...another begins!

Well, school is done finally. I finished my classes earlier this week. They were very interesting. I really didn't have to work all that hard, and it will be interesting returning to Case next semester and actually have teachers that expect things and don't just get walked over by students because their dads are government ministers.

But now the real fun begins. There is a decent chance that this will be my last post for a while. Tomorrow one of my best mates and I are heading out on what is to be the adventure of a lifetime. We semi planned out a route that will take us to some of our planet's most amazing natural wonders including the world's driest desert (Atacama) in northern Chile, the highest navigable body of water in the world (Lake Titicaca) as well as what we have read is the second deepest canyon (Colca)--roughly twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. So we are pretty stoked.

There will be tons of pictures and videos and thoughts to get caught up on upon our return, but for now I just wanted to thank each and every one of you for taking an interest in my trip. I can't wait to get back to all of you in a few weeks or so, but until then keep well, keep safe, and keep EXPLORING in whatever way you can!!

As one adventure winds down...

I am a week away from the end of classes.

These past few weeks haven't been the most exciting of my time here, but they have been necessary. Sometimes you are able to put school behind you, but other times you really have to buckle down. That is what the past few weeks have been.

There isn't too much to update except that I have my end of semester activities under control. Essays, exams and a presentation coming up but in a week I will be all done. Oh, and lots of enjoying the company of good friends

One of my best friends is leaving Thursday morning which makes the reality of this all sink in much harder. Thankfully I have 7 more weeks.

So there you have a few scattered thoughts. I have done a good job of planning my work out so I am actually free tonight to just relax which will be nice. Hope that all is well in each of your worlds and I can't wait to come back to be a part of it again.

50 days and I'll be home.

Spring Break

So when I quickly wrote my last little post I was literally running out the door to the airport. I did not have classes last week for a sort of Spring Break. My program took this opportunity for a wonderful 5 day trip to the Galapagos Islands. It is one of those things that I will never have an opportunity to do again and I am very glad I got to take this chance.

The islands themselves are crazy. In such a small ecosystem there is so much biodiversity. We saw so many different kinds of plants and animal it was ridiculous. We did so many different things I can't even keep it all straight. I am not gonna go into too much detail cuz I am very tired but there are definitely some things you should hear about.

Obviously, we saw turtles. And then we saw more of them, and then even more. Over the 5 days we spent time on 4 different islands. Apparently, the turtles on each island are different. Don't tell our guides, but I couldn't really tell the difference. I was just amazed (the first time...) by the sheer size and weight of them. We got the chance to climb into a shell and it was ridiculous.

We spent one morning hiking around a really cool volcano. Its claim to fame is that it has the second larger crater of any volcano in the world. It was still active and its last eruption was only a few years ago, but it wasn't a huge eruption like you think of in science textbooks. Still, you could see a difference in the color of the rock on the top of the crater where it was more fresh. We also got to climb around on the base of it where there were tons of volcanic rocks and other little spouts. Don't tell the national park, but I snook a little rock out with me.

Probably the coolest thing we did, though was snorkeling. We got to go in a few different places which brought tons of different kinds of marine life. First of all, there are sea lions everywhere. On our first adventure I was swimming by myself and one swam up behind me (scared me quite a bit) and just stopped, looked at me, swam a few circles around me and then was gone. Once I realized what had happened, I was floored. When will that ever happen to me again?! Some of my friends and I spent some time following a huge sea turtle as it headed back out into the open water. It did move a lot like the one in Finding Nemo. Probably the coolest thing that happened though I barely got to enjoy. We were swimming off the island Floreanna and I was just following this little group of silvery fish (like the ones in Nemo that give Dory directions to the EAC) and all of a sudden they started to scatter. Before I know what was going on, a pair of penguins zoomed by me, about 6 feet from my face! Thankfully they came back a few minutes later and I was able to get a better look. That was by far one of the coolest natural things I have ever seen.

So, overall, it was a wonderful trip. One of my friends put a quote up from Darwin about how words can't truly describe the beauty of the islands. It is pretty true. Just flying in you get this amazing sense of peace like you know you are entering one of nature's true treasures. While I don't know if it is anything that I will get the chance to return to, it definitely was a wonderful experience. I got some pretty sweet pictures and I will try to put a few of them at the end of this post.

Upon our return from the islands, my friend Katy and I decided that we were gonna switch things up and trade in our swimsuits and towels for hats and gloves. The wonderful thing about this country is that one day you can be relaxing on a beach and the next you can be heading toward the refuge of a 17,000 foot mountain. There were a few mountains close by that we wanted to play around on so after a day of prepping, buying food and picking up some more cold weather gear we headed off for what was to be a four day adventure.

