Otavolo, Quito, and the Galapagos Islands!

Hey everyone!
The last week or so has been crazy as the trip wraps up faster than I could have imagined. First we spent two days in Otavolo shopping for souveniers and spending wayyyyy too much money. Then we spent another two days in Quito, the capitol of Ecuador, which I think was my favorite city over the whole trip. We stayed in New Town, a super hip part of town with lots of yummy food, but spent one day wandering around Old Town. In Old Town we climbed to the top of the Basilica, where we got a 360 degree view of the city, and ate lunch near the cute town square which is surrounded by beautiful old colonial buildings and lots of other pretty stuff to look at.
Next we flew to the Galapagos for the final hoorah of the trip- a four day yacht trip around the southern islands. The boat was an amazing place with 3 floors, lots of lounge chairs, and a bar. During the day we snorkled, took dingy rides to look at the animals on the coast, walked around a couple different islands, jumped off the boat, and tanned. My back is currently beet red and crazy ichy. Oops. Oh yeah, and we ate a lot, like usual. We came back into Porto Ayora for our last two nights and spent an extra day shopping and checking out the Charles Darwin Center. Over the week we got to see an amazing array of animals such as sharks, giant schools of fish, lots of baby sea lions, galapagos penguins(my favorite!!), blue-footed boobies, crabs, marine iguanas, pelicans, friggate birds, the famous Darwin Finches, and (of course!) giant turtles!
This morning we took a taxi, a bus, a boat, another bus, a plane, and another taxi and we have now arrived back in Quito. Tonight we have our final night ¨closing ceremonies¨where we stay up all night and then we leave for the airport at 3am in the morning! I´ll be back in the States midday Wednesday and back in Seattle by tomorrow night. Thanks to everyone who followed my blog and I hope to see you all very soon!
Lots of love,
Burns

Campo Cocha and Arajuno Jungle Lodge, Ecuador

12 days living in the middle of the Ecuadorian jungle.... Who thought I´d ever do that, huh? We spent the first week living with host families in Campo Cocha, a VERY small native community that farms communally and lives with only the basic modern anemities. Most families in Campo Cocha have at least five children(or six, seven, eight, all very common), but my family consisted of only my father, my mother, and one daughter, a spunky six year old named Lisa. Our home was on stilts and though it had a small amount of electricity, there was no plumbing or other power source, so all cooking was done by fire and the bathroom was a small shack on the back of the property. Every morning I woke up early (my homestay partner, Danielle, was sick with an ameoba all week, so I spent most of the time alone with my family) to help with breakfast and the chores of the day. The chores ranged from sweeping and washing dishes and laundry in the nearby creek, to more exausting tasks like chopping firewood, pulling yuka (a yummy potato-ish food), and working in the plantain fields. My family spoke only spanish and quichwa, so I ended up speaking spanish for all but two hours every day, when I met up with my group member for the camp we were running for local kids. I taught english class with two other girls, Karly and Emma, during the camp, which was challenging, but hilarious.
Though I was extremely uncomfortable in the beginning of this homestay (our house had a number of tarantulas that would wander the walls at night plus my spanish is ok, but definitely not good...) I was the most sad to leave this place out of all of our stops so far. It was an amazing experience to see how people live their lives so differently than I do, and yet watch the interaction of a family of three, so similar to my own upbringing. Leaving my Campo Cocha family was really hard, and I hope to send them mail and keep in touch with them somehow as Lisa grows up...
This week we stayed at the Arajuno Jungle Lodge, just a couple minutes up river from Campo Cocha, and worked for Tom Larson, a former Peace Corps volunteer who moved to Ecuador in 2000 and built his eco-tourism lodge for travellers soon after. He also runs a non-profit that works on projects around the community related to breeding and protecting native species. We worked on his yellow-spotted-turtle ponds (Cecil´s long lost relatives), which included many, many hours of manual labor in the mud, bugs, and hot, hot sun, but it felt great to be involved in such an amazing project. Tom has a pretty good life going for himself- his lodge is right on the river, his wife is the most amazing cook ever, and they have a 3 year old woolly monkey named Mona who keeps them occupied. She is a character, that´s for sure!
Today we just arrived in Otavollo, Ecuador for a day of shopping, and then we head to Quito for the last big event of our trip- 5 days in the Galapagos Islands! I´ll update again soon, and then be home on May 5th! Can´t wait to see everyone back in the PNW and be able to contact those of you who aren´t!
Love and miss you all,
Burns

