Home at Last.

After being home for a couple weeks now, I think I know how Dorothy in the "Wizard of Oz" felt after coming back to Kansas: everything is the same, but home is really pretty sweet. Anyways, sorry if that was too cheesy or sentimental for you but I just didn't know how else to intro this blog. We are now back though and we are safe and sound taking our de-worming pills and finishing up the rest of our malaria pills. Since we last blogged, many adventures took place. From Arequipa, we went to Nazca where we sand boarded on a bunch of dunes and got ridiculously sandy including nooks and crannies (too much info...sorry). From there, we went to Lima and stopped for a couple nights with intentions of heading out towards the Amazon shortly after.

For those of you who are diligent readers, you will know that the adventures started out with a craving last summer to go to the Amazon. So this was a big deal to FINALLY be able to venture out. It took us about 20 hours to make it to the edge of the Ucayali River where there is a city named Pucallpa. We had planned to get on a cargo boat where we would arrive in Iquitos--our destination for 3 nights. In fashion, our boat left 21 hours late meaning that we had to spend an extra night on the boat at the Pucallpa "port." I put "port" in quotes because this hardly represented at port. Most of the places that the boats would stop along the Amazon was a dirt beach that the captainwould run the front of the boat into until it was beached enough to stop.

Anyways, so we spent the next 4 nights in the boat eating chicken and rice almost every meal and loving the hard life. By hard life, we spent many hours reading and finishing our books from our hammocks. Tough. Oh, but we did have to listen to a baby monkey that wore a diaper screech every morning just outside our cabin on the boat. (I don't really feel like explaining why there was monkey in a diaper so I will let you use your imaginations).
In Iquitos, we had many adventures including hanging out with monkeys that climbed all over us, playing with sloths, holding little aligators, and even letting Anacondas sit around our neck. (Okay, so it's true, I hate snakes so I was the only one that refused. But hey, give me some credit, I held a smaller snake for a little while...and almost wet myself).
Eventually, we flew back to Lima where we had a chance to try paragliding for 20 min rides and some surfing too. So that concluded our travels.
All in all, I think we would all agree in that it was an adventure of a lifetime.

If you want some pictures and you are still out there reading this and care for them, you have to ask for them. Here is one to appease some of you...
For those of you that have heard rumours but never have known...


...It is true, there are snow cones in South America...

Oh ya, and I put two pictures so that way you are all pleasantly surprised.

But sincerley folks,
Thanks for those of you that faithfully supported us throughout this trip. You have been HUGE to us. In fact, if there is one major thing that we have learned, it is that missionaries need support. Not just the whole cliche money and prayer, but also simply knowing that you care. A simple email or encouragment letter can go a really long way. So thank you so much for your support--It meant more than you know.

FYI: Once again, didn't proofread. Sorry about the confusions.