Halfway Point

As of october 14 it's been a month since each of us left our respective homes. A month of buses, a month of culture overload, a month of foreign, peculiar food, a month of eye-opening experiences, and most of all a month none of us will ever forget.

 

As this next month begins I can only hope for even more memories and even more challenging experiences. It seems cliche to say I want to go home changed, but it's true. I want my opinions, perspectives, and lifestyles all to be challenged and quite possibly changed. This trip is an opportune time to truly analyze where I am and where I'm going, and I'm thankful for all the people I've met and will meet helping me see the truth, hope, and beauty in life. :)

 

Let's take a moment and reminisce of all the places with been to thus far in this epic journey!

 

Guatemala

-Guatemala city, Antigua

 

El Salvador - just in passing

 

Honduras

-Tegucigalpa, La Esperanza

 

Nicaragua

-Managua, Granada, Ciudad Sandino

 

Costa Rica

-San Jose, Atenas, Alajuela,

 

Panama

-Panama city

 

Colombia

-Bogota

 

Ecuador

-Quito, Banos, Puyo, Morona Santiago villages (Palora, Paquisha, Kuarash, Tunayme, Chay), Cayambe Mountain, Catacasi, Laguna Cuicocha

 

Ecuador has truly been amazing. Being able to take our time and see the country thoroughly has been a real blessing. There is so much in every country and it has not been easy determining where we should spend our time.

 

The last few days have been priceless. We've been on two mountains and got a healthy dose of exercise on each (cayambe mt and cruz loma), we've seen a volcanic crater lake at laguna cuicocha, and seen stunning mountains, waterfalls and forests on our drive to banos and puyo. And that's just a taste of the past week.

 

We also were blessed to make contact with a baptist pastor in Puyo who took us on a tour of five villages and three tiny churches in the amazon area. I cannot fully put to the words this experience. The way of life is so different and somehow relaxing. It was cool to be removed from the hustle of big cities and even the chaos of some of the smaller cities and see the remote villages and their people. Part of me envys their lifestyle, it's so distant from the overwhelming and demanding life we live in america an not to mention some of the villages were in incredibly beautiful areas, but in truth I doubt I could ever live as they do. They live intensely frugal and I can only hope that we or someone will be able to help provide meaningful aides to make their villages more sustainable nutritionally and structurally.

 

I haven't even mentioned that we were maybe minuteds away from leaving puyo when we ran across a lady who led us to this pastor in puyo. It's incredible how quickly things can change and how in reality this trip has very little to do with our planning as much it has to do with our willingness to allow God to work on his time, not ours.

 

I almost forgot. We've also been to the middle of the world, the actual middle(gps located) and the touristy, inaccurate one. The pictures I've posted are actually from the touristy one, but hey close enough ;)

 

Oh! Andddd our trip to the snow capped mountain Cayambe was the epitome of epic. A dirt/rocky road led us through remote, enchanting farmlands around dreadful curves, through a river (well a small stream haha, still there was no bridge), onto cloud-drenched cliffs, and finally to the refuge from which we hiked to snow and took lovely  photos. The hike was extrenuous, but so worth it. This is the only glacier mountain on the equator. Awesome.

 

Overall ecuador is a country I'm not excited to leave and I can't wait to see where the trip takes us next. Miss you all.

 

Cheers