La Isla del Sol is the most beautiful place I have ever been. We have spent our mornings hiking around the island and our afternoons reading and journaling and enjoying the beauty of this place. It has been an incredible end to our equally incredible journey. Tonight, in celebration of the 4th of July, we hiked up to the highest point and built a little campfire. We reflected on our time here, presented our Five Lens projects, hung out with our baby puppy friend, and watched the sunset descend behind the Andes mountains. As it is our second to last night, we decided to do something to show each other how much we mean to one another. We sat in a room and passed our journals around, writing a note in each.
Oh also, I (Tessa) would like to share a very unique experience I had yesterday. As we walked back from some Incan ruins, we came upon a freshly-shaven llama tied to a bush. I walked up to him, as most of the animals here have been extremely cute and kind, I approached it. As I stood about 3 feet away, Riley wondered if it was in fact a llama or an alpaca. He pointed out that llamas, not alpacas, spit. A crazy short time after he said that, the llama freaking spit on me! I shrieked and laughed & when I looked up again, he jumped at me. I dodged him and he started chasing me. I have never run so fast and my heart has never beat so hard. I was so scared that the llama was going to break loose from the rope and get me, but luckily, I escaped. When he realized I was out of reach, he came at Riley, who screamed and ran up the hill. Yesterday I learned to never trust a llama.
We (Tessa & Emma B.) would like to share our experience with you. To begin, we wrote ours to each other, each vowing not to read the others until all the notes had been written. We knew that we were getting ourselves into an emotional experience before we began, but we really had no idea what was to come. As we passed our books around and wrote to our teammates, friends, and family, our eyes were already misted. By the time our books came back to us, the anticipation had been built and we were ready to read the notes. They were so heartfelt and before the first letter was over we were both sobbing. This experience has built us a new family full of love and laughter; leaving them will definitely come with some more tears, at least for us, the most emotional people here 🙂