South America

Per a friend’s recommendation (thanks Maren), I wound up buying a plane ticket to Peru when I spotted an amazing deal. I didn’t know anything about Peru but since my friend Maren was always saying how great it was and that I should go, I figured, why not? She was right! I went to Peru in September 2008 and had a great time – explored the trail to Machu Picchu and did a day of mountain biking through the jungle with a 10,000 foot elevation drop (in other words, it was all downhill and almost zero effort). It was still fun though. Machu Picchu was incredible at sunrise and the Peruvian chicken and food in general was great. After my first trip to the southern hemisphere and to South America, I decided I wanted to go back for certain.

Just after I had purchased my ticket to Peru, an random acquaintance told me I should go visit Ecuador. After hearing that, I added Quito to my flight alerts and kept a close eye. This past fall I got lucky with another amazing deal and bought tickets to Ecuador for me and my mom. We went for a week in February 2011 and had a great time. We went zip-lining in the cloud forest, went to the equator, hiked up to el refugio on Cotopaxi Volcano, went horseback riding, and explored Quito. It was also nice since I had just finished one semester of Spanish at GMU and was in my second semester. Now I just need to return to a Spanish-speaking country so I can really learn Spanish!