Prepare the landing pad...this adventurer is on her way home.

Houston, we can confirm a landing.

I just landed back in the US, Houston to be exact, and I am not sure how to explain the feeling. I am thinking reintegration is going to be more of a process than a switch and I can already feel the character that came to be in South America being shaped and molded by my country. Its not good, its not bad, it just is.

The first shock came on the airplane when I heard new tones of voices that I haven't heard in a long time, many of which don't exist or are not used in Castellano. The tone of voice that comes from saying the same thing over and over and obligating passangers to fasten their seatbelts and obey the seatbelt indication light because it was turned on my someone with more experience and far "superior knowledge of weather patterns"...then again, that could just be a different culture of the US talking.

I guess you could say that I am not the same person now as I was when I came. Nor do I think that I have experienced any drastic transformations. I have however, learned how to love, learned how to feel, and learned how to live.

I am getting called to board my flight to Portland. All in all, my abroad experience is one that I will never forget. It has become a part of who I am today and I would suggest that anyone who has the opportunity to do so should take advantage of the experience. 

After 17 days of nonstop travel and nearly 6 months of adventuring, Jazmín and I said a tearfull goodbye at the airport. I am not usually one to cry in public, but I cried. I think it has something to do with the fact that I have lived 6 months in a culture that is not embarassed to feel and it has rubbed off on my. Speaking the language is more emotional too, each sentance unravels with emotion and is accompanied by gestures of all kind. 

As Mom always says:

Goodbye is never goodbye, its just a "see you later." 

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Cusco, Peru

After a pleasant 12 hour bus ride from La Paz, Bolivia we found ourselves in Cusco, Peru. I have never seen so many people hanging out in the fields and watching their cows as I saw along the way.  Why don't we ever just lay in the fields and watch out cows eat and enjoy the sun? I guess we are too busy doing what we think is "productive"??

Updates to come.

Headed North

If you were following a GPS of me, a little red dot would currently be blinking in the capital city of La Paz, Bolivia. Jazmín and I are on our way North to Peru (which the last two times I have planned to travel there, something has come up and my plans changed, so I will let you know if we ever make it there tomorrow). 


Here is a quick breakdown of the trip so far considering that I am in an internet cafe surrounded by teenage boys playing online computer games...


Day 1 Buenos Aires (sniff) to Salta, Argentina

Day 2 Salta

Day 3 Cafayate, Argentina

Day 4 Purmamarca, Argentina- hill of the seven colors (pictures to come)

Day 5 Salt Flats (pictued below-better pics to come, I just nabbed this one off of my facebook)

Day 6 Humahuaca, Argentina- not too much there, but their is a song about a cow (vaca) from Humahuaca

 Day 7 (Sunday) Visit to Tilcara, Argentina, another cute little town and then headed to Jujuy in preparation for an early morning departure to Chile en route to Peru only to get to the bus station the night before to find out that the pass is closed on account of snow and will not be opening until Tuesday (which I guess is today). I return home the 20th and have my mind set on Machu Picchu.

Day 8 We jumped on a bus that took us back through Purmamarca, Tilcara, and Humahuaca and to the border city of La Quiaca where we would begin the journey through Bolivia. Andy, a Brit in our hostel tagged along since his travel plans also hit a bump in the road with Chile out of the question. We had heard from multiple people that you can just walk over the border, travel through Bolivia and walk through to Peru without visas, exit/entry stamps, etc. False.I mean maybe it is true, the people at border control said that if we were passing into Bolivia for the day and returning, that we could pass the line and walk right over the bridge. We would be entering and exiting Bolivia in a day but not leaving from where we came from, so that was not an option. An hour and a half and $135US later, my hiking boots said hello to Bolivia while my mind kept me in a bad mood. My two fellow companions obtained the pretty and shinny Bolivian sticker without even trying and chatted as they waited for the American to fill out her two long papers and pay up. Thank you USoA, I don´t know what we did, but we must have done something. Anyway, we made it to the bus station, jumped on a bus and enjoyed the beautiful rural Bolivian landscape. As the sun tucked itself into bed, dusk outlined the hills with a light blue that slowly turned into the deep darkness of the sky that was speckled with stars. My nose glued itself to the window to see the brilliant shadows cast by the moon in the desert. An occasional cooking fire passed by, accompanied by quiet stoned huts. We left Villazon, Bolivia at 3:30pm yesterday and arrived in La Paz, absolutely frozen solid at 11:30am this morning. We failed to bring along our think llama wool blanket that everyone on the bus had.

Day 9 La Paz, Bolivia and if all goes according to plan, we jump on an 11 hour bus to Cusco, Peru tomorrow morning!!!

Hasta pronto.
-Em

Chau Buenos Aires

The Obelisk at Sunset

La Casa Rosada- lowering of the flag 

I feel like I just broke up with the love of my life. Sunday afternoon I said a blurry-eyed goodbye to Buenos Aires and all the fantastic people that had become fixtures in my life since I arrived in February.

I have decided that living in a different language is learning a new way to feel. There is something about the way that Argentineans speak. Every sentence dips and summits the extremes of passion, and after nearly six months of speaking more or less like an Argentinean, the emotional bit has started to rub off on me. Rarely do I cry, but my eyes stung as I entered the taxi to the airport with Jazmín, there were still tears left from my going away party the night before.

Lucky for us, the volcano in Chile decided to cool its jets for a while, and I waved goodbye to Buenos Aires from the plane on the way north to Salta, our first of many destinations on our way to Peru.

Salta

Today's drive from Salta to Cafayate

Today's adventure included eating wine ice cream and searching ALL OVER town for someone who could sew patches on Jazmín's pants that had some lovely looking holes after she got too close to the heater since it was absolutely freezing last night in the hostel.