Mindo and "Whitewater Rafting!"

3.5.11

So we didn’t end up going to the beach for Carnaval. I wouldn’t have been able to go anyways because I didn’t take my malaria medication, oops, I didn’t even think about it. We don’t have to take malaria medication while we are in the highlands because the mosquitos that carry malaria aren’t up here. And I didn’t really have the money to go, so I am okay with staying here in Tumbaco. I feel like I have been on the go since I’ve arrived here so it is going to be nice to relax. I’m not complaining about constantly being on the go because I really love it here. My host family has been so awesome. They take me somewhere every weekend to show me around Ecuador. It’s been so awesome. Speaking of going places…. Yesterday I got up and thought I was going to get to relax after a long week, then I get a knock on my bedroom door. It was Sebastian telling me I had a phone call. I was like me? Someone is on the phone for me? I was so surprised because it was the house phone. Turns out it was my host sister, Claudia, asking me if I wanted to go on a day trip to Mindo. I immediately jumped on it and said yes even though I was so tired. I may be tired now, but I have all the time in the world to relax when I get to site. I don’t want to miss out on any opportunity that comes my way J

When we were on the phone she told me it was a couple hours away and we were going there to float on the river. So she and her husband, Luis, come to pick up Sebi and I and we are off. It took us 3 hours to get there because of everyone traveling for Carnaval. We ate lunch as soon as we got there. I had trucha, which is a type of fish. It was really good. It came with a tomato salad, rice, and French fries. Then we drove to see the butterfly house. We didn’t end up going inside because it cost $5 and the guy said since it was so cold the butterflies weren’t really flying around. So we moved on to the river.

So I thought we were going to float in the river. It turns out that it was like a white water rafting activity, not floating, haha. But instead of rafts they had blacks tubs tied together. So it was called tubbing. Luis didn’t want to go and Sebi was too young, so Claudia and I went. She really wanted to go, but she was pretty scared. The only thing I was worried about was the freezing cold river! So we got instructions and off we went. There were probably like 8 or 10 tubes tied together with about 6 of us and 2 guides. The whole ride was about 3 kilometers and they said it would take about 30 minutes and that the river was pretty calm. Well, the river was flowing pretty fast and it only took us about 15 minutes or so. I felt like 5 minutes. It was so much fun!!! We were bouncing everywhere and I was dying laughing the whole time and Claudia was screaming. It was great! A definite adrenaline rush! So. Much. Fun!!! Sebi took pictures of us, I can’t wait to put them up!

After we changed into some dry clothes we went to the park and listened to a band play. There were a ton of people there singing and dancing along. Very fun. I ended up seeing one of my friends from my training class there. How ironic! She and her family were staying until Monday. We chatted about our tech trips and then went our separate ways with our family. Claudia ended up getting me to dance with her. I’m so bad at Ecuadorian dancing. I felt like a fool, but I did have a lot of fun. It started to drizzle but that didn’t stop anyone from dancing. And then all of a sudden it started POURING!! So everyone started running frantically for cover. We ran to the car since it was already 6pm. We were soaking we when we got to the car, we were all laughing. It was a lot of fun. It took us about 2 ½ hours to get home. We got home about 8:30, I called my parents to let them know I was back from my tech trip and I was in bed and asleep by 9:30. I was exhausted. I slept like a baby until 8:30 Sunday morning. Best sleep I’ve gotten in like 3 weeks. I’m still pretty tired today, but way better than I was the whole week.

3.6.11 Sunday

I haven’t don’t much today but blog about my entire week and chat with my host mother when she got back from Quito. Her and my sister, Rocio, went to the Quito market to get fish and shrimp for lunch. My clothes are in the wash machine now. I’m hoping they get dry today. It has rained for like 24 hours straight. I finally stopped a few hours ago and I’m hoping it stays that way so my clothes dry. The rest of the day I’m planning on laying around, reading a book I have for class, and going to the internet café.

Heather