So it's been a while since my last post. These past few weeks I have been reminded of why I'm in Ecuador in the first place: I'm studying here. And with that, that means tests, essay, quizzes, all of which I've been a little buried in lately.
Which is not to say that I haven't been traveling or going out. On the contrary, I seem to find something to do with myself each weekend. So I'm just going to do a grand overview of everything I've been up to.
A few weeks ago, I went to Mindo, Ecuador. It's this little town in the Norte-Oriente, "cloud rainforest." While I was there, I jammed packed my weekend with lots of activities. The first day I went Ziplining through the forest. This was probably my favorite of the things I did this weekend. Since there was only two of us that went, the guides showed us some cool "poses" that we could do while ziplining. I also went on a chocolate tour, which took us through the process that chocolate is made.
The next day, I visited the Mariposario (butterfly farm), which is famous in Mindo. I'm not a huge fan of bugs crawling on me, even butterflies. But I got a few cool shots. After, I went tubing down the river, and then on a hike to see the waterfalls in the area. Over all, it was a fun little weekend.
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| This pose is called "Marisposario" or "Butterfly." |
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| Chocolate lover's heaven. |
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| With the butterflies. |
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| Tubing down the river. |
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| At the edge of the waterfall. |
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I also spent a weekend at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station. This is a research center affiliated with my school. Essentially, researchers go to Tiputini for several months at a time, where they can observe animals deep in the undisturbed Amazon Rain Forest. It took 8+ hours just to get to the station, starting with a flight from Quito to Coca, then a 2 hour boat ride down the river. Then we took a chiva bus (essentially and open aired bus) for a few hours followed by another 3 hour boat ride to the station.
I spent the weekend hiking through the forest, observing tons of medicinal plants, insects, reptiles, birds and monkeys. My guide, Meyer, pointed out tons of little creatures that I would have never noticed, including a tree used to cure arthritis (he had personally used it), poison dart frogs, parots, monkeys and various insects.
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| Arriving at the station. |
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| "Mono" or Monkey |
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| Close up with this scruffy little guy. |
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| Tiputini River. |
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| Hiking through the forest. They turned a fallen tree into a natural bridge. |
While I was at Tiputini, we also climbed up a few different towers into the canopy. This is the best place to see monkeys traveling through the forest, and varieties of birds.
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| The canopy. |
However, while we were on the ground, we experiences some other treats:
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| This was in one of the cabins. Wouldn't want to wake up to this guy. | | | |
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| Non-Venomous Viper. |
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| We saw caimans, and later that day, we went swimming. No joke. | | | | | | | | | | |
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