The time in Ecuador is quickly drawing to a close. This past week was great. It included: celebrating Cisco's birthday early because Greg was leaving. Great night, lots of fun, dancing, and late night food. Slight problem: Getting back at 4:30 and having class at 8:30 is not generally conducive to overall life satisfaction. Luckily, I could steal a nap.
Friday night was also a big evening as we celebrated Andres' birthday. Definitely a unique guy, but a good friend. When we asked him on Wednesday what his birthday wish was, he told us, "I just want to celebrate with you guys." Sweetheart. Anyways, Maria made an AMAZING cake, we got pizza, and ate some good junk food. There was a sweet crew of gringos and Ecuadorians. From there, we went out on the town. This night included: attempts at salsa (I am getting better), more late night food, bartering with bouncers to avoid paying a cover, dance competitions, and a raucous dude rendition of Rage Against the Machine's 'Killing in the name of'. Really, Ecuador? Absolutely.
Insert photo to visually break of the monotony of these initial paragraphs. This girl rode across a giant canyon with us without parental supervision because that is what happens here. Look at that smile on her face!
There was not much time to regroup because the next night was Francisco's bday. This night was almost spoiled by the ND football game. After the initial shock/frustration/outpouring of inappropriate words jumbled in Spanish and English, we decided to make some moves. It was a great time of celebration, and an excellent reminder of what amazing people I am surrounded by down here.
Sunday morning, I left super early with Stefan, my German host brother who has been here for the past two weeks. Here are a few things I love about Stefan.
1) He is the most enthusiastic person I have ever met. Everything is "SOOOOOOOOO awesome" or "SOOOOOOOO awful". It is a breath of fresh air.
2) He has an awesome English accent that I give him huge crap for. He calls potato chips 'crips'. And yes, I do not even remotely feel bad when I tell him how pretentious that sounds.
3) He is super open-minded and ridiculously chill. Perfect travel partner.
We have had a great time together the past two weeks. Accordingly, we decided we needed to have a 'dude's weekend'. We settled on going to Mindo, a place that is famous for its cloud forests. Great decision. The only rough part was that we had to leave at 8 the day after Cisco's birthday. One word, two syllables: ufta.
We got on the bus just fine and made it there around 11. We first went to our hostal. AWESOME. We paid 6 bones a night for a two bed room in an awesome location. I love these prices.
We first off went to the famous waterfalls. To get there, you have to take the Terebita, which was the picture involving the young Ecuadorian lady adventurer in the early photograph. Stunning views and beautiful waterfalls.
This is one of about 5 waterfalls we went to. Add funny/witty comment about nature.
After this came the highlight of the trip. We went to the famous cables that go over the forests. Basically, they are a bunch of giant ziplines. This was AMAZING. I got to literally fly over the most beautiful jungle I have ever seen. My life is stupidly awesome. You got to do it upsidedown, like a butterfly, race, superman, and go across as the guides jerked the wire so you were jumping up and down thirty feet through the air. SO UNREAL.
Here are our two handsome protagonists from the weekend. What you can't see is the heinous bruises on our hips from the harnesses. They are pretty bad. Ps I love whatever it is that Stefan is doing with his hand. It is like a peace/victory fist pump. Apparently this is HUGE in Germany.
After we calmed down from the cables, we got a cab back into town (I LOVE RIDING IN THE BACK OF TRUCKS), we grabbed an unbelievable steak dinner. It was so good we went back for lunch the next day. Mmm.
We got back to our hostal with some snacks and some beverages and just chilled next to a river. It was beautiful. After about an hour, we met a truly unique human being. Here she is:
This was definitely one of the most interesting people I have ever met. Really nice, but very out there. All about the energy in the cosmos working in perfect harmony, karma, and the power of positivity. Some of her claims:
1) injuries, diseases, etc. are only manifestations of inward imbalances,
2) people are capable of living for up to 300 years if they are not 'polluted by modern influences'
3) water is currently killing people and animals throughout the world because it is not flowing in natural, circular paths (ie dams, irrigation)
She was actually really nice, and the conversations were interesting to say the least.
The next day, we got up and went to the butterfly farm. I have never been so close to such huge, beautiful butterflies. It was great.
After getting back form the butterfly farm, we bumped into Doris again. She offered to make us lunch (again, very nice girl), but we were craving round 2 of the steak. A great meal and another unique conversation. This time we got to hear about some of the dangers of massage therapy, the rigors of online dating, and some tips on eating raw food to help maintain the positive energy of living things. You definitely only meet people like this while traveling.
Overall, another magnificent week/weekend. Only one week left in Ecuador. Time flies. Next update will probably be from Chile! Crazy...
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