Undergraduate / 'trip to Guatemala' extracurricular activities- common app [6]

Hi
Please help me revise the essay. It is little over 1000 characters. Which part should I cut off? Comments are welcomed!!

Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences in the space below (1000 character maximum= 250 words)

My parents taught me the importance of first-hand experience from traveling. Since I was a child, I have had the opportunity of voyaging around the world. This is why I love traveling so much. Traveling experience has built me to become an individual who is open, strong yet considerate. September 3rd 2011 marks the beginning of a significant juncture during which I took a semester off to travel to Guatemala. With passion, I desired to learn Spanish and the Latin American culture from having many Hispanic friends. Traveling alone offered me more chances to see and feel the Latin country in a way that I would not have experienced otherwise.

I am very proud of my incomparable and memorable experience in Central America. I made my first tortilla in my life, went to go see the Mayan pyramids in Tikal, and went on a cave tour only with candles. I fell off a horse when I first tried to canter. The pain I had for several days was not a mere agony but an honorable wound. Plus, who could have imagined that one day I would be holding a baby sea turtle in my own hand, be at the ruins of one of the most advanced civilizations in the world, and swim in an exotic cave? This trip was just a whole new undertaking for me. It opened in me a new perspective of Latin American culture which I understand now better than any time of my life.