Banos, Ecuador

After another long day on the bus, we made it to Banos, Ecuador late on Saturday night. Banos is a tiny tourist town known mainly for the natural baths on the edge of the city, which we didn´t quite manage to get to.... But that´s ok, it has been a great two days anyways. Yesterday we wandered the city and ate a lot of food, as we tend to do, and today we went white water rafting on a nearby river about an hour away. Rafting was great, especially as the river ran especially high due to recent heavy rains, and we all enjoyed the beautiful Ecuadorian men who enthusiastically led our group.
I´m currently sitting just off the town square enjoying some delicious chocolate ice cream as I mentally prepare myself for getting back to work tomorrow. We´re heading back into the hot, hot jungle to run a kids camp for 4 days and then do some conservation work for another week or so, which is the last volunteer component of our trip. We´ll be out of the reach of technology until then, but I´ll let you know how everything goes when we get out! Cross your fingers for me that the bugs don´t eat me alive!
Best wishes to everyone!
Burns

Cuenca, Ecuador

Hello all!
We finally made it to Ecuador late Wednesday night and, man, are we all excited to be here! Cuenca is an adorable colonial city that is super walkable, has beautiful architecture as well as the most delicious food! We´ve spent the last two days wandering the streets, eating an incredible amount, and taking in the sights. I honestly have had dessert like seven times in the last 48 hours... It´s a rough life I live, isn´t it? Tomorrow we head to Banos, Ecuador, a small town at the base of an active volcano.
All the traveling is still going quite well, though our group has definitely had its share of sickness, bugs, and translation issues. For example, my thumbs are currently peeling and an interesting purple color due to my malaria medication... Interesting, huh? My spanish is still pretty basic, but I´m feeling more sure of myself every day! I´m thinking Spanish classes at Seattle Central Community College are in the near future for me if anyone wants to join!
Love and miss you all!
Burns

Mancora, Peru

Mancora, Peru is our last stop in Peru! We got here super early Sunday morning after a 17 hour bus ride up the coast (phew!) and arrived ready for some serious relaxation time. Mancora is right on the beach, with our hostel sitting an easy 30 second walk to sand and a 5 minute walk to town. We´ve spent the last 3 days sitting on the beach, reading and napping in hammocks at our hostel, and wandering around town buying the best fruit you have ever tasted. Oh yeah, and getting nice and sunburned... Definitely a nice reward after all of our hard work last week!
Tonight is our last night in Peru before we head north on a bus into Ecuador tomorrow mid-day. We´re planning a BBQ at the hostel before going out for Karly´s 19th birthday, which is tomorrow! Now if only I can get all this sand out of my hair...
Love to all,
Burns

Cusco, the Salkantay Trail, and Machu Picchu

What a week it has been! Last weekend we were in Cusco, which is a beautiful city with lots of old Spanish churches along with lots and LOTS of tourists. We spent the one full day we were there wandering around the square buying snacks and other last minute supplies for our trip.
We left for the Salkantay Trial (which replaced the Inca Trail as originally planned) super early Sunday morning. Over the next four days we hiked up and over Salkantay Pass for a total of 80 km and reached an altitude of over 15,200 ft before reaching Agua Caliente, the town just below Machu Picchu. The views on the trail were amazing, the paths were defintely interesting (we were the first group to return to it after the whole area was shut down due to landslides), and the waterfalls were plentiful and kept everything very interesting... Trench foot doesn´t begin to explain what my feet looked like at the end of each day!
On our last trekking day we took the new "cable car"(virtually a shopping cart on a thick metal cable) to cut off a couple hours, and had to get up at 4:45am in order to beat the police to the site and get across the river it spans before they shut it down. Once we reached the boundary to the Machu Picchu Sanctuary we found out that they had changed the ticket rules since we had left Cusco and weren´t allowed into the park without them (ours were in Agua Caliente, 12 km away). After waiting a couple hours we decided, along with the 40 or so other hikers waiting to get into the Sanctuary, to storm the gates and just walk in on our own. It worked! We walked right past them, and 3 hours later were officially done with our trek.
We headed up to Machu Picchu the next morning (yesterday) at 6am. It was beautiful. Definitely rainy, but very beautiful. We wandered and took pictures until early afternoon and then headed back to Agua Caliente for a nap before our nighttime trip back to Cusco and on to Lima. I´m currently in Lima until tomorrow night, when we start our trip up the Pacific coast. It feels great to be back at sea level and by the ocean again!
That´s all for now! Love and miss you all!
Burns

