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!