Un adventura sin zapotoes

This weekend ( Friday-Saturday) we took our first and I think only group trip. Our detestation, San Miguel de los Bancos. We boarded the bus and drove for three hours, up and up and up, with breath-taking views of the Andes mountains. We left early so we arrived at El encanto, the place we stayed, just in time for breakfast! Hopefully I can put pictures up soon because this place was hermoso (beautiful!). After breakfast we headed out on group hike with a guide who pointed out many of the unique jungle plants, and we got the opportunity to not only swim in but partially climb a waterfall.
After lunch we had free time and there was a guy who said he didn’t live far and could take some of us water skiing and wakeboarding. Without a second thought myself and about 12 others jumped in the back of his pick-up… who knew there was waking boarding in the mountains of Ecuador! (don’t worry if this sounds sketch, one of our professors decided to come with us). Right before we left I realized I was the only one wearing sandals and I asked the guy if this was ok and he said yes (this is important later). Anyways, I thought we would ride maybe five minutes max in the back of this pick-up but no it was a good 15-20 minutes flying down gravel roads at high speeds with about 12 of us gringas flying around in the back… scary? Yes… super fun? Yes!
When the truck stopped there was no lake so we were a little confused but there was a giant dump truck-ish vehicle, that we were suppose to climb in. In this truck you could not sit so we all grabbed onto the side as we proceeded down a steep “road.” Finalmente, the truck stopped and we hopped out, we followed Carlos our guide to this so called “lake.” The pouring rain made most of the ground mud which was not ideal for hiking in, along with the “poisonous” plants that lined the ground… (most us of got cut by them and they just stung for a couple minutes and left a rash). We got to a beautiful river with a giant waterfall and Carlos went ahead and climbed up a 50 foot cliff and jumped in.. so of course… so did we! Then we continued on our hike to the lake…
By now the mud was very thick and of course my sandals kept getting stuck… finally they got so stuck that when I tried to walk they broke.. awesome… now I’m walking through mud that’s full of poisonous plants without shoes… but it gets better … we enter the jungle/rain forest… and proceed to hike for 2 hours through the jungle… streams, mud, swampish pools of mud… you name it … and yes I had NO SHOES on… 2 hours hiking through the jungle without shoes is an experience that’s for sure… when we stopped to swing on a vine across a little swamp (yes I felt like Tarzan) I tried to yell at Carlos in Spanish for telling me it was fine to wear sandals… he said he saw no problem with my bare feet.. he was wearing knee high boots… Finally, after a LONG time the trees began to clear and sure enough there was a lake! ( I’ll admit at times I thought that maybe we were being taken to a Colombian kidnap camp… ) But the lake was real! Hopefully I can put up some photos soon…
So finally, I got to wake board on a lake in the Andes mountains! Que Chevel!
The next day my legs were (and still are) covered in bug bites… I never felt it some I’m not sure how it happened but my bug bites almost equal the freckles on my legs… and they itch SO bad… (I’m so glad you packed me that anti-itch spray mom! Gracias!)
The next day… we had some lectures in Spanish … and found out we were actually on the equator … not the tourist spot but it’s still the middle of the world! (You can balance an egg at the center of the world!)
On the way home our bus got a flat tire so we stopped at an ice cream store… a pretty ideal place to be stuck.. and the owner … Cleary happy that 30 some people were stuck at his store.. gave us un demonstration on how he made ice cream.. Quite interesting…
When we got home from our group trip, I hung with my sister, Estefina, for a bit, her semester ends in two weeks so she has been studying all the time and decided to stay home and study for the night.. what a good student… my mom and dad were at a Quincienta..which is probably fancier than a wedding (they were out until super late and I found at breakfast the next day that my mom is quite the party animal)… and I’m not really sure where my brother was… but my madre (mom you will be so happy) is very protective of me… taxies and buses are NOT safe, according to her and so she drives me all over… some of the kids in my program were going to meet up in gringolandia but I know my mom would not want me taking a taxi out by myself so I decided to go with my aunt, uncle, and cousins who live below to check out old town. It was beautiful! Then they took us to check out gringolandia (new town) and of course we ran into everyone in our group… but I was so tired and my stomach hurt so bad I’m glad we didn’t stay long…

Why did my stomach hurt so bad you ask…. Ok well there’s two possible reasons…

1. When I jumped off the cliff I was screaming and swallowed a ton of the water but I think water in the Andes is pretty clean so its probably the second…

2. At lunch, they asked if I wanted the vegetarian option… si claro… the vegetarian option was chicken…I don’t think they quite understand vegetarianism but here it goes, yes, I, Erin Bennett, ate some chicken for the first time in over three years… and it tasted like… chicken? I don’t know I really haven’t missed it …sorry kind of anti-climatic but anyways I think this is where my digestive pain came from.
Speaking of digestive pain… I find it interesting and inconvenient that the window in my bathroom opens up to the kitchen of my aunt and uncle who live below me… very weird…