Emotion mounts as the days pass quickly toward the 'launch' of our SAM- South America- semester. The subtle reasons why the eleven of us will be coming together on this three-month exploration will reveal themselves gradually over time as we experiment with unique and fresh realities throughout Ecuador and Peru.

As you pack your bag, remember that lighter is always better! We'll be covering a good number of miles along our adventure, and it's to your benefit to not be weighted down.

Be sure to make it to the LACSA check-in counter in the international terminal by 9:30PM on Wednesday, February 10th! If for any reason you do not find the crew, give a call to the Carpe Diem head quarters, their phones will be on all night and can help us out. The office can be reached at 503 285 1800 and 503 285 0748. We'll meet up as a group to move through the check-in process together, so just look for the crowd... and people that resemble the duo in the picture. We look forward to meeting you and sharing in the unforgettable journey. Hasta pronto, amigos...

Hi Again

Happy thanksgivin! The Sammers celebrated a little early by enjoying a huge feast and playing secret turkey for each other. We all are very well rested after a very amazing and spiritual stay at our yoga retreat. Sunday, a very sunny woman at that, shared her Hindu practices of meditation, astrology, and all the different yoga types and philosophies with us. The courses were intense, we sang, danced, meditated, and most of us are capable of doing headstands now. That is until Keegan farted and everyone had to kneel while he just laughed. The food was wonderful as well. Healthy and tasty. Plus since Sunday is from New Mexico we got a little taste of home in the US. Every part of the yoga retreat was inspiring, especially baby Mira Vie.

Now with full bellies, we are ready to take part in the very anticipated final part of the trip, a 5 day trek to Macchu Picchu. We are all very aware that this is our last week together and hope to make it the best one yet! But we can´t wait to see you soon! Love and kisses,
K&K

Hi

Floating islands, a place none of us have ever expierenced before. The people create their land from condensed dirt and place piles of yellow reeds on top. The sun light reflects beautifully off of the islands as well as the lake, which creates a gorgeous contrast. Along with the reed monster boats that dock outside their homes. These islands literally float and in order for them to stay in place stakes need to be pressed down, and weights thrown over the side. The communities are very friendly though when in disaggrement, they have been known to pull stakes out of their neighbors part of the island to hopefully have them drift away. The islands that we visited were Uros and Taquiles. It was a very scenic boat ride to get to both islands, although our boat driver fell asleep on the way there time to time. We were graced by double halo rainbows which surrounded the sun throughout our trip. When we got the Taquiles we took a 20 minute walk to the top where we ate lunch. Jeff ended up dying along the way in our current game of lover. Then we returned to the boat with our happy tour guide since we were the happiest group and played chess and cards the whole way back to Puno.

Although Puno was relatively small, we were all able to do many activities in the town, such as the carnivals and coca museum. Alot of us hiked up to the look outs, one having a pointing statue of Manu Chipac, the first born Incan. The other look out had a giant Andean condor statue that provided a much larger and breath taking view of Puno, literally breath taking because of the altitude. One night after dinner, we stumbled upon a professional womens volleyball game, Puno vs. Juliyaca. We all had a roaring time as we acted like 12 year olds yelling ¨JULICACA!¨ although most of the time we thought Puno was playing Cuzco. Keegan also caught a volleyball that was thrown in the crowd during halftime. After having the ball for five minutes, a little sweet kid came to him and asked him for the ball very politely. Bugged eyed and mouth grinning, Keegan shouted ¨¡ES MIO!" and cackled, making the boy run to his mama. After all the insults we threw at JuliCACA, #6 Thunder Strike and #10 Big Mama, led Juliyaca to victory. We left with happy faces knowing we would be in Cuzco soon.

We got a welcome to Cuzco gift by getting some of our stuff robbed on the bus ride there. We put it behind us with all the fun things we did. After all the strenuous research we did at all of the many travel agencies here, we decided to go zip lining and horseback riding. We giddied up and rode em horsies all around the ruins. It was amazing to see the advanced engineering the Incas did to make these ruins, but mainly we were more excited just to ride our horses. Then we strapped into our harnesses and zipped and zipped and zipped. We had a blast riding the 3 zip lines the park provided, but had a crazy time repeling down a 100 meter rock. Kieran seemed like she had the most fun doing that. While Shelby wasnt so fond of taking other peoples advice while repelling. What is special about these zip lines are they are the highest in the world, but only above sea level. It was nice having amazing adventures in Cuzco before we left to volunteer at the House of Miracles.

