Well…the team left yesterday morning and Adam left early this morning and now…it´s just me. All the people I have traveled with are now all back at home doing their own things and I am the only one remaining. I have been plagued with questions. Where do I go from here? What does my life have in store for me next? This trip to Cajixay has helped me realize that I am done with my traveling lifestyle for now. I feel so much more fulfilled being there for others, forming relationships, and being part of something bigger than myself. Traveling sometimes misses those elements. Sometimes it becomes solely about seeing new beautiful places and having new exciting experiences for yourslef. It can become a selfish endeavor. Not that traveling is all bad. I don´t want to leave that impression at all. I loved every bit of it. I have met so many amazing people. I have experienced so much and learned so much about myself. My trip was one big great adventure that I would not want to change for the world. But it feels like it´s time to move on. It´s time to do something more meaningful than just traveling from place to place. I spent most of my college life longing to travel, longing to see new places, longing for an adventure beyond books and classes. I have quenched that thirst. Now, I feel like it´s time for a new type of adventure. I sit here in this quiet internet cafe in Antigua, Guatemala, not sure what will happen next. I don´t know what I am going to do but I know I want to do something. And you know what? I am excited. I am excited to see what God has planned for me. There is something just thrilling about not knowing where your life will take you. I am at that place now and I love it. Will I be home in a couple weeks? Or will I not be home for another 3.5 months? I have no idea. For those of you back home, I´m sorry about that unpredictability but I don´t want to live a predictable life. The unpredictability is what makes life exciting. I want to always follow my heart and for now, I am staying here. By reading this, you have seen how this last mission trip has affected me personally and helped me realize what I want to do for the near future at least. Up until a few days ago I felt confident that I would travel north through Mexico on the way back home and since then I have done a complete 180. You have to love the unpredictability of life and never knowing what twists and turns you will feel compelled to take. As for the mission trip report…I will leave that to Adam or somebody else to write. Thank you all for your support and I PROMISE I will be home for Christmas! Love you all.
Sphere: Related ContentWhat now?
Don’t Ever Travel
Just kidding. I only wanted your attention. I love to travel and discover new lands and cultures. Already I have budding plans for future trips over the rest of this great Earth and all continents (that will all happen well in the future I can assure you). Traveling like this has been one of the grandest experiences of my life. I would definitely recommend that everyone at some point in their life should get out and explore the world around them at least a little bit. Despite the wonders this planet has to offer though, I know a good many people never really go anywhere. They might say things like “I can’t get time off work” or “I don’t have the cash” or any number of excuses, which may or may not be valid. But I think a lot of the time people don’t go anywhere because they’re afraid something bad might happen to them.
It is true: if you travel for any length of time eventually you are going to run into some misfortune. It may not be serious but it will be frustrating at the very least. We’ve had all sorts of things happen to us over the months. We got lost in a huge city. We had a cab driver rip us off. We’ve lost various belongings. We’ve gotten really sick in really inconvenient places. And there’s something about being a really long way from home that tends to magnify even the slightest of problems. But so far we’ve been very fortunate in that nothing incredibly terrible has happened…until recently.
Bocas del Toro was an awesome place. A bit crowded and touristy at time, but how can you turn down snorkeling in the Caribbean? We did and saw lots of cool stuff including a 1 meter long baracuda! After spending lots of time playing cards and chilling out we set out to say goodbye to Panama and make our way to Costa Rica. Taking a couple taxis, one of which had this guy zooming down these winding roads at around 70 mph that you should really only be doing 35 on. This is rather common of cab drivers down here but he also might have been showing off his new car since he’d only had it for four days. We crossed the border to Costa Rica and made it into Puerto Viejo.
Take every image you’ve ever had of the Caribbean and you’ve got this town. Beautiful beaches, open bars with sand floors, fantastic drinks and food; this place had it all. We were all set to just kick back and enjoy everything there was to offer out here. The restaurant we ate at had daquris 2 for $4 at happy hour. We asked the waitress when happy hour was and she replied “All day”. Tell me that’s not cool. So we ate and enjoyed a drink and played some Pinochle (yes, we know we’re odd). Then we headed out to the beach to catch some surf. We marveled at the beauty around us, and we found a nice semi-empty beach with some good waves. We got into our suits to head out wave jumping. The water was the absolute perfect temperature, comfortable the entire time even as the sun was setting. We rode waves, laughed, and got way too much salt in our mouths. And then…it started.
