I'm back! After many hours/days of delays and unexpected setbacks, I made it back to the States. After crossing back over to Peru from Ecuador, I decided I wanted to fly back to Lima because it was a lot faster than a bus and wasn't that much more expensive. When I tried to buy a ticket, it turned out that they were already full for the next few days because it was holiday time in the country. So I resorted to the next-best option--an 18-hour bus ride down the coast to Lima. But even the buses were booked way in advance that weekend, so I had to wait til the next afternoon to leave. The bus ride was fine until we stopped for dinner after about six hours. They discovered there was something wrong with the battery, so we had to wait around for them to try to jump-start it with another huge bus. We got going for another couple hours but then they decided we had to get a new bus. So we waited around for another few hours until the other bus arrived. It was the middle of the night and we were all super tired, but we tried to make the best of it. We got to know the other people on the bus better than we normally would. I was sitting by a guy from Colombia that I got along with well, so we looked out for each other, making sure the bus didn't leave without the other whenever we stopped for the bathroom or something. All in all, our 18-hour trip turned out to be more like 29 hours. Yuck.

When I finally got to Lima I only had a few hours to spare before my flight left, so I got a cheap hostel just to shower and set my stuff down for a bit. At the airport, we all boarded the plane headed for Houston, but after about two hours of sitting at the terminal, waiting for them to take care of the "technical problem," we de-boarded so that we'd be more comfortable in the airport gate waiting area. Then after a while, they decided to officially postpone the flight because they needed a part that had to be sent from the US. So after voiding our passport stamps, we were sent to a fancy hotel for the night. ( I say "night" but it was about 5 am by this point.) Most people just waited around the hotel until the next night when our flight had been rescheduled. I, however, took advantage of an extra day in the city to do a little shopping and sightseeing since I didn't have a chance before. I made sure to eat ceviche, churros, and mystery meat on a stick one last time before I left.

And now I'm back in the US, once again enjoying luxuries such as drinking water from the tap, using a washing machine and dryer, recycling, listening to my own music, eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies, and being with the people I love! It was a good trip, but I'm very glad to be home. My next order of business is finding a job and figuring out if/when/where I'm going to move. Please continue to pray for me and drop me a line to let me know what's going on in your life! Que te vaya bien!

In the last couple weeks I went from the coast of Peru, through the freezing Andes, over to the sweltering rainforest, and now I'm up in Ecuador. It feels like I spent more time getting to these places than actually being in the cities. But sometimes it's not all about the destination! The places I went were not very touristy so there actually wasn't that much to do when I got somewhere. The mode of transportation I took from city to city was usually a combi, a shared taxi. The car just waits until there are four people who want to go to a certain place, then we take off on the highway--a dusty, winding dirt road. Usually the "4" people actually turned out to be 8-10, many of them kids. Kids under 5 don't have to pay, but that also means they don't get a seat. So they sit on laps, the floor, or on top of our luggage when it's a station wagon. Let me tell you, it's not too fun to be in a stuffed car with screaming kids for hours at a time! Especially when it's so hot and the road is super bumpy. But that's how things are done there.

Other signs that you're in the jungle:
You are dive bombed by butterflies that have wings as big as your hands.
Your hotel provides you with just a sheet on your bed, and, if you're lucky, a fan.
In a restaurant you are served by a shirtless, shoeless guy. Yes, I do kind of question the sanitation of places like this, but I try not to think about it.

In one of the cities, I took a hike to find some nearby ruins. I ended up getting lost and never actually found them, but the scenery was spectacular and I found a cool piece of pottery on the trail. I probably could have sold it to some museum, but I just took a picture of it and left it there.

It seems like things cost more here in Ecuador than in Peru. This may be due to the fact that Ecuador recently switched its currency to the US dollar to prevent the excessive inflation that it was experiencing. I crossed the border via a rarely-used route so there was nowhere to change my Peruvian soles to dollars. It's a good thing I happened to have $12 with me from home. That was enough for lunch, dinner, and the six-hour bus ride to the nearest city with a bank. Oh, side note about the buses down here: lots of them have a button that the driver pushes when we pass through something stinky. It pumps heavily-perfumed air into the bus to relieve our poor nostrils of the nasty smell. It makes me laugh every time they use it.

My hotel tonight is right by a casino, so maybe I'll head down there to waste a few cents on the slot machines. They're called tragamonedas, which literally means "coin swallowers." How fitting.