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From: Joe
Sent: Saturday, January 17 2004   22:00:20
Subject:  Two Life Changing Trips

¡Greetings amigos!

As you all know, because I’ve mentioned it before, a group of Kzoo students, including Jill, Vonnie, Sus, and myself, did the Incan trail!!  Really, all I can say is that it was the most amazing 4days 3nights of my life.  Ever single person on this earth must do this.  They MUST.  All of you Kzoo kids that are young and fit and full of life, YOU MUST DO THIS!

I really can’t describe it, it was a full experience.  I will say that we were in a group with 4 other people, plus our guide Augustin, who was tight.  The other people were 2 bros from Cali, Mark from New Zealand, and Alex from Bulgaria.  We definitely bonded, even though our personalities weren’t exactly the most compatible.  Anyway, for those of you that aren’t familiar with the trail, its a 4 day 3 night hike from 82Km outside of Cuzco, Peru to Macchu Pichu, a total of 42km, most of which is up and down hill.  Along the way you visit many, many different Incan ruins.

After returning to Quito for about 13 hours, all the Kzoo kids with Nelson (program director), headed to Las Islas Galàpagos.  The Galàpagos, a set of islands located 600km from the coast of Ecuador, are maybe the most beautiful set of landscapes I have ever seen.  Beaches with sands of all colors, waters of every shade of blue.  We did a lot of snorkeling, which always included playing with the sea lions, where they swim around you, dive at you, and spin all around.  We also saw some sharks, rays, many fish, and some bottle nose dolphins that chased the boat.

To have these two trips back to back created a fairly intense couple of weeks, so I apologize that this is so short, but its really something that has to be experienced.  I’m sure all the study abroad kids understand.  Now I have a day to relax in Quito (tomorrow) and on Monday we leave at 7h30 to go to the jungle for a month, at which time I will have no contact with the outside world.  I wish all of you well, and I’ll see everyone in the US.  I hope everyone has an amazing end to there study abroad programs (long terms), and they return safely to the States.

Love always,

Joe

From: Joe
Sent: Wednesday, December 17 2003   06:48:22
Subject:  Montanita

Hello again friends,

Classes are winding down here.  I have one more final and then I’m free from this terrible university.  I guess I shouldn’t complain, we did take some amazing trips with my classes and got to see Ecuador in a way that would be impossible for just any tourist.

Speaking of seeing Ecuador, last weekend I had the amazing luck of being able to go to Montanita, a little beach town just above Guayaquil, peopled entirely by hippies.  Basically, Montanita is a surfer town, but actually not terribly popular with tourists, either because it isn’t well known, or possibly because the waves are so freakin’ huge that they verge on dangerous.  Anyway, my group of about 7 friends and myself headed down, taking a bus 8 hours through the night.  After being stuck in Quito for so long, it was amazing to see bright blue waters and smell the salt water washing up on shore.  After finding our hotel we ran straight to the beach and swam the day away.

While the swimming and the beach were awesome, there was an even cooler part.  After walking north about 10 minutes you come to this rocky point that looks like it was created by a lava flow.  Walking around this point for about 15 minutes on painfully sharp rocks (my sandals had broken earlier in the day) you arrive at a little rock that juts out a bit further than the rest.  If you walk up onto this rock, the waves rush at the “mini-cliff” in front of you and break in huge walls of water that come crashing down on top of you.  I have never felt the pure power of the ocean so much in all my life.  When I brought people back to the spot I had found, Corinne got so excited that she ran up without me being able to warn her about the waves.  Well, sure enough a large one came as she was walking out there and knocked her flat.  Honestly, it looked like she was flying.  I ran over and looked down at her, and she was lying there just smiling.  That’s how amazing this place was.

Anyway, I could go on and on about Montanita.  Let’s just say it was my favorite single spot in all of Ecuador.

I hope everything is well with all of you, and that you are all having equally amazing experiences.

Love always,

Joe