Puno, Peru and Lake Titicaca

Hey guys!
So we finally made it west to Peru and have been here for about six days now. I´m currently living in a homestay in downtown Puno with two other girls from my team. Our mom runs a hostel while our dad works at a nearby hotel (He even speaks a little bit of english! But we don´t see him much; he works all the time.), and we also have a little sister who is 10 and has very little interest in the 3 older gringo girls who live upstairs... We eat rediculously often here - breakfast, lunch, another lunch around 4pm, and then dinner at 7ish. I am constantly uncomfortably full. It is rough. But I definitely can´t complain about the consistent supply of amazing fresh fruit!
During the week we have been volunteering at a orphanage about 15 minutes outside of downtown Puno. We are working on a plethora of murals, six altogether now, under the direction of an amazing local artist, Samuel. Samuel is a veteran of the Peruvian military and fought the Shining Light in the late 80´s and early 90´s and has an amazing story to tell. If anyone is interested, remind me about it when I get home! We also spend the afternoons hanging out with the kids and trying to practice our spanish with them. The kids are super friendly and interested in us, and love to help out with the painting whenever we give them jobs.
Last weekend we took a boat trip out on to Lake Titicaca to visit the floating islands of Uros and a couple other islands a couple hours away from Puno. Uros was really cool, but felt awkwardly touristy, as they dressed us up and then tried to sell us their crafts. I also managed to get super sick on Saturday and spent most of the 3 hour boat ride after Uros vomiting over the side of the boat. No joke. We stayed the night with a homestay that night, but I don´t really remember much of it due to the consistent vom'ing... But luckily I was feeling good enough the next morning to do a quick hike up a nearby island, as we try to prepare for our 4-day trek up to Maccu Picchu next week!
Overall, I am LOVING Peru. Puno is loud and bustleing, and everyone here is super friendly. We stay here until this Friday, when we move to Cuzco! Can´t wait.
Love and miss you all - keep those emails and facebook messages coming!
Burns

(Quick correction)

Hey guys! I just wanted to make a quick correction to my post below about the Amazon River Basin - during our Anaconda Hunting excursion we were never lost, it just felt like it to those of us who didn´t speak spanish... But the guides always knew where we were going! I just wanted to clarify!
More of an update to come when we get to Peru. Love to you all.

Rurrenabaque, Bolivia and the Amazon River Basin

I just got back from the sweatiest week of my life. We flew into Rurrenabaque, Bolivia which is a cute little town along the Beni River, which feeds into the Amazon. It was easily 90 degrees and at least 90% humidity. So of course, in my excitement about being back at less than 2000 feet above sea level, I went for a run. Because I am insane. It was horrible. Never run in the Amazon River Basin. It started the sweating that didn´t stop until this morning. That was last Wednesday.
Anyways, after a 3 hour van ride over dirt roads (as always) we reached our push off point for our canoe adventure. We spent 3 days and 2 nights at a small structure... I can´t even really call it a lodge... Doing lots of fun things up and down the river. We saw lots of monkeys, birds, caymen, alligators, dolphins, and turtles! (I told them that Cecil says hi). On a not-so-fun-note, Friday morning was (excuse my language) the morning from hell. We set off to go Anaconda hunting in the marsh land, which ended up with our whole group tromping through thigh deep water for over three hours, our guides getting pretty darn lost, and then a run-in with a wasp´s nest. I was lucky enough to avoid getting stung, but a few of the girls got it really bad. Then, our patience at zero at this point, we were approached by a huge cloud of insects, easily 200 or 300. Our guides quickly made us crouch down, hold still, and be super quiet. They told us later that the insects were a swarm of Killer Bees, and when one bee decides to sting then they all attack the victim at once, and they can easily kill large animals... Like humans. Very scary. But we all got back safe and sound, spent the rest of the day swimming with the Pink River Dolphins and looking at the stars.
We got back to Rurrenabaque yesterday and then flew back into La Paz this morning and are now in Copacobana, Bolivia. Copacobana is on the shores of Lake Titicaca and next to the boarder of Bolivia and Peru. We leave for Puno, Peru on Tuesday! I´ve really loved Bolivia, but I´m excited to be somewhere new! Here is our favorite saying about Bolivia: Everything is possible, nothing is certain.
Love to you all!