This next point I freely admit was all my fault as I was being a bit of a bonehead. While wave jumping at some point I got turned around and hit by a rogue wave I wasn’t ready for. I was drug under, remained there for several seconds, and in the chaos of it all the riptide pulled my glasses off (reason I hate wearing glasses #175). I grabbed frantically for them but the slipped just out of my fingers. Jordan and I searched for them in the surf, which is useless when the waves are pounding on you relentlessly. I knew it was a lost cause right away and we headed back to where our stuff was. In the end though, it turns out I got off easy. We arrived to fine some hooligans had made of with some of our stuff. Jordan lost his camera and Amanda lost a bag with her journal, glasses, sunglasses, her book Elantris (which she was only 100 pages away from finishing), and her camera as well. We searched and came up with nothing. We walked to the police station in the dark, defeated, me going very carefully as I am functionally blind with out my specs. The police were nice of course, but we all new the odds of anything coming out of this were slim to none. So we went back to the first bar to take advantage of all day happy hour. We decided to play some cards to unwind only to realize, the final insult, that both the regular cards and the pinochle deck were in Amanda’s stolen bag! I tell you we were pretty pathetic. Of coarse we were all aggravated to various degrees. I feel especially bad for Amanda who in her few short weeks here has had more regular stressful occurances then Jordan and I have seen in our first six months! She has been taking it very well I think and will enjoy the rest of her stay here I’m sure. We were all able to laugh and get on with life.
We caught the bus to San Jose, a city we’d told is not that great. It’s actually rather non-descript. Not bad really, but not anything to write about. We did get to finally see Pirates of the Caribbean, after a much anticipated wait. So now I sit here updating the site with a long post and pictures at the same time (note to future employers: I am a good multi-tasker) while Jordan and Amanda are out doing some white water rafting. Ordinarily I would have gone but my funds are rather diminished now and things in Costa Rica are pretty dang expensive. So we will leave tomorrow, right after I get my new glasses hopefully. Where we’ll go hasn’t really been decided yet. But even with all these troubles I still enjoy traveling. Learning to roll with the punches is essential if you’re going to do something like this and since we’re all physically ok you learn to appreciate that.
As always our best to all our loved ones at home. Be sure to check out the photo gallery as a bunch of new pics have gone up. Later!
Sphere: Related ContentBlown Away
Fabrice had already left Bariloche to meet Rose in Santiago and we went to the bus station to see when we could leave Bariloche and decide what our next destination would be. We had thought seriously about buying bikes, and for a while I was really sure it was going to happen, but Adam and I decided that the inconvenience, the price, and the fact that we know nothing about bikes outweighed the coolness factor. Now here we were, at the bus station, with no idea about our next destination. Of course I brought up the bike idea again, always trying to keep our options and coolness factors open. We sat there for a couple hours and I was blabbing about well…nothing. We finally decided to go to Valdivia, Chile. This was a decision we had pretty much made an hour and a half ago until I proceeded to complicate things by mentioning, once again, the bikes and the coolness. It was Monday and we found out we could not leave to Valdivia until Wednesday. Oh darn…2 more days in Bariloche…what to do?
We rented bikes. There was this very scenic 60 km bike circuit nearby called Circuito Chico. What a great opportunity to see what we are missing and doubt our decision once again! The only day we could do it was Tuesday. What a nice, beautiful, cold, rainy, windy, day that was! We started our bike ride and immediately my chain came off. Not a bad start. We had a nice little headwind as well. Even biking down hill this wind would stop us in our tracks and going up hill…well..pain, lots of pain. We were halfway through the circuit and we were completely drenched. My feet were completely submerged in water that had got in my shoes. I was ahead of Adam and I saw a small ranger station. Of course I went in to get warm. Adam passed by the ranger station without seeing me. I met a couple of firefighters there that were going to Bariloche right then. The manly instinct in me wanted to refuse the ride…30 more km in this weather is nothing…bring it on! After attempting to converse in Spanish for a while, Adam had already covered some distance and was probably pedaling as fast as he could trying to catch up to me. I told them to at least drive me to where Adam was. When we caught him, it was pretty obvious to us, although I hate to admit it, that we should accept the ride back into town. So these guys drove us back to Bariloche which means we missed the 30 km where the wind would actually be at our backs…dang it! Although it may not sound like it, I actually thought this bike ride was a lot of fun. There is something satisfying about pedaling up a big long hill, into a strong headwind, in the rain, with every part of your body telling you to stop pedaling and walk, then telling your body with each painful pedal “screw you, I´m getting up this hill on this stupid bike,” and then doing it. Maybe I am just sick.
Anyways, on Wednesday we left for Valdivia. We had one seat in the front of this big double decker bus. The view from the front is amazing as there is the big window with an unobstructed view. Adam rode there the first half of the bus ride and I rode there the second half. We did the customs thing which is becoming old hat. We got into Valdivia in the dark and this persistent women finally got us to say yes to stay at her house. Valdivia is a college town on the shore of this giant river near the Pacific. There is a fish market on the river shore where sea lions come to sun themselves and if they´re lucky, receive handouts. We took a 6 hour cruise yesterday to a couple of 17th century military forts on these two islands. We were also fed 2 first class meals and the whole thing only costed about $16 each…not bad. The forts were amazing…both forts were right on the water and walls were still kind of intact despite the decay of time and the 9.5 earthquake that hit this area 40 years ago. These forts reminded me of Scottish castles the way they were set. Although I have never been to Scottland, that is how I imagine they would look like. Anyway, today we are taking a bus to Pucon which is supposed to be beautiful. It is set right along side a lake and a volcano. I hope everybody is doing dandy! Love ya´ll!
Sphere: Related Content