Well we all crammed into a cozy little van and headed off to House of Miracles, an orphanage in the Sacred Valley. To get there we did the unmanagable and fit all ten of us and our bags into a wee little car. Its a colorful building full of love. The American couple, Marie and Allen, who manage and fund the place are so sweet and genuine. They welcomed us with coca tea and smiles. Charlie, Blue, Rover, and Sid all gave us barks of kindness. We spent most mornings weeding the drive way to help bring down the lease of the property. In the afternoons, we chilled with the homefries playing games and sharing jokes. Jose Luis was the name maker of the group. Will being Chubaka, Kieran being rat..but its only cause she taught them egyption rat screw, Keegan, Princess Leya, Dan as Squished Tomatoe, Jeff was Girrafe, and Andy was the sad clown. One of the days we took a 2 hour hike stright up the mountain an Incan Ruin. After exploring the girls and Milo sat in the wide opened feild and played the the dancing sparkles. We giggled and wondered why we were seeing these white specks and balls of black. At one point all four of us were waving our hands in the air, all with smiling faces. The rest of the boys kept walking and went to the Incan tower. On the last day at the orphanage, we had an indoor bon fire where we all laughed and feasted on smores. In the morning the kids gave us hugs goodbye and we went to Cuzco for just a night. Now we are all excited for the yoga retreat and are savoring the few days we have left.

Until later,
with love,
Kieran and Keegan

Lake Titicaca

Here we are - it´s free travel time! We are in the tourist haven of Puno right now, super fried after our two weeks of spanish classes in Arequipa.

Colca was incredible, as you could probably tell from the pics.

After a 6 hour bus ride in a double decker, flying on all sides of the ¨road¨ through the most picturesque landscapes of the Peruvian mountains we arrived here with mouth fulls of coca to ease our aching heads - Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. It is beautiful here. This morning, Raul, a very different Shaman than ours from the Amazon, did a ceremony to the Pacchamamma (Mother Earth) with us. He taught us about the pre-Incans´ belief that the three most holy animals are the snake, which connects you to the underworld, your innerself and the knoweledge of the earth, the puma which connects you to the physical world and your drive and inner warrior spirit, and finally the condor which connects you to father sky and the cosmos. All of the Andean philosophies also believe in the concept of duality, creating a balance between opposing forces: the positive and negative, or the masculine and feminine energies in everyone and everything. On our journey to ¨the door of knowledge¨ we first sat at the rock of the puma where four cat foot prints lay embedded into an acient rock, then we traveled across the spine of the snake which was a long ridge leading to the nest of the condors, which was a series of natural rocks in the shape of condors overlooking a cliff. Along the way we participated in two rituals - one where Raul supported us as we leaned out with open arms over a cliff and released the negative parts of our past so that we can better face the future. The second was at the ´door of knowledge,´ where we became one with the earth, entering columns carved into the cliffs by either natural means or the ancestors of humans. We entered one column, felt its energy, and then entered the other, finally ending between the two, literally in the door, where we also felt the energy from the Pacchamamma.

After we all did this ritual, Raul and another Shaman prepared an offering to the Pacchamamma: sweets, coca leaves, wine, and the fetus of the llama. We all offered a handful of coca leaves, expressing our best thoughts for the universe, and then they burned the offering in a fire pit made of cow poo. The poo turned white as it burned, a sign that the Pacchamamma accepted the offering.

Tomorrow we head to the floating islands, and then Tuesday night we will be bound for Cuzco! WE GET TO RIDE A HOT AIR BALLOON OVER THE SACRED VALLEY HAH!

Peace out from Team SAM
Your bloggers, Maddie and Andy

A peek into our weekend...

More later!!!
Love, Team SAM

Greetings from Arequipa!

