In The Jungle

This past weekend we had Spring Break #2 for this semester! We went to the Amazon jungle in the eastern part of Ecuador. We left at 3am on Thursday morning and had about a 7-hour bus ride to get there. The first day we went to a monkey rescue, where they take monkeys that used to be pets or were found in the city and take care of them. Several of the monkeys that were pets run around freely, so they were walking and jumping on us while we were there. Afterwards we hiked to a waterfall in the jungle. It was fairly small so we could swim under it. It was so beautiful and we had fun swimming even though the water was freezing cold. The next day we went a town nearby and rode along the river in motorized "canoes". We stopped at a Quichua village, which is the tribe that lives in that area. They showed us a few of their dances and we tried a couple different drinks that they make, which were pretty good. We also got to see several wild monkeys near the river. They liked to steal food and drinks from the people on the beach, which was pretty funny to watch. We also went through some caves later that day. There was a river running through them, so we got to swim inside the caves as we were climbing through. It was really fun! Our last day started off with white-water rafting, which I had never done before. I loved it! I even got to be one of the captains of my boat. :) After rafting we went to another waterfall that was really big, so there's no way we could swim near it. We just hiked up next to it and were able to go through tunnels that had been built so we could walk behind it and touch the water. We also went on a cable car ride over a river. It was kind of like zip-lining but you were in a cable car with several other people. The views were gorgeous! On Easter Sunday we spent the whole day driving back from the jungle. It was really strange to not go to church, but we didn't need a church service to remember the importance of that day. This Easter was especially hard for the Taylor University community; Wednesday night we learned that Josh Larkin, a student at Taylor, had died in his room. I didn't know Josh, but I had seen him leading worship at school and knew that he had tons of friends on campus. Only a few people on the trip with us knew him, but all of us have friends who knew him well. We were all able to watch his memorial service on campus last Tuesday night, and we were all glad that we could see it. I'm so thankful for the group that's down here with me. This semester has been amazing, but I know it wouldn't have been as awesome without all of them. I knew a few of them really well and there were others that I didn't know at all when we got here, but now we're all really good friends. We have so much fun together and get along really well- I'll definitely miss them this summer!

Pictures! (finally)

I decided to post a few pictures on here since I haven't been able to do that yet! My original goal was to post pictures often, but when my computer broke down that kind of went out the window. But anyway, here they are now!

This is the view from my bedroom window

Our Taylor group (we're missing one person); they're seriously the best!

One of the beautiful beaches we visited in the Galápagos Islands

My visitors from the USA! It was so great to have them here with me!

Visitors from Home!

The past week has been one of my very favorites in Ecuador so far because my Mom, Dad, and Aunt Karen came to visit me! They were supposed to get here on Thursday afternoon, but they couldn't land in Quito on Wednesday night because of a huge storm. They ended up landing in Guayaquil and spending the night there, so they missed their connecting flight to Cuenca on Thursday. There are not flights from Guayaquil to Cuenca, and they couldn't take a car because their luggage was still on the plane. They ended up being flown back to Quito Thursday afternoon, and had to spend the night there. They got to go visit the Equator on Friday morning, which they loved, and then went to the airport for the 12pm Cuenca flight. However, American Airlines "forgot" to book them on that flight, so they had to sit around the airport until they could take the 6pm flight. My host mom and I went to pick them up, and I was so excited to see them! They stayed in a great hotel near my house so I was able to be there with them a lot. On Saturday we went zip-lining in the mountains, which was a big adventure but they loved it. On Sunday we went to church, ate lunch with my host family, and visited a beautiful viewpoint of the city. They were able to go to a great spa in the Baños (hot springs), visit the Centro, spend time with my host family, and hang out with the Taylor group throughout the week. It was so awesome to have them here with me and show them around. I'm so glad that they'll understand what I'm talking about when I get home, too. They left the following Wednesday, and made it home safely. American Airlines lost their luggage in Miami, but they were able to get it back the next day (needless to say, American Airlines is our least favorite airline in the universe at this point). I was so sad to see them go, but I only have 6 weeks left here in Ecuador. It's going to be an extremely bittersweet moment when I leave this place- I'll be so happy to see my family and friends again, but I've had the time of my life this semester. I really love Ecuador, especially Cuenca, and it feels like home. I've never lived away from Indiana and I never thought I could call another place home, but Ecuador is a very very close second for my favorite place in the world. I'm so blessed to be here, and I'm still amazed at the way God has provided for me and worked everything out for me to be here. Our group is leaving for the jungle on Thursday morning, so I'm sure I'll have more adventures to write about next week! :)