going home

so... yes, we are finally making plans to move back home! and by home, i don't just mean the united states; we're going back to stay at my childhood home in Maine, with my parents, and look for work and our own apartment in the Portland area... hooray!

we'll be flying out of Buenos Aires on March 3rd. Arriving in Boston on March 4th.
but first mike's going to quit his job and we're planning to travel around south america for a month or two! of course I'm sad to leave argentina - but very excited for all that is to come.

this is our tentative plan:

December 11th: Mike's last day at work
then we'll have two weeks to pack and sell everything we own!
December 29th: Andrew & Vickie coming to visit
then we'll go travel somewhere with A&V - we're thinking maybe go to the beach near Valparaiso, Chile, or maybe head north towards Tucuman or Salta (in the North of Argentina). We'll definitely find somewhere beautiful and interesting to spend some quality time with them, we're totally excited for the visit! Then maybe we'll continue northward towards Bolivia, after they head back home. So we'll spend January and maybe part of February exploring Bolivia and Peru by bus. We want to try and do lots of hiking. We're thinking we might end up avoiding Machu Picchu because it's SO touristy and expensive - there are lots of other amazing Incan ruins and beautiful hiking around the same area - this article about Choquequirao really piqued our interest!
At this point our trip plans are totally up in the air, we've done a ton of research but haven't managed to figure out exactly what we want to do. We are totally open to suggestions if anybody has ideas about great stuff to do (on a small budget) in Peru and Bolivia!!! I think to some extent we will enjoy the freedom of having more time and just figuring stuff out as we go along, depending on weather or what we feel like doing or what we hear from fellow travelers we meet along the way. Our biggest concern is that January and February are rainy season in Peru and Bolivia, so that would make the going a bit harder. Supposedly there can be serious problems with muddy, impassable roads and even mudslides in Bolivia, but there's also the chance that it will be totally fine, so we'll see... Otherwise, there's just a TON of stuff we really want to do and not enough time or money to do all of it. But I'm sure it will be awesome and exciting, no matter where we end up...
we're hopefully going to have some friends staying at our house in Buenos Aires while we're gone, taking care of the dogs and keeping an eye on the place for us.
then... sometime in the beginning or middle of February we should get back to Buenos Aires to pick up our dogs and suitcases and say goodbye. And then...
March 3: fly back to the USA! we'll arrive in Boston in the morning on March 4th.

I can't believe we're really doing this - when Mike first mentioned that he wanted to go back, I thought it might be a passing whim... but a few weeks later it seems to be a real plan, and now we've bought our tickets so it's definitely on. I'm sad about leaving behind Argentina and all our friends here, and there are tons of things that I'm sorry we haven't had time to do... but we're also totally excited about starting the next chapter in Maine, it's always irresistibly exciting to think about what the future might bring. We really have no idea. But for sure the move to Maine will mean spending lots more time with my family, and getting to do lots more outdoorsy and nature stuff, hiking and beaches and all that good stuff. Dogs running free in the fields instead of cooped up in an apartment.

So for now, I'm trying to focus on making the most of the time we've got left here- spending time with friends, spending some good hours making stuff in my studio, going out to see all the museums and places that we've always wanted to check out but somehow never got around to visiting.