CALI!

Hey Y'all.

haha That's what I get for traveling with a Southerner ;)

Just a quick update as it's been pretty crazy recently.

The last couple days in Cali have been quite the adventure. We arrived and loved it! Finally to a place we enjoy. There is tons of action, lots to do, and beautiful, hot, sunny weather. On Monday, we got here, walked around, had a delicious lunch, and took a nap. Then later we went out for dinner and ice cream and ended up going out dancing with some other people from our hostel for awhile. It was fun...athough unfortunately these gringo boys (from England, France, Utah, and a girl from Chile) couldn't really dance. But whatever, if you're at the Salsa capital, you've got to at least try!!

Then yesterday, we went to San Cipriano to go on these train carts with motorcycles (I'll have to add pictures!) to get to a river to swim, tube, and cliff jump! Cool. The ride there wasn't too bad and 5 other foreigners ended up joining us on our bus...a couple from Australia (James and Jackie), a Peruvian guy (Herbert), a German girl (Eva), and an Austrian guy (Chris). We joined in with them as a group for the day. We got on these crazy carts for the ride down, swam in the river (it was so hot and humid!), and even cliff jumped into the river with some of the local kids and teenagers. Then we got a big lunch and decided to head back - you have to get back onto the carts back about 30-40 minutes to the freeway.

Well, that's where the 'crazy' part of Cali comes in...we were in a bit of a choque on the tracks...a motor train cart accident if you will. It honestly all happened so fast that all we know is that we didn't stop enough and ran into another cart head on. After that, we all basically remember waiting in a rain storm and pulling out whatever tissue, towels, neosporene, bandaids, etc we had. We had to get back on another cart then again and eventually get to the main road area where we got on a bus to Cali - which yikes there was a lot traffic, so we didn't get back until 9:30pm. We got back to the hostel and the lady working took us immediately to the ER as Lauren's foot was quite inflammed. Just like any ER in the word - it took forever!!! We were there from 10pm until 3:30am only to return again this morning at 8am to see the specialist. Lauren broke her foot in two places and twisted her ankle pretty bad. What this sadly means is that she will be heading back home to the US tomorrow :( The good news is that she is in a cast, it is only a broken foot (versus head, spine, etc), and she at this point doesn't need surgery. I also luckily walked off with only some minor cuts and bruises.

Needless to say, we haven't slept much in last 2 days, we have eaten 1.5 meals (we shared one today) in days, and we are to sad to be saying our goodbyes. It is really not clear yet God's will in all this, but we are trying our best to keep our spirits up. We are so thankful that there were no very serious injuries and that we had these other (now) friends with us that were so supportive. God is good and clearly His plans are much greater than ours!

Please pray for Lauren as she heads home tomorrow: for her to be out of pain, have a community to love her at home, and a safe, smooth flight. I will miss this girl terribly!! In the last week and a half we have laughed and smiled so much, and she has been so great at just taking everything as it comes. Maybe she'll be back for San Diego!! In addition, please keep Jen and me in your prayers. I am still going to be meeting Jen in Panama City tomorrow to continue our travels. I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Lauren won't be there anymore, but I am excited to keep going on this amazing adventure!

Love you all!
Taylor