Finally! A Month's Worth of Update:

Hello all!
It is once again update time, and though I've been negligent in my blogging duties, I know many of you have continued to ask about us and pray for us. Thank you so very much for that.
Let us begin with the basics:
We're still in Argentina, Tucuman even.
All three of us are alive and healthy.
There have not yet been any more E.R. visits.

Now that we've dispensed with the most basic, we get into the more interesting and, for me, more difficult to organize.
There'll be three chapters.
1. Fer's Bike Was Stolen
2. Trev and William Take a Trip
3. Fer's Decided Not to Continue Travelling with Trev and Will.



Big event number one: Fernando's bicycle was stolen!

We'd been keeping our bicycles in his Grandmother's backyard, which seemed a reasonably safe place. There's a rather high wall (the barbed wire is a new addition) and it's a back yard. Who's going to jump the wall to hoist a bicycle over? Doesn't it look like it'd be rather difficult?
One day, about three weeks ago, I went looking for Fernando's bicycle. I didn't see it in the back with the others, so I asked. This, of course, got us searching. Bicycles don't normally disappear. We were incredulous at the thought of someone hauling the bicycle over the wall until Fer spotted something at the base of the wall. Our GPS. It was laying there with not a care in the world (fortunately it's waterproof). I then remembered that the previous day I'd picked up some sunglasses from the yard, assuming that the wind had somehow blown them out there. So, it looks as though Fer's bicycle lept over the wall, dropping our GPS and his sunglasses along the way. We did a little asking around, searching for accomplices to the bicycle's grand escape, but haven't come upon any promising leads.


Big event number 2: William and Trevor go for a 3-4 (make that 12) day trip!
There's been much conversation between the three of us on the subject of when exactly we'd be leaving Tucuman. We tried to set dates a couple of times, but it just wasn't happening. Fernando needed to send out law school applications before leaving, and decided that he wanted to stay in Tucuman until he and his mother were able to find someone to live with Grandma.
Trev and I didn't have anything particular to do here in Tucuman, and were rather annoying Fernando with our constant antsiness (I was unsympathetic at the time for was not Fer at least partially responsible for covering us in ants?), so on his suggestion, we decided to take a 3-4 day trip to a beautiful little village called Tafi del Valle. There are many, many stories to tell from this trip (all good and beautiful stories), including how we joined a family on their vacation up to the province of Salta, but those will come at another time. Suffice it to say that a series of wonderful circumstances and gifts from God inspired us to triple the length of our trip.


Big event number 3: Fernando's decided not to continue travelling with us.
This one is difficult to write about, and it's something that we've been discussing almost since our return to Tucuman. It's probably the main reason I haven't updated the blog in the last month as well. I know it hasn't been an easy decision for him to arrive at. There's a part of him that does want to keep travelling with us, and he also feels very peaceful about the decision. There is much council and many circumstances that have contributed to his decision, and I don't think I'll try to go into any of it.
It's sad for all of us, but it's not the end of our journey, nor is it the end of our brotherhood (by the grace of God). Fernando's excited about spending some more time in Tucuman, being discipled a bit here, and possibly spending more time in Buenos Aires, and Trev and I are excited about continuing our bicycle journey. Hopefully we'll be able to get together again before heading back to the states. Perhaps meeting up in Patagonia for a few days of fun, or when Trevor and I return to Tucuman.

The Next Leg:Our journey continues, Trevor and I are leaving Tucuman by bus Feb. 3rd at 4:15am and heading for Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world. We'll be bicycling north for three months, going through one of the most beautiful parts of the world, Patagonia, with amazing mountains, glaciers, lakes, and more. We plan to return to Tucuman by May 7th to celebrate Trevor's birthday with our friends here, and prepare for the new and as of yet unplanned but hoped for leg: Bolivia, Peru, and Machu Picchu. Our plane tickets are for June 8th, and neither of us is planning on changing that date, but we may change the location and depart from Lima, Peru instead of Santiago, Chile...we shall see. The plan is still to arrive in San Francisco, CA on the 9th, and pedal our butts back up to Seattle. It's possible that some friends will join us for the trip, and if you're one of those friends who's even vaguely considering it, please do! We're hoping to take around three weeks for the ride, arriving in Seattle on or around the 1st of July.

As for now, that is all. There is more, much more, always more. God is amazing, and we're learning more about that every day (though sometimes it takes a week or more to be able to look back and recognize it). Thank you for your prayers, please continue, or start if you hadn't begun previously, praying for us :).

Love,
W.T.F.
(for one last time)