sooo friday as i was buying my new camera, my friends chelsey and kiley were telling me that they were going to venture to a town called Baños with a guy from our group, Sam, and a whole bunch of Sam's host family and friends. the girls were encouraging me to go, but at first i wasn't feeling it and told them i would call them later and let them no. a running joke we've had here is "por que no?" as in why not since we're only going to live in ecuador once. so as i was showering before going out friday night, i thought por que no, sure i'd go on an adventure with a big group of people. so i ended up going out with some different girls friday night, got back really late, and chelsey and kiley called me at 5 saturday morning to say "get your stuff together because we're on our way." after a 4 hour crazy car ride, we made it to baños. everyone was super tired and i was pretty cranky because i got practically no sleep and the group was ready to go out and had the whole day planned out.
after breakfast, we checked into a super cute hostel, changed into our swimsuits and met up with a tour guide. we then (all 13 of us) hopped into the back of his truck and stopped sporadically throughout the trip to take pictures or go on a little hike or whatnot. one of the first stops was a spot where we could bungee jump right off a bridge over a crazy river. i chose not to do this, but both of my girlfriends did it fearlessly... so crazy... only cost 10 bucks with no need to sign a waiver or anything. then we stopped at this chairlift like thing that brought us over the river and showed us some pretty incredible views. the next stop was probably the craziest thing i'll ever do in my life.... we stopped at a trail to hike down to a cascada aka waterfall. when i packed for this little trip, i had no idea we would be doing so much climbing, so i chose to pack only flip flops which made climbing crazy trails very interesting. after struggling for about an hour, we finally reached this incredible waterfall. the ecuadorian boys we were with encouraged us to swim in the waterfall (of course, why wouldn't they want to see american girls in their swimsuits?!), soo sure enough we jumped right in. i wish i could put pictures up to show how cool this was to swim at the base of a waterfall... the water was coming down so hard that it was splashing up water into the air so hard that you couldn't see the person next to you... the water was SOOO freezing, but we sucked it up because it was just so beautiful. after we finally couldn't take the cold anymore, we got out of the water and adventured back up the trail. when we got back to the truck, the boys bought a crate of beer and then the party started in the back of the truck. they had also brought a speaker and an ipod, so we were listening to reggaeton, drinking beer, and laughing about all that had happened that day... life doesn't get any better than that...
after taking a nap, we got ready and danced allllll night long.
the rest of the weekend proceeded the same way and honestly my abs still hurt from laughing so hard. it was absolutely incredible to experience the ecuadorian culture through people that were around my same age. no one was hostile towards each other due to our opposing upbringings, everyone was just there to enjoy themselves and make some memories. i can't even express how happy i was all weekend long because we were all so carefree and the boys and girls we were with were so welcoming and accepting of us even if we were from "los estados unidos." soo that's all for now. i've attached some pictures that my friends chelsey, who's conveniently a photographer. took on the trip...absolutely incredible. if you would like to see some more pictures, check my facebook page. hope all is well back en los estados. i miss you all very much :)
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