Kepfram & Ellie's Travel Journal

It's hard to believe that this aventura is over, and that we've been back home already for almost 2 weeks....

I feel blessed to have met so many great people along our journey: my fellow teachers (& co-Spanish students) from Universidad Latina (Katie & Mike, Rachael, Shiona, Denise, etc), friends we explored Costa Rica with (Omar & Lea, Elizabeth & Isaac, Kassi), my students (especially Rocío and Ernesto who started out as students but ended up as real friends - and there are so many more - too many to list), my Costa Rican/Argentine Spanish teacher (Monica - one of the best teachers I've ever had) & her husband (Monte - gifted musician & friend), our incredible hosts in Nicaragua (Marcela & Boris), our traveling companions in Bolivia & beyond (Yvan & Cécile, Rafael, Franck & Charlotte), our new friends in Argentina (Araceli, Claudia & her family), plus all those other people who were kind to us along the way. (I'm sorry I don't have pictures of everyone - how could that have happened?!! Come visit us in NY, we need to document our friendship!!)

We saw so many incredible places, tasted many unique foods, got sick several times as a result, learned tons Spanish, laughed at our fortunes and misfortunes, read some great books (highlights for me being: Mountains Beyond Mountains, and Nine Hills to Nambonkaha), and overall expanded our horizons.

To see where we've been look in our archives:
July 2005 - getting to know Costa Rica
August 2005 - settling into Costa Rican life and our Villa Lakshmi apartment, looking for work, our trip to Cahuita
September 2005 - exploring San José, Montezuma, Cartago, Volcan Irazú, plus an intro Nicaragua
October 2005 - recap of our trip to Nicaragua, info on our new apartment
November 2005 - a quick update from Costa Rica
December 2005 - more from Costa Rica including our trip to Rincon de la Vieja, plus the start our holiday in Guatemala
January 2006 - more from Guatemala
February 2006 - more updates from Costa Rica including apartment photos
March 2006 - we say goodbye to Costa Rica then visit Panamá, explore Ecuador, and enter Perú
April 2006 - our trips through Perú & Bolivia (will Kepfram ever finish his post about el Salar de Uyuní??)
May 2006 - our visit to Chile and our first weeks in Argentina (including Bariloche, Mendoza, our intro to Buenos Aires)
June 2006 - our Buenos Aires apartment and our visits to Igauzú Falls (post pending - are you listening Kepfram??) & to Uruguay
July 2006 - our last days in Buenos Aires and coming home