Reflections on the Year
Trip Start
Mar 17, 2005
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Trip End
Mar 13, 2006
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Seattle, Washington
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
During our last few days driving in the car in New Zealand we reflected on our favorite places this year. In preparation for the question 99% of people who ask us about our trip..."What was your favorite place"....we came up with a list. After a year of traveling it is hard to narrow it down, but here goes. Our top 15 sights in chronological order:
1. Angkor Wat, Cambodia - the temples are huge and like being in an Indiana Jones movie
2. Gibbon Experience, Laos - 3 days in tree house zip-lining with a Gibbon ape
3. Koh Tao, Thailand - beachtime simply cannot get much better than this
4. South Africa - Cape Town, Garden Route and shark cage diving
5. Okavango Delta, Botswana - dug out canoe trip through grassy waters to camping on a rural island
6. Masai Mara and Serengeti Wildebeest Migration
7. Mt. Killimanjaro climb - Matt's amazing accomplishment
8. Uganda - meeting our two sponsor children in their native villages, it was a profound experience
9. Ancient sights in Egypt - The Pyramids, Valley of Tombs, and Luxor really are impressive
10. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador - the animals have no fear and are as curious about you as you are of them
11. Amazon, Ecuador - 3 days sleeping out in the rainforest and canoeing on the black rivers amongst pink dolphins, snakes, sloths, monkeys, etc, etc, etc.
12. Machu Picchu, Peru - You can sit for days staring at this remote ancient village on top of a mountain
13. Patagonia, Argentina - 3 day hike right to the edge of a glacier and the world famous mountains
14. Iguazu Falls, Argentina - the falls go on for miles and we could stand right on top of them on boardwalks
15. New Zealand - loved our Able Tasman 3 day kayak trip and swimming with 250 dolphins in Kaikoura
Finally, we are extremely thankful to the missionaries and friends who opened their hearts, lives, homes, families, ministries, churches and organizations to us during our journey. The experiences we had with them were what made this trip so meaningful in ways that we are continuing to discover even now. Through them we were offered a chance to experience the various ways people live in other countries and the places and ways that God is continually moving in this great earth he has created. For that we are forever thankful, this trip simply would not have been what it became without these friends' hospitality and generosity. Thank you!!!
Now that we are home we are continuing to process through everything that we have experienced and know that it will likely be a constant process. In the meantime we are very excited for this next stage of life and looking forward to reconnecting with friends and family. We hope that you have enjoyed travelling with us through this website, and we want to say THANK YOU for all your prayers and support we received along the way, it meant so much to us. We hope and pray that in some way you may have been moved by the ways that God is continuing to show his beauty and power through his two-fold creation: the amazing sights and experiences in the world, and by how he continues to move in the hearts and minds of his people.
Blessings to you all, and thanks to God for his protection and leading.....
Matt and Amy
