Hello friends and family!
First off, we'd like to say that your presence at our wedding is the greatest gift we could ask for. The time, effort, and expense of traveling to be with us is something we deeply appreciate in our hearts, and we are so thrilled that we will be able to celebrate this happy occasion with you.
Since Jake and I have lived together for some time, we have acquired all of the "essential" home items. We hope you find this registry as a way to help us build memories and experiences during out first year as husband and wife. Your gift to help us on this endeavor will last much longer than any material item would. We will be setting out on an extended backpacking trip through South America.
We will be documenting our trip with a blog www.enderstravels.wordpress.com. Please feel free to follow us along our journey to see just how far your gift will take us!
We sincerely thank you for your support both in our marriage and on our trip! We can't wait to see you at the wedding!
Love,
Jake & Hannah
We're going to South America!
Below is a "first draft" of our travel plans. We expect this to change as we learn more from locals and our intuitions. Along the way we plan on finding volunteer work on organic farms in exchange for room and board through an organization called WWOOF.
We will begin out trip in Lima, Peru. From Lima we will set out for Cusco/The Sacred Valley. This is where Machu Picchu is. We then will head towards Lake Titicaca. This lake lies on the Peru/Boliva border so Bolivia is our next stop!
One of the "must sees" on our list is the Salt Flats of Bolivia (look up some images of the flats... they look breathtaking)! From Bolivia we will enter Brazil. Once we hit the Amazon River we will take a river boat trough the Amazon stopping at various cities along the way. When we get to then end of the river at the eastern part of Brazil we will continue to head north to French Guiana and Suriname. These areas aren't frequented by tourists and we are looking forward to exploring some areas of the Amazon Rain Forest that haven't been subject to deforestation and development.
From Suriname we will take a plane to Aruba where we will finish out our honeymoon on the Caribbean island before heading back to the United States.
You may be wondering, "Why this trip? Why is it so long, and why did they choose South America?" We have many reasons for taking this trip. The reasons range from the simple fact that we want to see the world, to the deeper desire to learn more about ourselves and our relationship away from our habits, bills, social media, etc. We also believe the world has a lot to teach us, but we will never learn the lessons if we don't set out on an adventure. We expect this trip to be eye-opening, challenging, and life changing. A year is a long time to travel, but we want to fully immerse ourselves in the area outside our comfort zones. There was a lot of discussion about other parts of the world to visit for this trip, but we settled on South America for two main reasons: it was the most affordable, and we already had a foundation of the language spoken there.
I cannot tell you how exciting and frightening it is to have a dream, and to make the decision to realize it. Thank you for all your support in our lives as we get married and set out on this adventure.
Our Registry