My last post....

Tomorrow night I hop on a flight back to America. I'll land in Houston at 6am on Sunday and get to give my Dad a GIANT hug for the first time since January! (which means he can stop freaking out because I will be back in his side of the hemispheres).

I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited to come back home and spoil myself with everything American. The first three things I'm going to do are:

1. Take a scalding, lava temperature shower and then blow dry my hair.
2. Wash and DRY all my clothes, which have stretched out an absurd amount due to hang drying for 4 months.
3. Eat some Molina's salsa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't wait to see my family and all my friends that I've missed talking to SO MUCH!!! I can't wait to sleep in my bed, play with Max, drive my car, and hang out on my couch watching all the pirated movies I bought in Peru. But I would be crazy to think coming back to the US is going to be an easy adjustment. This entire experience has altered my perspective on my own life an indescribable amount. I can only hope that the appreciation I've gained for the life I lead doesn't fade after several months back in the US.

South America is a magnificent continent. The countries I've visited are so full of life and have so many things to offer. The way of life, the people, the food, the culture, the language, and the nature are breathtaking and addictive! I'm coming back here as soon as I can, and I hope that everyone I know has a chance to visit it at least once!! I am head over heals, madly in love with this continent!!!!!

Besides missing the excitement of my journey, I cannot even express how much I'm going to miss the 14 people I've shared it with. When I first got to Argentina I wasn't sure I was going to hang out with the group of students a lot, and I wasn't even sure I was going to have close friends when I returned to the US. Now, the 15 of us are like one giant family. It's actually unbelievable that all 15 of us get along so well. I've never met a more interesting and fun group of people that are all interested in traveling and experiencing new things. I'm so sad to say bye to them, but now I have family in more than 15 states that I can visit!!!!

Thanks to everyone for reading my blog (I hope it was interesting...). I can't wait to see and talk to all of you next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Besos a todos!!!!!

THE AMAZON!!

OK I know I haven't kept up with my blog during the last couple of weeks, but I have great excuses. Not only did I take two trips to the Amazon, but Evan came to Peru for a week!!! Now, I have only 5 days left of this life-changing journey and I'm both excited and sad to be returning to the US. Because I'm so short on time I'm going to keep this post short, but enjoy the photos!!

My first Amazon trip was with my entire group to Iquitos, a city in northern Peru that's on the Amazon River. Here are some of my life goals that I accomplished there:
1. Going skinny-dipping with 14 of my favorite people in the Amazon River!!!
2. Staying in a jungle hut without electricity and having to use kerosene lamps to wander around at night.
3. Learning how to shoot a blowgun with local tribe people.
4. Getting repeatedly yelled at by our stiff and angry guide (literally 5 times a day for 3 days) for doing things such as asking a friend how to say something in Spanish and playing with little Peruvian kids instead of listening to his boring speeches.
5. Watching our guide get attacked by a fer de lance snake, but having him kill it with a machete before it got his leg. (Fer de lance bite = 3 hours to live if you can't reach a doctor)
6. Fishing for piranhas in the Amazon river.
7. Talking to little girls that live in an jungle village about their school and letting them take photos of each other with my camera.
8. Being 1 foot away from an Anaconda.
9. Lazily spending the afternoons in hammocks by the river.
10. Climbing wooden rafters in an attempt to act like monkeys, and then falling off of them very awkwardly.

My second Amazon trip was with my other half!!! Evan and I went to the south of Peru near the Bolivian border to a town called Puerto Maldonado. From there, we headed to the Tambopata Reserve to a lodge called Explorer's Inn in the middle of the jungle. Despite lots of rain and it actually being freezing, we had so much fun! We did tons of hiking, which involved heavy duty boots and us wading through deep puddles of mud for about 7 hours. We saw red howler monkeys, caimins, and macaws and we got to eat Brazil nuts and anisthetic leaves (which left our tongues numb for about 30 minutes) right off the rainforest trees! I don't think I've ever been that dirty for a 3 day period in my entire life. Yay for twin bonding!!!!