JC & KC's SOUTH AMERICAN ADVENTURE PHOTO LOG

month to month photo montages of our explorations in south 'merica

This month, January, brings you horses. This is a unique collection of horses and, indeed, mules, from Chile and Ecuador. Catherine and I encountered many. Perhaps the most memorable were in the Quilatoa loop In Ecuador. Here, horses served as both charming scenic adornments and grade A transportation. Quilatoa Lake is incredible. Hiking into the volcanic depression to see this emerald green lake was indeed one of the highlights of our trip and definitely one of the most outdoors-ey moments. The whole Quilatoa region is gorgeous and the milk truck ride we took from Chingchuran to Latacunga, Ecuador (which started with just us and an empty barrel and ended up with us and twenty people and a full barrel of fresh milk) also revealed gorgeous roadside waterfalls, farms, and an awesome Valentine's Dance advertisement.

You may also notice that Death is a prominent theme in this collage. Kcrow an I were wandering in Vilcabamba, Ecuador, when we encountered one of the famed Merry Pranksters of California from the seventees. He recommended a path to a lake of eternal youth or something like that. On that path, which led to a very scary house with very loud dogs, from which we ran ran ran, we found the remains of a shallowly buried horse. This reminded me of one of my, Jane Claire's, very favorite books: One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash. Highly recommended.

We hope January finds you all very well and that this, the first of twelve animalito collages, finds its way onto the wallpaper of your computer. Happy Happy New year.

Much Love,
JC and KC

One year ago today, Jane Claire Remick and Kate Crowley began traveling throughout South America. They began their adventure by kicking off the new year in Buenos Aires, Argentina, then traveled north-east to the Iguazu Falls, the largest set of waterfalls in the world nestled between the Brazilian/Paraguayan/Argentine border, cut across west to visit the Pampas of Argentina in the city of Salta, and.........made their way through Chile, Peru and Ecuador :o).
Further mails will explain the in-depth details of their adventures, which include:
exploring jungles, salsa dancing, mural painting, visiting ancient ruins, frequenting drag queen shows, eating delicious and exotic food, medical visits in an ambulance (note: it was not an emergency visit), bathing in thermal baths, not taking baths, bathing in the ocean, living in a hippy commune on the ocean, and last and certainly least, long bus rides and uncomfortable parasites. AND MUCH MORE.

To say it simply, our trip affected us and changed us tremendously. We hope to illustrate the breadth of our trip by sending YOU, every month, a photo montage that captures what we saw with an explanation of where the photos were taken and in general what we were doing at the time. We hope that our photo collage, in addition to satisfying your craving to live vicariously through us and pretending you were traveling by our sides, can also serve as a remedy to that naked and/or boring computer wallpaper background of yours.

Our photos will not represent a mere moment of our trip; defining what exactly we did and when is difficult, considering that our trip did not start and end on a specific day. It's better to think of our trip as a continuous journey with pauses: currently JC is "pausing" in South Carolina but is returning to Lima, Peru in February, while Kate "continues" in Chile. Thus, these monthly mails will not be typical updates about our traveling tales, but rather photo reflections of a trip that we started in January 2008 that we are still having.

¡Qué les vaya super bien y tengan un próspero año nuevo! May you all be well and have a wonderful New Year!
Con mucho amor, with lots of love,
KC and JC
katie crowley
and
jane claire remick