Salar de Uyuni (Salt flats jeep safari)

Last Wednesday we headed even further south to Uyuni, Bolivia on an overnight train, only to leave Uyuni on Thursday morning for a four day jeep safari through southern Bolivia. We drove all day for four days, stopping at different points along the way to take pictures and look around. We stopped at lots of different interesting rock formations, lakes, the base of a couple volcanos (including the volcano that borders Chile), and an active geyser! The whole area was very dry and rocky, but very beautiful. We stayed in very basic, middle-of-nowhere hostels every night- toilet paper became quite a hot commodity by the end of the trip! And I´ll just say that I´m getting very used to not showering often... But the stars were amazing- I haven´t seen the sky like that in years!
On the last day of our drive we made our final stop at Salar de Uyuni, the ENORMOUS salt flat that is just south of Uyuni. Since we´re at the tail end of the rainy season the whole area was under two to five inches of water and absolutely breathtaking. You could just barely see the mountains in the distance, but most of the time you couldn't tell where the ground ended and the sky began.
Last night we headed back to La Paz on an eleven hour overnight bus where the majority of the driving was still on dirt roads over dried up riverbeds and such. Luckily we were all so tired that by midnight we were all asleep and suddenly it was seven in the morning and we were in La Paz!
That´s all for now! On Wednesday we do our first trip to the Amazon for a boat excursion- wish me luck with the mosquitoes!
Love Burns

Aruro, Bolivia

Change of plans! We ended up having to leave Malcorancho a day early due to a transportation blockade that started all over Bolivia at midnight last night. Evo Morales has proposed a new anti-drunk driving policy that would hold transportation companies (such as taxis) responsible for any of their employee´s wrong-doings, and the transportation unions are up in arms. We´re super lucky that our leaders knew about the blockade in advance, or else we would have been stranded in Cochabamba until this weekend! We are now in Aruro, and plan on taking an overnight train to Uyuni, leaving at 7:30 tonight. Aruro is a small town in the middle of the country, though there still seem to be more internet cafes on every block than there are Starbucks in Seattle. There isn´t much to do here in Aruro so my fellow Garfield grad, Camille, and I spent last night teaching our teammates Thirteen, a fabulous card game that I´m sure many of you other GHSers know how to play. Today will be spent wandering around the local Anthropology museum before we head out.
That´s all for now! Lots of love to you all in the States.
Burns

Malcorancho, Bolivia

Hey all!
I´ve spent the last week living and working in Malcorancho, Bolivia, a small town outside of Cochabamba. The family I have been living with is very sweet, very quiet, only speaks spanish, and includes a mom, a dad, and two sons aged 8 and 22. They have a dog, a cat, about 5 chickens, and lots and lots of ducks (including ducklings!). We´ve been working constuction at a local school, trying to finish constuction on a new classroom, which has included metal work, wood work, and LOTS of mixing and pouring cement. Did I mention that everything is by hand? Yeah... It´s pretty exausting. Yesterday we only worked a half day and instead took a bus to a local "Eco-resort" for an afternoon of much- deserved rest. Tuesday we leave for the next leg of our trip- a jeep safari across southern Bolivia!
Well, time for siesta where all the internet cafe´s shut down for 2 hours, so I´m gettting kicked off the internet. I´ll write again in a week when we get back to La Paz! Love to everyone!
Burns

Leaving Cochabamba!

Hey guys,
Tomorrow we leave for Malcorancha, Bolivia, a little (and I mean LITTLE) town 45 minutes outside of Cochabamba to spend a week doing our first volunteer project, so this is the last post I´ll be able to make for awhile. But here´s how our last couple days in Cochabamba went...
Yesterday we had our last spanish classes in the morning (and yes, I´m still horrible, but at least can be polite about it), and then headed to the last Carnaval parade in the afternoon. There were dance teams from all over Bolivia with amazing costumes, dancing, and all of their own live music- it was unlike anything I´ve ever seen. People were selling food all over the place- everything from basic soda, candy, and ice cream, to loafs of bread, things wrapped in corn husks, and interesting kinds of meat... There was, of course, also a lot more foam and water balloon throwing, which we´re all pretty used to by now. Here´s the craziest part: about 45 minutes after we sat down in our bleacher seats the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, joined us across the way and sat there for over two hours! After we spent all last week talking about him with our host families, watching a movie about his first campaign, and discussing him among ourselves, it was crazy to actually see him in person! He was dancing, laughing, taking pictures with locals, and having a great time! Though when one of my teammates tried to go take a picture with him one of his security guards held him back and said "No gringos", which was too bad, but we all got a kick out of it anyways.
Today we went to the huge central market (easily over a sqaure mile) and all went a little crazy buying locally made purses, clothing, and other fun trinkets. Then we headed up to see the gigantic statue of Jesus that overlooks the city before a late lunch. Apparently the Cochabamba Jesus is wider than the other famous one in Brazil, but not as tall. And man do his eyes look creepy when they´re that big...
So tomorrow we head out to do some hard physical labor for a week, helping to build a local high school and staying with another home stay family. Apparently the chance of these host families speaking any English at all is slim to none... So wish me luck on my charades-playing abilities!
Love to all,
Burns

