Onward and Upward

So it’s been a month and a half since we stepped foot back on U.S. soil, and a month and a half since we were itching to leave it again. We arrived to a mostly snowless, soggy winter in Michigan, not the winter wonderland we had been missing, and had no real plans other than waiting to hear from Nolan’s grad schools. We’ve tried to keep ourselves busy by organizing and reorganizing our personal possessions, cooking as much as we can (including trying to replicate baleadas), and visiting friends and family, but the time has still passed quite slowly. The transition hasn’t been difficult, but we attribute that to the fact that there hasn’t been much transitioning yet, no new jobs or apartments to think about. We think about Honduras often and definitely miss some of the aspects of our life there, like our great market and speaking Spanish daily. The hardest thing is answering people’s question about our service. From hair stylists to dentists, everyone is interested in hearing a quick spiel that sums it up. We’re getting better at quickly describing the experience, but it still feels like doing it a great injustice by describing it as “Really interesting!”

Soon we’ll have new stories to share - we leave tomorrow for our trip to South America! Our 6.5 week itinerary will feature visits to Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, with some special excursions including a sailing trip from Panama to Cartagena, island hopping in the Galapagos and seeing Machu Picchu. This will be one of the longest trips we’ve taken, and probably the last backpacking trip we’ll ever take, so we’re hoping everything comes together for a perfect vacation. We also hope by the time we return Nolan will have a grad school picked out and we’ll have a new city to move to! We’ll be posting updates along the way on this blog, so check back often!