Waterfalls

February 19, 2011

We got up today at 7:30am to eat breakfast at 8:00am. I think I trapped more bugs in with my mosquito net than keeping them out. The first event for the day was breakfast, and they served Eggs! It was my first plate of eggs since I got here!

As soon as we were done, they handed out our rubber boots and announced that we were going hiking through the rainforest and swimming under a waterfall. I was super excited. They told us the rainforest was different here than the oriental (west) because it was less wild. There weren’t monkeys or as many exotic animals, but there were still plenty of interesting insects and other critters. In fact, the two rainforests used to be the same one, but then when the tectonic plates collided and made the Andes, they divided.

Termites

Tasty Termites

Now that the history lesson is done, on with the story. We took a ride to the spot in our bus and hopped out where the mud was like the Mississippi mud at the old rope swing location – aka thick. This was a more public park, so it wasn’t too wild, but very beautiful and new for my eyes.

It took about forty minutes to get to the waterfall. The area resembled the area that is right when you enter the Brookfield Zoo monkey habitat – there was a waterfall but ten times bigger. After enjoying this sight, we changed behind some rocks right next to the water. Unfortunately, my underwear fell into the water, so I guess I was going commando on the way back.

The guide went and jumped off a rock, so I went and followed of course… Then everyone else did too. The current created by the falling water was split into a fork around the rock. If you jumped off the left side, it took you left and if you jumped off the right side, it took you right. I decided I wanted to go left, then swim under the rock cave behind the waterfall. There was about two to three feet of room between the ceiling and the water (don’t worry, the guide did it first). I leapt off the rock (moment captured by Liz) and we washed to the left, where I started swimming for the water cave. I swam to the back followed by the rest of the group. We then scrambled behind the waterfall and eventually the opposite current swept us back to our original starting spot. It was a blast!

We returned, made some fresh sugar cane/lime/orange juice, rested, and drove back to pick up our main tour guide (for the whole weekend – different guy), then left for the coast. It was like the simple fact that I knew we were heading west for the ocean made me start smelling the salt water three and a half hours away. About an hour and a half in, the bus driver pulls over and we realize that we have a flat tire. This isn’t uncommon when half the roads in Ecuador aren’t paved sufficiently. It just gave us the opportunity to take in the scenery.

In a quick twenty minutes, we were off again. We stopped in another beach town one and a half hours away from our final destination to buy whatever we needed because the other wouldn’t have much of anything. Also, they fixed the truck’s tire so we weren’t driving on a spare. Can I just say, I love the ocean. Every time, I am just speechless. It’s immensity and all the good times it provides just makes it incredible. We were only there for a good forty minutes, then back into the mystery mobile to our final destination in Mon Piche.

We finally arrived to a smaller, more rustic town, but did not stop there. We drove to the side of the town, and then loaded our stuff, along with us, into the back of a pick up truck which drove us ten minutes down the beach to our own personal cabanas! (9:00pm). They were so adorable – built out of bamboo, surrounded by coconut trees, and fifty yards from the ocean (give or take whether the tide is up or down; it can change fifty yards long and about six feet high within about two hours). We went and ate a delicious fresh fish dinner with the best ahí we’ve had yet, then set up a campfire on the beach to relax with heat against our skin and the sound of crashing ocean waves against the shore in the background. Once again, it was a great day and even more, a foreshadow of the warm relaxing beach day to come.

Ciao,

Michael