Thinking back to our first country of the race, Ecuador, I find myself looking at this photo.
I love this photo.
A lot.
Everything about it.
It was taken during month one debrief, our first debrief on the race, in Banos, Ecuador. When I think about month one, I realize how little we actually knew each other. Yet at the time, it felt like we’d been friends forever.
This day we chose to visit the “swing at the end of the world” – a popular tourist sight in Banos. We took a bus up a winding mountain road and ended up at the famous swing hanging from a tree house. The swing was fun, but simply spending time on top of the mountain was more fun. We wandered through the trees, following a barely marked trail and stood in awe at the beauty of the hills around us. We laughed when a dog followed us to the bus in town, jumped on, road up to the swing with us, and followed us around everywhere at the top. We lay on our backs and watched the clouds race across the sky as a thick layer of fog rolled in. We raced each other on a zip line swing and stood on top of stacked logs for a silly picture. We ended the time by sitting in an empty restaurant, drinking hot chocolate and eating cheese empanadas as more fog covered the windows. The bus ride back to town was so much fun, and spent talking and laughing with other american and european travelers. Once back in town, we headed to our favorite place to eat, a Venezuelan arepas shop, and ate arepas as we watched locals play their flutes in the park, and we danced. It was an amazing day.
This picture was taken at the top of the mountain by a little run down house we though was the cutest thing in the world. We sat down to the take the picture and next thing we know Alivia is falling backwards and we can’t stop laughing for the next five minutes.
It’s just us, a group of friends, living a spontaneous day as we travel the world.
It’s just us, laughing and smiling because there is no better way to live each day.
It’s just us, joy-filled and looking forward to the small moments of every day.
It’s just us, and I love it.
Also – we did finally end up getting a nice photo 🙂