Unfortunately things did not go as planned. When we arrived in the small town at the base of Iliniza Norte, the refuge office where we were planning to inquire about maps and guides was unfortunately closed. We figured however that we should easily be able to make it to the refuge where there were some workers pretty easily. We were regretably mistaken. The first three hours of the hike were fine. We safely arrived at the parking lot described in Lonely Planet and after a short lunch break set off for what the posted sign said was a 3.5 hour trek to the refuge. Somewhere along the way we missed a sign for the refuge and started following the cairns (rock piles used to mark trails) that would eventually have led us accidently to the summit that we weren't planning on getting to til the next morning. About 4 hours after leaving the parking lot we decided that something was definitely wrong and with darkness and steadily strengthening snow storm setting in, the safest plan was to just head down. I cannot lie to you all and say that I wasn't scared. To those of you who heard me joking about how if I die on this trip it will probably be while doing something amazing and that I will have no problem going out that way: the thought definitely crossed my mind that afternoon that my jokes might have become a reality. Somewhere around the time that I could no longer move my fingers after 3 hours of rain and snow and all I wanted to do was keel over and puke (either from altitude or shock) I thought there was a definite chance I was not going to ever get off that mountain. I do not recount these details in any way to garner your sympathies just to explain how I was reawoken to the awesome power of nature and how I was reinstilled with a healthy fear for the environment. (Blake or Jeanne, if you are reading this, I promise Brandon and I will not be climbing any mountains this summer and we will be totally safe. Well I can't promise that we will be totally safe but that will be all on B.) Miraculously, we had cell service up at about 16000 feet and were able to call our program office that arranged for a truck to pick us up at the parking lot and to bring us back to Quito. I will hold for a long time that Katy saved me from a very unpleasant experience that night (we would not have died but it would have been very very uncomfortable). Neither my brain nor my body was functioning in a proper state to arrange anything in English, let along Spanish. Heck, I couldn't even zip my coat back up after taking it off to try to put on some more layers.

All this to say that sometimes things don't quite turn out the way we plan them to. But I can imagine that this experience will probably be one of the most beneficial from this entire trip as I continue to live an adventurous life.

After surviving what I have taken to calling a near-near-death experience, it may be cliche but life sort of has taken on a slightly different appearance. I may make jokes about it now just as that is my way of dealing with stuff like this, but the reality is that at some point I thought I might never get to see any of you again. And you can't have a soul and not have something like that affect you. I am so very much looking forward to that first sight, those first words, that first hug. And the best thing is that I know that I get to have those firsts so many times from the so many of you who have each had an integral part in shaping my life and molding me into who I am.

10 more weeks. Man the time is flying.

Ahhh craziness!!

Life the past few weeks has again been crazy, yet amazingly chilled at the same time. Done some cool stuff around the city, but am desperately in need of a high quality adventure. Good thing I don't really have time to post details cuz I am heading to the airport and bound for the Galapagos! Details will come thought I promise.

Peace and Love

Quick Update

I just went to the Delta office here in Quito and changed my flight home. I will returning to the United States on June 23 after almost 6 weeks of traveling around South America. As much fun as I am going to have in these last 3 months I am also very much looking forward to getting home to see all of you and to catch up on our lives. I am presently sitting in my program office with several other American students and we were discussing how odd it was that our lives have been going on without us while we are abroad and how our friends are making new friends and dating new people. It is odd to think about all the things that will have happened by the time I get back it will be amazing to hear all the stories.

I love and miss you all!

And just when I didn't think I could feel any other emotions

If there is one thing that has characterized the past few weeks, it has been that I think I have felt every single emotion known to man. While much of this has been phenomenal, there have also been some hard times where I have really had to look at myself. All these experiences though have been necessary and I am glad for them.

Two weekends ago, I, along with about 10 of my friends headed out for another beach weekend, this time in a super chill town called Canoa. Super good time. Amazingly chill beach with cool food and drink stands. Fishermen. Plenty of hostels and other tourists. Overall, it definitely is a place that I will try to make it back to if I have some extra time. Friday, I decided that I was going to teach myself how to surf so I rented a board and just got tossed around all day (emotions: anger, frustration). It was so much harder than I thought it was going to be. I have always known that the ocean is an amazingly powerful force, but I don't think I had ever truly experienced its strength until that day. That Saturday morning was the terribly earthquake in Chile so several of my friends woke up to text messages from the US Embassy or friends that we were potentially gonna get rocked by a tsunami that was part of the after effects. Luckily we were able to hold off leaving til we talked to more people and we ended up being fine. It turned out to be a beautiful day (emotion: peaceful) for just relaxing (I stayed out of the water and in my hammock all day). I would say that it would have to rank as one of the best weekends so far.

