Last week we sent to see a slide show hosted by the local church. Normally we don't attend church events, but we were invited by our neighbors to see pictures from their trip to South America. It was so cute to see this retired couple recount their great adventure. Being dairy farmers, they had not had much opportunity to travel. B's brother has lived in Ecuador for a long time, but they'd never been to visit. Speaking neither English nor Spanish, the idea of foreign travel was daunting to them. Luckily M&B's kids decided that they were going to visit their uncle. They'd bring their own kids and their parents too for a real, multi-generational family adventure.
M&B were skeptical at first , but they soon realized that they were unlikely to get a better opportunity. For months, I saw them in training with their walking sticks on our dirt roads, not knowing what had sparked their sudden enthusiasm for walking.
I'm not going to go into the details of their trip, but I'll say that it moved me to see them showing pictures of the huge airplane that took 400 passengers. How easy is it to take things like that for granted? For one who's been traveling internationally since before I can remember, I was touched to relive the experience through their eyes.
They went to the Galapagos Islands, a big city, small towns, and a resort in the Andes. They encountered weird and wonderful plants, wild animals that were not the least bit scared of humans, and extraordinary scenery. They stood on the equator where they experimented with balancing eggs and pouring water down drains. They ate things they'd never dreamed of tasting. And after a few weeks, they returned safely home with suitcases full of souvenirs and a whole new perspective on the world.
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