made it to Cusco!!! It's cold and rainy but the little we saw last night was gorgeous!!! Today we're exploring Cusco a bit and then tomorrow it's off to Machu Picchu. We'll spent a night in Aguas Caliente and then wake up early on the 4th of July to hike Machu Picchu. Then a night in the Sacred Valley and a couple more days in Cusco. I am really excited to be done working and traveling so hopefully I will have some good pics and stories for you guys!!! Moua ... read more

Hola todos!! So tonight we are taking the overnight bus to Salar de Uyuni after a fairly boring week of work. I switched to the clinics where I am busy but it's more of a nursing rotation than a medical rotation. But oh well. We'll travel all night tonight and tomorrow begin our 3 day 2 night tour of Salar de Uyuni. They have some gorgeous lakes, we're hiking a volcano, and staying at a hotel entirely made of salt!!! Sounds super fun!!! Can't wait to give you guys some photos when I get back. A week from Friday we will be done in Bolivia and taking off to Peru!! Miss you guys!!!... read more

More photos in no particular order!!... read more

Hey y'all It was nice to see some of you online tonight.... especially my Scotty!!! I had my second day of Spanish classes today. I'm in the beginning class.... ya know the one where only a portion of your brain need be functioning to participate. In the hospital today we rotated in OB... It was nice. I am sitting in on a cesearean tomorrow and possibly the removal of some retained placental contents from a spontatneous abortion. Anyways the boys in our group saw a vaginal birth today. One of them looked as pale as a ghost kinda like he was surprised about the process. Anyways... this weekend we are going to lake titicaca. We are staying one to two nights and maybe going to the ruin... so it should be fun. I'll post some more ... read more