EARTHQUAAAKEEE!!!!

Yesterday morning, just as I opened my eyes, the ground began to shake. I was really confused if I was still dreaming or if it was real life haha. Although the earthquake here was small and short, it shook the house and my bed, which absolutely terrified me since I have never been in an earthquake before. After it was over I ran downstairs, freaking out, asking my mom what on earth just happened. All she said was "Eh. Un temor. Que feo." Hahaha she was really calm but found it funny how much I was freaking out. Anyways, that was cool. Been through my first earthquake!

So tomorrow is Halloween! They don't really celebrate that here (they celebrate day of the dead) but my friends and I decided to dress up anyways. La Plaza Foch, the place where we always go out to party (mainly gringos there), had enough people dressed up so we didn't look too crazy haha.

Cuy (guinea pig that they eat here), Witch, Ninja and Pilesner! (Ecuadorian beer)

The perfect lunch. Cuy con cerveza.

Yay for Halloween in Ecuador! So, in two days I LEAVE FOR THE GALAPAGOS!! Have to battle through a test, project and tons of homework, but then I get to have the vacation of a lifetime. We leave Wednesday and come back on Sunday so I will post pictures then!

Banos, Ecuador

This past weekend was a blast! Erinn, her mom (who is visiting for the week) Kyle and I went to Banos which is about a three hour bus ride from Quito. The day we arrived there we went exploring through the town, looked at waterfalls and such. Our second day there was the big adventurous day! Ahead we had river rafting and "canoying" down waterfalls. 

The group:

Once we got to the site for rafting, our guide (who turned out to be horrible) warned us what we should do if we fall out of the boat or if the raft flips at all. I've never been rafting before but figured the chances of us flipping or losing a person were slim. He did emphasize though the importance of not being stuck under the boat if it flipped. 

After a few minutes of rules and safety, we began to practice different commands. The one pictured below is "inside," basically the position we took when rapids were crazy.

Finally... we were off and the rapids began! 

Right before we got the biggest set of rapids, our guide warned us it was about to get a little crazy. Well, we hit a rock and nearly flipped in the beginning where we lost a girl! This poor girl. She was on her honeymoon and was flipped out of the raft. She was floating down the rapids a while and got really bruised and battered from the rocks. There was a guy who was in a kayak taking pictures so he helped her out and brought her back to the boat.

We took a break and went swimming in the river which was really refreshing! 

A few minutes after our break ended, we went back to the water to finish the course! Next thing we knew, we were against a rock again and flipping over. Yup. Thanks guide. As we were flipped and going down the rapids, my friend and I were both under the boat, you know, the one spot the guide said don't ever be in. Everything turned out fine though. Most of the people in my boat helped flip the raft back over, but the married woman and I were rescued by a nearby raft haha. Oh the adventures of Ecuador. (P.s. I love how the man in the kayak who was taking pictures chose to take multiple pictures of our flipped raft before helping us hahah)

I just want to point out the picture below. See that giant rock? RIGHT AFTER we flipped, our raft was stuck against that rock for a solid few minutes. We began to flip AGAIN so we all had to race to one side of the raft to get unstuck. There were 3 other rafts that had a smooth ride. I don't know what was wrong with us haha. But it did make a good story to tell. The level of rapids was only 3 so it wasn't very strong and I never felt like I was in danger. 

Yay! So we survived the rapids. Next adventure of the day was "canoying" down waterfalls! Not going to lie, I did feel pretty cool in a wet suit.

First waterfall we went down, our guide made us take pictures with us not holding on to the rope. The other three spread their arms out and didn't have an issue with this. On the contrary, I was way more reluctant and once again, questioned the guide since he was telling me "no hands!!!" while going down a waterfall. Who knows.

This waterfall was neat because it was like a slide! I'm not going to lie, I did squeal since it turned to be a lot steeper than expected, but it was really cool riding down! Good thing we had butt pads...

Okay I have to give mad props to Erinn's mom. She was with us when the raft flipped in the river AND climbed waterfalls with us. The first four waterfalls we climbed down were pretty easy. The last one our guide told us it was huge but the easiest. Huge doesn't even begin to explain it's size. Just look at the next few pictures of how high up we are hanging!

