Back from the mountains!

Hi friends! Sorry haven't updated in a while--turns out that remote mountain villages don't have internet access. ;-} For those of you who didn't know, our group had an awesome opportunity to spend a week trekking through the mountains. For those of you who know how out of shape I am, you can imagine that it was a bit of a challenge at times to go trekking anywhere from 3 to 10 miles in a day with a legit hiker's backpack on, but I made it! Our guide for the first part was an amazing local who showed us the sights and hiked us all over the earth and back to stay with these amazing village families. It was so cool to stay with them, play with the kids, and see a bit of how they live their lives. We ate some AMAZING home-cooked food, which we have all fallen in love with and will never be able to get again because it's only cooked in this mountain region... The scenery was absolutely GORGEOUS!!! It reminded me a lot of Arizona, but with a lot more mountains. I took almost 1,000 pictures, which I will try to get up on the internet asap (might have to wait until we have more reliable internet access--not at an expensive cafe).

After the first four days, we switched guides and worked with an international trekking team to see the last few villages. We met up with another international trekker and got to know him a bit--super cool guy. On the first day with them, we went to a brand new village that the leaders had never been to before. This might have turned out to be a mistake, because I think we ate something there that gave half of the group food poisoning. We decided that since so many people were sick, it would be better to cut our trip short. A two hour taxi ride down from the mountains after spending the night outside on the ground to be next to the squatty potty wasn't the most fun experience, but I made it back alive and think I am on the mend (aka, I don't feel like I want to DIE every second I'm awake anymore, only every 30 seconds or so....)

We're planning to stay where we are until everybody is over the sickness and then head back up to the place we came into to continue our cultural exploration. Be thinking of us and hope that we all get better quickly and have more opportunities to meet awesome people and experience this beautiful land as we continue our travels!