What a weekend/week so far! I'll start with Thursday night, because that's where the weekend really began. After a super long week of class, my fellow gringos and I treated ourselves to a night out in Quito in the Plaza Foch, or "Gringolandia" as the natives like to call it. I actually ate in Cumbayá with my host sisters and their boyfriends/husbands. We ate at a sushi restaurant a few blocks down from the university. It was so yummy! Some of the best sushi I've ever had. After dinner, I took a cab up to Quito and met up with my friends. We had a blast, but we didn't stay out super late, because we had to be at the university at the ungodly hour of 6:45 so we could begin our extensive voyage to the jungle. We spent the weekend at Tiputini Biodiversity Station, a section of the Amazon that is owned by the University of San Francisco. Its one of the few parts of the rain forest in Ecuador that is left almost completely virgin, so its very important for conservation and research. To get there, we had to take a (very short) flight from Quito to a pueblito called Coca. Once in Coca, we got in these huge, motorized canoes and were on the water for two hours. After that, we all crammed onto a chiva (a big open bus with benches) and rode for two more hours through land owned by an oil company. That was the worst part, because we really didn't fit on the chiva, so we were crammed together on hard wooden seats for two hours. Once we got through the oil company's property, we had to get back on another canoe and ride for another two hours on the Tiputini River until we finally arrived at the station. We were literally in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles from any sort of civilization. The sky fell out when we were about thirty minutes from the station. The canoes were covered, but that didn't really do much good haha. Consequently, we had quite an appropriate arrival to the rain forest.
The first night we just settled into our cabins. There isn't much to do at night, especially after 9:30. They only turn on the electricity for a few hours a day, and the lights all go out at 9:30. After that, its quite dark ha. We were all really happy at the chance to catch up on a little sleep though. Also, we had to get up early again, because breakfast was served at 6:30. We began our activities at 7:30. We were separated into four groups, and we all did the same things, just a different times throughout the weekend. I have to say I think my group got the best guide. His name was Santiago, and he was wonderful. He spoke to us only in Spanish, which was awesome, but he was also easy to understand, because he is Quechua and Spanish is his second language too. He spoke more slowly and had vocabulary and grammar skills a little closer to our level. He taught us a lot. The first thing we did was take a walk through the jungle to the tower that let us see over the tops of the trees. Santiago brought a telescope so we got to see lots of monkeys, a toucan, and other birds up close. That afternoon, we took another walk to a lagoon where we paddled around in a smaller canoe and saw some different animals. Sunday morning, we joined one of the other groups for a float down the river. We saw more birds and monkeys, but we also saw several caymans up close. Needless to say, we were all pretty terrified when they told us it was time to get in the water. I was scared the entire time we were in the water haha, but nothing happened. I think the loud group of gringos scared of all the anacondas. Definitely a memorable experience. That afternoon, my group went to the canopy walk, a series of bridges and platforms hundreds of feet above the forest floor. We strapped into harnesses and spent and hour seeing the forest from up above. On the way back to Quito on Monday, we had to spend a few hours in Coca before our flight. We ate at and outdoor restaurant that was full of exotic animals. They had several peacocks and toucans just wandering around, turtles, guinea pigs, and really friendly monkeys. I was absolutely thrilled, because the monkeys would come and sit on your shoulder! All in all, the weekend was incredible. Tiputini itself would have been enough, but we had ample opportunity to hang out and get to know each other better. So many good memories were made this past weekend.
This week has been nuts so far. We have so much work to get done before we leave for Riobamba (Friobamba) on Friday. Tomorrow is our last day of class at USFQ! Unfortunately, that means we also have a killer test. I've been studying for days, and I still don't feel prepared. I'm going to miss our professors here. They've been really great, and they've taught us so much. I am ready for class to be over tomorrow afternoon, though, because we have a fun day planned. We're going up to Quito again. First, we're doing the Teleferiqo, which is this ski-lift type thing that takes you up the mountain so you can see the entire city. Then a few other Catholics and I are going to mass at La Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus, which is the church covered in gold that we saw on the city tour. For dinner, we're going to this seafood restaurant that is supposed to be amazing. Its owned by the father of some of our friends' host brother. They ate there last week, and they've been raving about it so much that we all want to go. After dinner, we're going to go out again. We don't have to leave for Riobamba quite as early as we did for Tiputini. The ride to Riobamba is about six hours, I believe. I'm not sure what all we're doing there. We're climbing Chimbarazo one day, and we have class for three days, but I think we might only be going for half a day at least one of those days. We do have our final exams there next Thursday. We come back on Friday, and we have Friday free, and then we leave Saturday. My flight is super early in the morning, but I still don't get back to Mississippi until midnight. Gonna be a long day of traveling. Its so weird to think my Latin American adventure is almost over! Its been quite the experience. I'll save the reflecting for a post-trip blog, though.
I should get back to studying. I'll update from Riobamba!
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