But as tends to happen here, the very next weekend tops the last again. This past weekend brought a trip to the small town of Baños which is described in my Lonely Planet guide as a "tourist mecca". And they really aren't lying. While my friends (a smaller group this time which was much better in my opinion) decided to leave Friday morning, I skipped town Thursday afternoon, got in around 8:30, just in time for a wonderfully relaxing evening. This turned out to be my first true experience in a hostel staying with all completely random people (emotion: awkward) which was interesting. When the others arrived Friday afternoon we did one of the craziest things I have ever done in my life: puenting (spanglish for bridging jumping/swinging). This consisted of strapping into a harness that is connected to a bridge that is about 100 meter (for all you non metric people, thats over 325 feet!) over a beautiful river gorge, jumping off (emotion: insanely scary), free falling about 100 feet (emotion: liberation), then swining underneath the bridge and slowly being let down to the ground. It was not bungee jumping because there was no up and down but it was still amazing. (The craziest part of the whole experience was how relaxed the whole thing was. There were no waivers. You didn't have to sign your life away. It was just another one of those "oh yea I'm in Ecuador" moments.) Saturday morning we got up decently early, rented mountain bikes and headed out down la ruta de las cascadas or the highway of waterfalls. In about a 6 hour trip we saw some of the most beautiful waterfalls and natural scenery I have ever seen. The waterfalls were all falling off the mountains that form the river valley so you we got rivers, waterfalls and mountains all at the same time (emotion: awe). It was semi ridiculous. Like Lord of the Rings/New Zealand ridic. I honestly don't even feel the need to travel to NZ anymore cuz it was that beautiful. After several nice hikes and about 20km of riding, a nice rain, and a wonderful traditional Ecuadorian almuerzo we all piled into the back of a truck (bikes and all) for a ride back up the hill. Overall, another phenomenal weekend. I also hope to return there if I have some time.

This past week back in Quito has been interesting and is where a lot of my recent angst (I'm not sure if that is exactly the right word or not) stems from. Recently, I have really been realizing how much of a joke academics are at my school. And its not just my classes that I am not taking terribly seriously. Everyone is feeling the same thing. This is leading to some amounts of boredom because I don't feel like I am being challenged. Even though I know that school isn't the reason that I am down here, it would be nice to at least be engaged in my classes. This feeling, similar to what I was feeling at the end of my last semester at Case as well, allows my thoughts to wander into looking too far forward at what is next instead of really enjoying the moment I am in. So I have been spending a little bit of time recently thinking about my summer and next school year and what I want to do after college, planning more adventures instead of really enjoying the one I am in. The other day I had conversation with one of my best friends down here about how we aren't sure if this is going to be that truly life changing experience that most people make studying abroad out to be, just because we aren't stepping as far out of our boxes as most people in doing this whole crazy thing. This can be kinda disappointing in some ways just because I fear that this whole thing might not live up to the expectations I have for it, but also it has been good to keep that in the back of my mind so that I don't let my expectations get too high. It has also been weird because many of my friends have had their friends or family in town which just makes me miss all of you guys back in the States. So basically I have been on the top of the world and kinda down in the dumps a bit recently, but its all part of the experience.

Thats what I've got for all of you now. It is currently a little after 11 AM on Friday morning. The rest of this weekend is going to be nice and chill. I went out the past two nights and I really just need some time now to recover and sleep a bit. Probs just gonna do homework and maybe bake a bit.

I can't say enough how much I appreciate everyone who reads this. But don't be bashful. Leave me a comment or email me so I know whats going on in your lives!

What a country this is?!

So again, I apologize for the long gap between posts. Life has just been so crazy and awesome. I will try to do it justice without getting two long.

Three weekends ago was sort of a recovery weekend. After a long but amazing beach weekend, I needed some time to just chill. So the majority of the time was spent just bummin around Quito, exploring bars and clubs as well as the parks.