To get to the final waterfall, we climbed down this baby one. I guess the guide saw the moment I realize how high up we were. My face gives away how terrified I was haha.

I only smiled for the picture. And because my feet were against a rock. All the other waterfalls we literally climbed, as in our feet were against the rock. A few feet after this picture was taken, the rock was too far in to be able to climb on AKA we were climbing down this rope in mid air. Erinn and her mom said once I reached the part where there was no rock to put your feet against, I was kicking my legs around like crazy and looked like I was freaking out a tad. YUP. 

That is the waterfall we went down! The process to get down is we had a rope looped through a metal thing attached to us. We would have to give the rope slack and climb down slowly. I really wish we had gloves for this. We all left with burning hands. I am not one to complain about adventures, ever, but this last waterfall was not my cup of tea. I had never been so thankful to reach ground before haha. Kyle and I both were just legitimately grumpy after the last waterfall while Erinn and her mom were so excited at what they just completed haha. 

So that was my crazy adventure filled weekend! I LOVED the rafting and waterfall climbing (minus the last one) and had a great time! I am so happy I chose Ecuador. No offense to people in other countries, but I am so thankful I chose here for the crazy adventures I get to go on such as cave diving, snorkeling, amazon rain forest hiking, rafting ect... rather than looking at historical "important" buildings. I just have so much more appreciation for adventurous activities than looking at buildings. 

This coming up weekend is Halloween! November 1st is Day of the Dead here which is a much bigger deal than Halloween, but a few of the clubs that appeal to "gringos" are holding Halloween parties. I'm sure nothing will be exciting enough to blog about...but I GET TO GO TO THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS SOON! I believe we will be there November 2nd-6th. There will be a super epic blog about that coming up. CAN'T WAIT!! We get to go snorkeling with sea lions and sea turtles! And there are epic animals there. Until then, chau!

AMAZON RAIN FOREST

Warning- this is going to the be the longest blog ever since I just had the coolest weekend anyone could possibly have. 

SO, Saturday morning we all woke up bright and early and began our trek to the AMAZON RAIN FOREST! After a few hours in the bus, we stopped at a place where we were going cave hiking! Now, to illustrate Ecuador's inefficiency with planning (and just about everything else in the world) we were told to wear long pants to this event. We all did. With tennis shoes (and I was wearing a white shirt). Well, once we reached the cave, our tour guide told us we would be doing some hardcore swimming. By this time it was much too late for any of us to go change (so everyone got to enjoy the view of my polka dot bra all day) and the clothing we wore since we thought we would remain dry, soon became soaking wet. Since I was told the swimming was a little intense, I didn't bring my camera and this is the only picture I have of the cave:

Although there was major miss communication, the hike through the cave was a blast. We did go swimming through some deep parts and even reached a waterfall where we hung out for a while (it was also pitch black! We got to wear flashlights on our heads). After hiking through the cave, there was a pool filled with the natural cave water and water slides we played in for a while. It was a great beginning to a great trip.

As we got on the bus to head to our first hostel, these Ecuadorians ran over and asked to take pictures with us since we were white! You wouldn't believe how many people were shocked to see white people in the Amazon. Later that night, my friends and I were at a bar/pool lounge where a photographer asked if he could use us to advertise the place. He set us around the pool table, made us do specific poses and we had a full on photo shoot. It was interesting because these guys were in the middle of a game of pool when the photographer kicked them out so he could take pictures of the white kids. This will always blow my mind. 

Later we went out for lunch where plenty of these birds hung out. They were really entertaining and didn't mind being extremely close to humans at all.

After lunch we went on a hike through the jungle to reach a waterfall we were supposed to be able to swim in. The walk was really pretty, and I absolutely loved all the green surrounding us. AND the air was amazing and pure, compared to the crazy polluted air of Quito.

So as you can see, the waterfall turned out to be a tad bit too strong. The guide said it's normally not like that. Unfortunately, it was WAY too dangerous to go swimming in so we had to turn around and head back. It was insane though, I was standing literally twenty feet from the waterfall and could feel the force of it. 

