5 years ago: coming home.

This day, five years ago, I returned home from my semester abroad in Ecuador. Although I had the best time of my life, I was ready to return home after 4.5 months. 

I have many many memories and a list of things I did to rival any bucket list. Here's a small snippet:

- visited the Galapagos Islands

- lived in the Amazon Rainforest for 1 month

- went horseback riding in the Andes

- jumped off a 40 foot tall waterfall (i have no photo of me, but here's one of some random person at the same place)

- saw a Cock-of-the-Rock lek (group mating ritual of some brightly colored birds)

- saw 8 species of monkeys (among more wildlife than anyone could imagine)

- rode a bicycle on the Panamerican Highway 

- soaked in natural hot springs baths

- stood on two active volcanoes

- swam with sea lions, sea turtles, rays, and sharks

- saw Lonesome George

- got the worst sunburn of my life
- saw many sunrises and sunsets

- caught bats, raised baby turtles, studied fiddler crabs, measured and counted hermit crabs, among several other research projects (e.g., schoolwork)

- traveled via plane, train (on the roof), bus, and boat

- rode in the bed of many a truck

- lived with a host family, where my host mother did not speak any English

- oh yeah, and that earned me 18 college credits.

here are some photos to continue the trip down memory lane.

getting ready to leave. i brought all that stuff.

my host sister and I

my first full day in Ecuador. at the Equator.

BU Tropical Ecology Program 2006

at 13,500 feet elevation

me at 14,700 feet on Cotopaxi Volcano (one of the highest active volcanoes in the world)

this is class.

awkward foot wash station.

me & a land iguana in the Galapagos

i have a bat in my hand.

on the Rio Tiputini (this is the only way to get to and from our research station)

canopy walkway up 100ft in the air

riding on top of a train to El Nariz del Diablo

at nearly 12,000 feet at Podocarpus National Park (I'm smiling because this is before I thought we were lost and were not going to survive)

at the best known Inca ruins in Ecuador, Ingapirca

this is our professor.

my parents even came to visit! this is the REAL Equator.

i have to mention the other item for this day. although May 14th was the 'last day of the semester,' some members of our group stayed to continue traveling. one of our group, Meghan Sennott, was traveling in Peru on an overnight bus trip, and the bus went off the side of a mountain in the Andes. Thirteen people, including Meghan, were killed in the crash. 

Our group was only 14 students, 1 TA, and 1 professor. I found out via email two days after it happened. I had messages from our TA, our professor, and our program administrator in Ecuador. it hit hard, as it could have been any or all of us. we spent a lot of time in buses, speeding around blind corners on dirt roads with no guardrails in the Andes.


i had been happy to be home, and at that point, i was just glad i was able to come home. it still was a great semester, but my return to the US and the end of the trip still is bittersweet.