And Now It's Really Over: The Last Post

Well, everyone, we've been home for nearly two weeks now. And it's kinda wild how quickly our trip is receding in the rearview mirror. Last week, we kept marveling: "This time last week we were in Mancora!" "On this day last week, we were in Lima." We reminisced less this week, although we did go out for a chicken dinner last night (our first chicken since our trip ended) -- and we did agree that we like the South American papas fritas (french fries) very much (possibly more so than our American ones...shhhh).

We're back in the thick of things with school and sports and work and appointments and errands and laundry and everything. And it's both wonderful and overwhelming. The laundry especially is excellent; if you ever hear me complain about doing laundry -- in my MACHINES! -- please just slap me.

This post will be our last, and I feel like now the trip is officially over, because we're putting the blog to bed. Clearly, I will have to find something else to blog about soon; I've just had too much fun journaling on this thing since December.

We sat down as a family recently, and everyone shared their reflections from our trip. Check 'em out below:

Wyatt

I've been home for more than a week and I'm thankful because I get to see my friends and play sports. And now I have Roger, my dog. But I'm missing all the interesting animals in the Amazon and all the cool animals -- the blue footed boobies and sea lions and marine iguanas -- in the Galápagos. I wish I was back on the road in Peru and Ecuador. But I'm thankful I'm not eating chicken and rice every day. I hope we have another two-month trip sometime.

Taylor

Now that I've been home, I still love the Amazon and I will remember it for the rest of my life. The animals that we saw, we will probably never see in a zoo. I'm proud of myself for swimming with caimans, and I would swim with them again. I also really appreciated getting to know our Amazon guide, Lander.

Tim

Something that's sticking with me from our trip is the conversation we had with Lander, our Amazon guide, while fishing. I asked Lander if he had ever been to the United States, and he responded, "No, I've never been." And then he shared that he'd never been to Lima. I remember asking Lander if he were interested in going to Lima. Lander told us that he had a brother in Lima but had never visited and wasn't sure if he'd ever go. He was content, he was home in the jungle. He loved life in the Amazon; he loved the simplicity and wildness of it all. And I feel like that's so foreign to me, to us, as Americans. We don't operate that way in this country. We're all about the next thing, we're all about striving, we don't necessarily sit still enough to be content. And so that conversation we had with Lander was eye-opening for me, and it was an amazing reminder that our American culture doesn't have to dominate us.

Sarah

What to say? The whole experience was incredible. I feel stronger for having done it, and I feel that we're closer as a family. I loved the freedom the trip provided, the challenges (hi, zillion Amazon mosquitoes), the learnings, and the overall adventure. Our time in the Amazon was a highlight; that part of the world will always be magical to me. But looking back on all the places we visited -- I loved it all. I think what I will remember most is the people; everyone was happy (well, except the van driver who took us on the Death March to the Nazca Lines) -- even those who had very little appeared happy. I come back here to California, and there is an abundance...of everything. We do not need an abundance to be happy. We need each other. How to bottle this from our trip and apply it back at home? I don't know yet, but I'll be working on it.

*****

So now I will close this blog. Thank you all for reading and for keeping us company during our Andean Adventure. We wish YOU all the life adventure, too. Ciao, ciao!