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 all, and already I'm trying to plan some trips to see everyone! (Definitely the Netherlands, Germany, UK, Hong Kong, and Newfoundland first - see you soon Marcella, Saskia, Carolina, Samson, Darren, Jonny, Mark, Kara, and ... read more

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 require a $100 visa! Thank goodness megan had cash on her, and we were able to squeeze into the country at the very last minute! I have to say, it was my first time crossing ... read more

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 at the time! The projects included reforestation, maintenance of an organic garden (with plans to share information learned with the local community as well as a book, as it is very different when trying to ... read more

*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 array of wrappings and lights and toys full of chocolate!!!) its sooo mesmorizing! All I did was eat chocolates! I met some really great girls at the hostel I was staying at...one from Switzerland who ... read more

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 to watch the SB and cheer for my BFF Bonnies team, the NY Giants! I was the first to get a table in hooters, but within the next 20 minutes, the place filled up with ... read more