Saturday, however, my host dad and I along with several students from my program climbed Rucu Pichinca, the roughly 15,500 foot volcano that I see out my window every morning. This was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done. After taking the Teleferiqo (the little ski lift sort of thing that takes people up to a really cool look out point over the city) we hike almost 3 hours up to the summit. Then it decided to rain. To put that in perspective, that was only the second or third time in over a month that it had rained in Quito. When I first got here, they were having to ration power because the rivers that feed the hydroelectric plants just weren't high enough. So it rained. A lot. All the way down. Everything was soaked after the hour and ahalf descent but it was still amazing. To think that for a while I was at least 1000 feet higher than any person in the continental US was just mind blowing. I am planning on climbing some more mountains while I am here and i can't wait to get that feeling again, especially keeping in mind the poem I included in the last post.

Two weekends ago was Carnaval. THanksfully, I was able to find a bar that was showing the Olympic Opening Ceremonies so that was fun to watch on Friday. Because we had Monday and Tuesday off of school, my program took us on a field trip into the Amazon rain forest. I really had no idea what to expect with this, but my mind was blown. After spending the the first afternoon exploring and swimming in a cave and climbing around an amazing waterfall, we headed to a quaint little town for the night. The next morning we piled into motorized canoes and headed down the river. After a pit stop at little animal rehab zoo and a close encounter with some wild monkeys, we reached our jungle lodge destination. After a late lunch, we headed a little farther up river and got to visit an indigenous family and see their house and their way of life. After dinner the (highly intoxicated) village Shaman came and performed a short ritual. Monday morning brought a really cool hike through the jungle learning about plants and animal and also eating some lemon ants which I would recommend to anyone looking to add a citrus flavor to your favorite dish. aThat afternoon was probably the most fun of the whole trip when we made Huck Finn style rafts out of balsa wood and floated down the river for a while. Because our group was so large we had two rafts which inevitably turned into a war. I am proud to say that the USS Hernan Es Mas Sexy Que Fabio came out on top. Through this experience, I think I might have found the inspiration for my next adventure: floating the Mighty Mississippi on a homemade raft. This sounded like a wonderful idea til I did a little bit of looking into it. It is still possible though, we will have to see. Tuesday we stopped at a few more museums and zoos on our way back to bus and home. Overall it was a phenomenal experience. It was exactly how I had imagined the rain forest. Buggy, extremely dense forests, humid, and just lush green everywhere. I hope to make it back to do some insane white-water rafting later in the semester. Although I was a little disappointed that we didn't get the whole Carnaval experience, it was still a great trip. Ecuadorian Carnaval is not like what you think of from Rio and other Brazilian cities. Basically here it is just a country wide water fight. The whole week you never know when you might get hit with a water balloon. I was on several busses that got hit and in the more rural areas people would just take their hoses out into the street and soak whatever passed by. It was super fun and harmless (although apparently in some towns people throw eggs which could get kinda painful).

Unfortunately, I didn't take too many pictures on this adventure. Sometimes it just wasn't practical to have a camera. Others I was just enjoying the moment too much to want to see it through a lens. I sang a lot of 3x5 by John Mayer:

Didn't have a camera by my side this time
Hoping I would see the world through both my eyes
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm
in the mood to lose my way
but let me say
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
it brought me back to life
You'll be with me next time I go outside
NO more 3x5's

After a short week of class, another weekend of just chillin in Quito was necessary. It was also nice because I got to celebrate 'the beginning of my third decade on this celestial ball' (as my dad referred to my 20th birthday) with my host family and friends this past Saturday. After making ice cream cake and helping my mom with empanadas about 10 people came over and sang and ate. We then headed down to a wine and tapas bar for more celebration. (Side note for any wine people: I don't know if you can buy it in the States, but if you are looking for a phenomenal red, go out and find a bottle of Concha y Toro (Chile) Sunrise Tinto Carmenere. One of the most amazing things I have ever sipped in my life.) After four hours of just sitting, tasting and talking, we called it a wonderful night. Sunday morning was another great Latin American experience. My host brothers favorite futbol team which is from Guayaquil was playing in Quito, so he invited me to join him for the game. It was one of the craziest things I have ever been a part of and there were definitely times that I didn't feel safe. Drums and songs and flags and chants and confetti. At one point someone who didn't like a call throw a waterbottle a good 75 feet and hit the assistant referee. Unfortunately the game ended in a draw so I didn't get to experience victory craziness but I'm sure that i will get to another game while I'm here.

So there you have an update. If you made it all the way through that I applaud you. This weekend we are off to another beach where there will hopefully be big waves and surfing lessons. I'll let you all know.

Please know that the fact that you all take the time to read this blog means the world to mean. Please email me about what is up in your lives and i will do my best to respond. I love and miss each and every one of you.

Take care and keep well.