Boots on the ground

We're in Cuenca, after a roundabout tour of airports in the US and Ecuador that was longer than we expected...

The town of Cuenca is beautiful, and we're already very comfortable here.  For example -- we've already found an ice cream shop that we like, that's on the walking route between the language school and the house where we're staying.  Excellent.

The family we're staying with is a large one, and they live in a nice house about a 20 min walk from the language school.  We're going to be comfortable here!

Miami

Our flights were a little bumpy heading out of Dallas, both in the air and on the ground: we were delayed and missed our connection to Quito. After an hour of working with helpful airline personnel, we have been rebooked on a flight one day later. Not a bad first snafu. We now will get some great sleep and be fresh as we begin to think, speak, listen, and dream in Spanish.

¡Buenas noches!

Itinerary Jan-May 2010

Here's our itinerary as we know it now.  With a trip this size, we expect to plan a little, do a little, plan a little, do a little.



First Third:
Jan 16 to the fourth week of March:
Cuenca, Ecuador, studying Spanish and travelling.  We'll be staying with a host family there.  We don't know them yet, but we've heard through the grapevine that they're great.

Fourth week March:
Cuzco, Peru, hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Apr to May:
Farming and practicing Spanish in and around Costa Rica.



Second Third:
We have plans to meet several people around the US this summer, and we'll firm up plans for that during the spring.

For the summer, we'll be in the US June to August.  Our plan in this order is:
Dallas
Colorado
Arizona
Zion Nat'l Park
Yosemite
SF/Napa Valley
Portland
Seattle
Sun Valley
Yellowstone
South Dakota
Chicago
Washington DC
Virgina -- Charlottesville, Richmond, Williamsburg



Third Third:
For Sept - Dec, we have plans to work with Semester at Sea as administrative staff, if we get a positive response from our applications to that organization.

...If not, we'd like to visit several countries in Asia!



If you'd like more specifics, let us know over email...

Packing up, moving out

We started our year around the world by packing up our world in Austin.  Even for a place our size, there was still time for blood, sweat, and tears, as shown by my blood on the kitchen floor, courtesy of visit from a 9x13 baking dish disintegrating in midair above my head :).

We made it out of the house (we loved that green house), with a little help from Mike, Tim (on the left), Rachel, who convinced us to take some extra stuff last minute.


We didn't get to see nearly everyone we would have liked before leaving, but we look forward to keeping up over mail and when we get back.

We'll post our itinerary soon...

Lindsay and I will be taking the next twelve months to do three things -- learn Spanish, see the US, and hopefully be involved with travel abroad with Semester at Sea.  We've loved the holidays with family, friends.  Over Christmas, we've gotten many questions about our schedule.  We'll be posting one!

Love you guys!
Mark