Home stay in Cochabamba, Bolivia

Happy Friday!
On Wednesday we moved into the first of four home stays over the course of the trip. My home stay mom is named Lucy, who lives in a beautiful house right in the heart of Cochabamba (but still a little less crazy than the neighborhood where our hostel was last weekend). Lucy speaks very impressive english, but we´re trying to converse in spanish as much as possible, which has definitely been difficult. Luckily one of my teammates, Alex, is also staying with Lucy and together we can usually communicate quite well.
We have spanish classes two times a day, once early in the morning and once after lunch. In Bolivia lunch is the main meal of the day so staying alert during afternoon classes has been difficult. Though we don´t have very much free time, I´ve gotten a lot of chances to walk from place to place and feel very comfortable in my neighborhood. Tomorrow is our last day of classes, and then we have tickets to the final Carnaval parade which lasts all day from early in the morning till very late at night. We´re all excited to see the local dances and clothing, hear the local music, and experience Carnaval without being totally soaked the whole time.
That´s all for now! Best wishes to everyone.
Burns

Cochabamba, Bolivia

Hello all!
So after 12 hours of traveling on Sunday we made it to the beautiful city of Cochabamba, Bolivia. I must make some corrections from my last blog- we landed at 14,000 ft, stayed in La Paz at 12,000 ft and now finally made our way down to 9,000 as we spend the week in Cochabamba. Carnaval is still in full force (as I type this I am soaking from the 1.5 block walk to the internet cafe), with today being the culmination in water fighting, but a parade is in store all-day Saturday with music, dancing, etc.
Today we went on a short hike in the hills (more like small mountains) above downtown, and the view was beautiful. I even got a glimpse of the local futbol stadium that we MAY get to go see a game in when the season starts on Feb. 28th!
In general, the last week has been a lot of stop and go, rushing and then relaxing, which has been a great way to get used to the culture and to the altitude! That hike today definitely kicked everyone´s butt no matter how much they had been training for the trip! Most evenings have been spent sitting around the courtyard of our hostel, getting to know each other and talking about the trip in front of us.
We will be moving in to our first homestay tomorrow afternoon. We also start intensive spanish lessons, which will be incredibly helpful! Luckily I know just enough to get by in restaurants, taxis, and internet cafes, but living with host families will be a whole different ball game...
More later! Love and miss you all,
Burns
PS- Hey Inglemoor High School alum, I ran into one of your fellow schoolmates yesterday at lunch, his name was Taylor, was class of 2007, and knew Ehsan. Small world, huh? Excellent.

La Paz, Bolivia

Buenos noches!
After a very long night of flying we managed to land at 12,000 ft, at the top of the huge bowl that is La Paz, Bolivia. A taxi brought us down into the middle of the city, which left us at around 9,000 feet and very short of breath as we carried our bags up the stairs to the hostel where we´re staying in. After naps and a late lunch, we went up to Killi Killi, a lookout point at the top of the city to watch the sun go down. Oh, I forgot to mention that it is currently Carnival right now, and La Paz is known for its city-wide water fight, where they particularly like to target tourists like ourselves. Needless to say, at the top of the lookout we made some new friends, who immediately deemed us their favorite targets and the 13 of us ended up sprinting back down the hill with our new friends in tow, throwing water balloons and shooting us with water guns and foam canisters. Later we wandered upon a huge market with lots of fun things to look at, before a late dinner, and now bed time! Tomorrow we have a 7 to 8 hour bus ride to Cochabamba, where we´ll be spending the next week and a half.
Best wishes to you all!

Leaving Miami

Hola!

After a long, long night of flying I landed in Miami early yesterday morning and after a long nap, started orientation with the rest of my team. The group is made up of nine girls and three boys, with two leaders named Jess and Andrew. So far everyone is really nice and SO excited for the trip. More than half the team is Canadian and it has been really interesting to hear about their education system and I'm looking forward to hearing more about the health care system and their politics in the next couple months. In turn, we have already had a short "So what do you American's think about Obama?" discussion, which was pretty funny.

We have a couple hours left of orientation, where we'll be talking more about the itinerary, our home stay, health, safety, and other logistics. We head to the airport at 7:30 tonight for our 7 hour long red-eye to La Paz, Bolivia. At this time tomorrow I'll offically be in South America (finally!).

Love and miss you all.

Heading out!

Hey everyone!

So this is my first posting on my South America blog, which I will be updating as often as I can while I'm traveling. I leave for Miami on Wednesday to meet the rest of my team, and the we fly as a group to La Paz, Bolivia on Friday. Can't wait!

Best wishes,

Burns