I am a travel snob. There, I’ve admitted it. That’s the first step, right?? I set such high expectations of each trip and hope that the next will be just that much more crazy, adventurous, dangerous and over-the-top than the previous one. Will it be as great as my previous journeys? Will it challenge me? Will it make me uncomfortable? Will it teach me something about me and this beautiful world? I’m hoping to answer YES to all of those questions!

This time I’m off….to the Amazon rain forest. Woohoo! I’m going to the Ecuadorian rain forest and I chose that because of my desire to learn the Spanish language. Even though I’m not even close to being conversational, I thought that going to Brazil and being surrounded by Portuguese would completely knock me off my Spanish game.

I’m going to be spending 5 glorious days deep in the jungle with the Huaorani tribe – a tribe indigenous to the area who are focused on keeping their home – the rain forest – intact. They do this by inviting a small group of people to an Eco lodge which they created and now maintain and immersing them in their culture and customs. We’ll live like the Huaorani do – hunting and fishing, climbing trees, building fires for heat and being surrounded by rich wildlife. We’ll even spend one night sleeping under the stars – with the bugs and the snakes and the jungle animals. Soooo cool!

I’m so looking forward to learning from and learning about these people – and of course the others who will be part of the group. I think it takes a special (i.e. crazy?) group of individuals to take on this kind of tour. So I’m hoping we all have a lot in common.

After my stay in the jungle, I’m going to pull a complete 180 and travel to Cartagena, Colombia – a place known as one of the most romantic in the world. I’m going to pamper myself there with wonderful food and wine, salsa dancing, long walks on the beach and a bunch of history about another new country.

I’m excited to once again share my journey with you. This forum has definitely served as a way for me to document my crazy adventures because I don’t want to forget a moment. But I also hope it puts a smile on someone’s face or makes someone realize that they can follow their dreams or encourages a desire to learn and interact with people that are so different from us.

I hope you’ll stick with me – it’s going to be a great ride!