Preparation

We will be in Costa Rica! We have soooo much to do today - between packing and running errands. We spent this past weekend at Rich's parents house. We had a great time hiking, spending time with family and relaxing at the lake. Then we dropped the car off at Michelle's parents house. The trip seems like more of a reality now that we dropped the car off. Our living room is overflowing with donations that we somehow need to pack into 2 large cardboard boxes. We also have to pick up our malaria pills. We can't wait until the packing and errands are all done. It will feel great when we are driving on the Pan American highway toward San Ramon.

The day we've been dreaming of is finally here! Today we said farewell to our students, classrooms, and schools for the summer. We are finally free....YiPEEEE!!!!

We've been trying to figure out whether or not we should get vaccines for our travel in Peru. There is a risk of malaria, yellow fever, dengue....etc. But, we're not sure if we're going to head into the Amazon Rain Forest. We might just stick to the Andes and areas of higher elevation (which are safe from pesky mosquitoes) however, we might want to go to the jungle?! The yellow fever vaccine is $250 each! That price is somewhat ridiculous. We might just get our vaccines in Costa Rica (hopefully they will have them and they'll be cheaper). Knowing Michelle with her Chicken Pox this year, we should try to get them just in case. We'll keep you updated!

We ONLY have a couple days left of teaching and grad school. Then we have 2 months of vacation! We will be leaving NYC on July 6th to go to Costa Rica. We'll be staying in San Ramon with our Tico family and Habitat for Humanity amigos. Then on July 13th we're off to Peru for an entire month! We plan to volunteer as English teachers at a school/orphanage in Huancayo, a city in the Andes mountains. Our itinerary is still up in the air, we'll let you know about the rest of our trip when we're there