South America is an absolutely gorgeous place, and I’ve only seen a small sliver of it over the last three months. While ministry is the main focus of this trip, and as such takes up a vast majority of our time, we do get days off to rest and adventure – usually one or two a week. These adventure days have been absolutely incredible, and I have seen some places that have been on my bucket list for years, and places I’d never even heard of. I’ve seen the beauty of God’s creation, from soaring over cities to cruising on South America’s largest sand dunes, and with each new place I visit, I am blown away all over again.
I left South America behind five days ago and am currently in Cultural Training with my team in Asia, but I wanted to take this time to share some of these off-day moments with you from the last three months. From Colombia to Ecuador to Peru, this has been quite the adventure.
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Colombia
The next weekend, I got to cross an adventure off my bucket list – paragliding. Me and several of my teammates got to spend ten minutes each soaring over Medellin, and it was absolutely breathtaking.
I also spent a couple afternoons exploring one of Medellin’s most unique neighborhoods – the Comuna 13. Over two miles of graffiti decorate this walkway, and street artists are hired to repaint the walls regularly. Several of them were working as we walked by, and we got to see the process first hand.
The views from this neighborhood were worth the visit alone, and the street food was another added bonus.
One of my favorite days was when we visited a massive park at the top of a mountain in Medellin. Hiking through it reminded me of being home in the PNW.
Ecuador
We spent our whole second month on the coast, so obviously, our first off days were spent relaxing on the beach, and getting super sunburned.
The city we were in didn’t have a ton to offer tourists, but one of most interesting attractions was a pirate ship that sailed off the coast several times a day. I had a little too much fun with this one.
That same day, we also spent the afternoon at an ecological reserve on an island in the river. Hiking through places like these is probably my favorite way to spend days off.
Towards the end of the month, I had the chance to travel to Quito and meet up with another team to hike Ecuador’s most famous tourist attraction – a volcano called Cotopaxi. The hike was exhausting, but so worth it. It was my first time being at 16,000 ft.
At the end of the month, the whole squad got back together for a two day debrief in Baños, Ecuador. We had a lot of time growing together as a team, both in sessions and as we explored the city. We got to see Devil’s Cauldron waterfall, and visit the Swing at the End of the World.
Peru
The first thing that comes to mind here is Machu Picchu, but unfortunately, we were too far away from Cusco to make this a realistic stop. However, we still found some incredible places to visit. The boardwalk along the coast in Lima, just an hour away from where we lived, was one of our favorite places to spend our free days.
There are ancient ruins in the middle of the city that have remained left alone for hundreds of years as Lima got built around them. We spent two hours touring the historical site early on in the month.
By far the best adventure that we’ve had so far has been our trip to a desert oasis four hours south of Lima. We got a dune buggy tour on the largest sand dunes in South America, and even got to sandboard down them!
The next morning before heading back to Lima, we got a tour of the Ballestas Islands right off the coast of Peru near where we were staying. It was a great last adventure for our time in South America.
I don’t want to share posts like this very often, as ministry is obviously the purpose of this trip, not the sites. However, this is part of my journey. We not only get to go to these countries for ministry, but we get to experience the beauty they have to offer as well. It’s been quite the ride so far, and it’s only just beginning!
