the best of...

we have now been home for just over a week.  we are slowly unpacking boxes and moving back into our home.  the kids went back to school and i went back to work.  of course we got home just in time for the first big winter storm....including a couple snow days from school!

every traveler knows that when you arrive home you will be asked a typical set of questions.  'what was your favorite country, food, place?', 'what was the worst?', 'what the craziest thing you did, food you ate?', 'how was learning the language?' etc.

in part knowing this, todd had us all write down some of our best memories (and worst) to share with each other on thanksgiving (which was just a week before we came home).  so here it is....

our favorite places visited (in no order):

• salar de uyuni in bolivia
• the amazon jungle in bolivia
• machu picchu in peru
• cordillera blanca mountains in peru and specifically the refugio we stayed at
• the galapagos islands, all of the them but isla isabella was the favorite
• salento in colombia
• villa de leyva in colombia (on halloween)

our favorite people we met along the way:

• sandro (our guide in the bolivian amazon)
• carolina, becki, and elder (our language teachers in sucre, bolivia)
• juan carlos (our naturalist guide on the galapagos)
• the kids at casa lena
• eduardo and patricia (our farm hosts in northern ecuador)
• cristina and daniel (our farm hosts in colombia)

our favorite activities:

• snorkeling tunnels on isla isabella galapagos
• snorkeling leon dormido on isla san cristobal galapagos
• both festivals we lucked into seeing (pisac, peru and latacunga, ecuador)
• the bogota graffiti tour
• surfing in mancora, peru
• zip-lining in banos, ecuador
• playing and caring for the variety of animals at our farm stays
• hiking in the andes mountains in peru and ecuador 

things we will NOT miss:

• smoking!!  so many young european travelers smoke....ugh!
• cooking with crappy kitchen knives, pots, pans etc....
• putting toilet paper in the trash instead of the toilet (gross!)
• windy bus rides that make kids nauseous and vomit (fun!)
• being around smelly young hippy travelers who have an aversion to bathing
• not having any personal space....ever!

things we will miss:

• seeing new things and places
• meeting new people
• being all together as a family
• the street food
• the simplicity of just having what fits in a backpack

things we learned about ourselves:

• sometimes we parent better when we don't say anything
• walking is really good exercise
• lucy connects with kids who have special needs
• riley found he was pretty good at playing pool
• my sister/brother is super awesome
• we all love traveling and we travel really well together as a family
• we all love and miss home

there are many many other memories that we cherish which did not make this list, but this at least gives a bit of an overview.
i have one more post in mind to wrap up this whole adventure, sooooo....
hasta luego!

home sweet home

we touched down in the afternoon on friday december 2nd after two long days of travel.....starting in cartagena, colombia with a night in fort lauderdale, florida and finally ending in portland, oregon.  

my dad was there as we got off the plane for a couple quick hugs.....

and my mom was there to drive us all back to hood river.  we had her sit in the back with the kids and they were all wrapped in hugs the whole way home!

the kids were soooooo excited to see their grandparents and as exhausted as we were the hugs and love made us all giddy with energy!

our beautiful house was waiting for us and the kids ran around in unbridled excitement to be home!

the first thing we did was drink a big glass of water from the kitchen facet!  clean fresh and safe water from the tap is not something to be taken for granted!

the next thing we did (the adults that is) was have a delicious northwest seasonal ale! oh have i missed good beer!

we have the very very best friends in the whole world and there was beer in the fridge, wine on the counter, a basket of fruit, a vase of flowers, balloons and cards waiting for us and welcoming us home.

we loved our travels but home is good.  home is really good.  we love our community, and our friends and family. we love our home.  it feels really really good to be home sweet home.

the kids found themselves not sure what to do with separate rooms our first morning back....they ended up  snuggled together.

i have a couple more blog posts in mind. a sharing of the best and worst of our travels, and a reflection of the adventure in general.  
for now we are grateful to be home safe and sound.
hasta luego!

good-bye colombia!

we are now in the good ol' us of a.  we left cartagena this morning, flew to bogota and then onto fort lauderdale, florida.  we will fly home to oregon in the morning.

we said good-bye to colombia this morning (and really to south america and our whole adventure, but that is a much bigger post).  colombia, though was hard to say good-bye to.....it ended up being our favorite country and the country we hope to come back to someday.

we loved all the countries we visited but this one struck a cord somehow.  the people for starters were amazingly friendly and open.  not sure if it was the years of war, or the lack of tourism (and thus being so un-jaded with tourist), or if this is just the simple nature of colombians, but they are a wonderfully open, happy and beautiful people.  the people, as always, define a place and the colombians made this place special.

a colombian guy who was selling drinks on the walls of cartagena but graced us with a big smile and laugh....so typical of colombia!!

we will also, as always, miss the street food...... which in colombia is the arepa.   a corn meal pancake served in a variety of ways, but on the streets it is served warm with cheese....yum!

and the fruit! who can forget the fruit!!  so many mango smoothies and yet not nearly enough!!

in the end the kids think they would be happy in salento (and who can blame them, the coffee region is amazing), but i think i might go back to villa de leyva or guatape....with frequent visits to the coffee region, medellin and the caribbean coast of course! we loved loved loved colombia!

and so we say good-bye colombia......we will miss you soooooooo much!
hasta luego!

taganga and palomino

we spent our last week just chillin at the beach.  it was lovely.   our first couple days were in the small town of taganga.  this used to be a sleepy little fishing village but now has turned into a bit of a tourist town....though still has a sleepy village feel.

we mostly relaxed, floated in the waves and played in the sand.

lucy made a sand hammerhead shark

riley made a sand house replica of our home in hood river......the boy is ready to come home!

from taganga we traveled another couple hours up the coast to a town called palomino.  to call it a town might be a stretch as really it is just a few stores along the road. but if you walk down the beach access road there are several little resort like places.  this stretch of beach itself is long and quiet.  my guess is that in five years this place with be packed with tourist.

we stayed at a hostel called the dreamer which felt much more resort than hostel.  it had a pool, a pool table, a restaurant and a bar.

our days took on a nice rhythm.  we would eat breakfast at the buffet, then go play in the ocean for a few hours, then come back and relax in the pool.  during the afternoon heat we would read and rest.  in the afternoon we would go for a walks on the beach and then we spend a few last hours playing in the ocean again.  it felt like we were on vacation (an entirely different feeling from traveling!)

in the evenings we would play pool (the kids got an unexpected education on this trip that went beyond learning new language and culture.....one learns all sorts of things hanging out with 20 somethings in hostel bars!)

what a relaxing and restful few days! it was the perfect way to spend our last days in colombia.
hasta luego!