On the way back, we had to pass through a river. It felt like the movies.

Once we reached the city our hostal was in, we ventured to the city center because that's where monkeys tend to hang out! IT WAS THE COOLEST THING IN THE WORLD. Monkeys were just walking in the streets, playing in restaurants and sitting on benches. Never in my life have I been able to hang out with monkeys like it's the norm. I spent a lot of time there. The monkeys were really smart too! They would come up to us, check our hands for food and try to get into our pockets. One guy was wearing a hat and a monkey ran up to him, took it off his head, then hung out in the trees. It was pretty hysterical. I LOVE MONKEYS! (Lots of monkey pictures coming up)

Next morning we woke up, got our pair of rubber boots and headed to our motorized canoe. We had to bring all of our stuff because we were venturing deeper into the jungle and relocating to a new hostel which was more "jungly." 

One of the rivers in the amazon. From the second day on, our only mode of transportation was through the river. It was really interesting and a great view. On the side of the river it was common to see women washing clothes and little naked children running around playing.

On the way to our new hostel, we stopped at a museum ran by indigenous people here. The man showed us a few animals, medicinal plants, traps they use to catch animals, sang us a song ect.. It was a really neat experience.

The museum had a monkey named Lucas that ran around and jumped on people. Talk about awesome. There also was this mysterious rat looking animal that hung around us as well haha.

Back on the boat! Next we headed to a natural zoo in the amazon.

The zoo had many birds, monkeys, cats ect.. It was fun. The birds loved the squeal and yell "HOLAAAAAA!" They sounded better at Spanish than I did.

After dropping our stuff off at the hostel, we headed to an indigenous area (Shaman trible). Being exposed to their culture was absolutely amazing. They survive off of natural resources in the jungle (especially yucca) as well as some chickens (baby chickens were running around everywhere). They lived in huts about 10 or 15 ft high made out of wood and straw. They told us about their lives and then made us food. It was a very fulfilling experience. The picture below is of tilapa, heart of palm, plantain, yucca and white chocolate coca bean.

Okay so I have a confession. My first day in the amazon, I got a little too excited with the monkeys and my camera battery barely made it 24 hours. I wasn't able to take pictures of many things (such as the Shaman ritual ceremony where the leader took these hallucination medicines and did "cleansing acts" in Kichwa on some girls in my group) and other hiking adventures. Therefore....I am going to add some pictures my friends have taken since I went a little camera crazy early on haha.

Yay for pretty pictures! By the way, if you noticed the picture of the diseased looking body parts...well that is actually the back of my legs. I have 207 bug bites, TWO HUNDRED AND SEVEN. Just on my legs. We counted. Of course everyone else only has ten or eleven. Maybe twelve. I used bug repellent like crazy but the guide told my these stupid macho mosquitos that are special got me pretty bad. They aren't like normal mosquitos that bite you then fly off happily with your blood; they are crazy mosquitos that go around and bite you many many times before leaving (AND YOU DON'T FEEL IT) Therefore, the tour guide said my 207 bug bites are from about 6 or 7 bugs. Absolutely outraged and itchy. My host mom made a special anti itch cream for me though that's been helping. I hope these bug bites go away soon because constantly being itchy is making me go somewhat crazy.

Anyways the Amazon was an absolute blast! One thing we didn't take a picture of was the raft we (kind of) helped build. We got to go down rapids and swim in the river as well! I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous about swimming in that river, but it was very refreshing. Oh also! Last night we went on an insect walk where we saw frogs, monkeys, lizards, spiders ect.. Very cool. This morning I also had the wondrous opportunity to come across a snake. My friend Erinn and I were ahead of everyone and the only people who saw the snake. I don't think I have ever squealed so high pitch before in my life. It was quite the surprise.

Well, hope the pictures were able to reflect how cool the trip was. Definitely have some of that jungle fever! The amazon was an amazing experience where I got to experience so much. I just wish I wasn't so itchy because of it....ayeeee.