We have emerged from the jungle and now we have arrived in Perú!

Our week in the Amazon was muy interesante. We stayed in a lodge on a ridge above a village on the Puyo-Pongo river, and our project for the week was to build the stairs to get to the lodge! The path was steep and slippery and in need of a lot of maitenance. We perfected our machete skills chopping up trees to make steps and spent hours pounding them into the ground. We also got to trek through the jungle and visit a shaman. Andy got to hang out with a monkey. It was pretty chill.

The shaman visit was fascinating. He began each of our cleansing rituals by smoking a cigarrette and demonstrating how the cigarrette represented each of our bodies. Then he stuck the wrong end of a different cigarrette into his mouth and blew smoke all over us. The stains on the cigarrette were our ´mal aire´or bad energy. To cleanse us, he did a series of rituals like spraying us in the face with sugarcane alcohol, blowing smoke on our heads, and using magical rocks to call spirits from the jungle and cleanse us. We were all given a specific herb to smell six times per day, three times in the morning and three times before bed, for three days. After three days our current sicknesses we supposed to be healed. I think as far as shamanism goes it is nessicary to believe to be able to see, rather than to see to believe. For some of us the experience was more meaningful.

After a dirty ass week in the amazon, we took off for Quito at 6 in the morning with bags full of wet clothes and mud. Upon arriving we chilled in Quito for two days. Some of us got to visit el Mitad del Mundo - the official equator - while others got the chance to have a private tour of the US embassy with Jeff´s friend Mike, the head of security there. The US embassy in Quito is brand new, cost $80 million dollars, and is considered small. Don´t try breaking in, even to use the water-conserving toilets that can actually handle toilet paper (a major novelty in these parts). After a couple of days in Quito we all wke up at 3 in the morning to catch a flight to LIma Peru and then transfer to another flight to Arequipa, our new home...for two weeks.

Arequipa is a cool city - it´s hot and dry during the day and cold and dry at night. It´s actually on the north end of the Atacama desert... or you could just call it Tatooine. We´re living with wonderful families. OUr mornings are spent taking intense Spanish classes. Tomorrow we apparently have to give speeches in front of the entire school, to demonstrate our bomb spanish skills. Andy, Milo and Dawn entered an agreement on Monday: Andy and Milo would quit smoking for five days, and Dawn would fast. Andy and Dawn are holding strong on day THREE, but Milo not as much... and he has paid the price - he TOLD us to pants him if he smoked... and Keegan is not one to let him go back on his word.

We´ve passed the afternoons exploring this new place... we saw the market on Monday - anything you would ever EVER need. Yesterday, we went to the Monastary and explored the seemingly never-ending labrinth of bedrooms, kitchens, and sanctuaries. We´re also in the midst of planning our weekend to Colca Canyon - hopefully we can find a mule (or puma. or condor) for Maddie and her knee to ride down on! Free travel plans are also in the works - Lake Titicaca, here we come!

Peace from the SAMtastic team!

Hasta luego - photos to come!

Your bloggers, Maddie and Andy

Alto Choco

hello home! que tal? we have some bad news... ecuador lost the world cup qualifying game...we were in quito that weekend and the streets were crazy. we even tryed a little dancing in one of the clubs that night... an interesting experience that some of us enjoyed more than others. then we packed up and headed into the cloud forest of Alto Choco for the week. we were planing on staying there for two weeks but our plans changed and come monday we will be at another reforestation project in the amazon! how great is that!!??!! hopefully no one gets jungle fever...uh ohh. i am personally hoping to see some monmkeys or an andaconda or soemthing very unique and tropical-like. in Alto Choco we planted a lot of trees, helped build walls out of bamboo, cooked, and went nof a very beautiful hike. the mornings were so beautiful- it aint called the cloud forest for nothin. right now we are in a cute little town called banos...we may even go to the natural banos tonight. today we all went rafting...it was a lot of fun. i am planning on posting pictures tonight on our shutterfly so keep checking that if you need to see more. we know that you guys love to live your lives through us. we love you. we miss you. muchos besos.

your blogggers- Shelby and Milo