Now This is a Story, All About How / My Life Got Flipped, Turned Upside Down

*At a salsa dance club*

“Is that our hostel owner?”

“………..yeah, I think so…”

“such a weird guy…”

Flashback to arrive at the hostel owner in Banos:

The disheveled middle-aged hostel owner emerges from a closet and tries to find my reservation.  Finally, he invites me into the storage closet which happens to also house a computer, so I can find my reservation on his system. Not long after, I found my name, blocked off for 3 days and told him what room to take us to. 

Luckily, our room was nicer than the service. We arrived to what was basically a mini apartment. We had own our room, bathroom, kitchen, and dining area. It was perfect for our group and the view was incredible. We could all make and eat breakfast together and gather at night for games.

The return of the 30 eggs

P.S. Banos itself is gorgeous. 

The first night we arrived, we walked to the city center to check out tours. We checked out various places and booked the next day’s adventures. We also grabbed pizza. I think everyone was pretty excited to have some “American” food. After that, we went home played some cards (maybe?) and then went to bed.

In the morning we got up and got ready for our first of many thrill filled days. The woman we spoke with at the tour agency, Jackie, picked us up her little car at our hostel and drove us to the tour office because our hostel was on the outskirts of the town. It took her two trips to pick us all up but once we were all there, we started gearing up in unflattering wetsuits. (unless you are Molly who is basically a sports model).  

Before long, we were off on our way to get our instructions on how to properly repel down waterfalls.

After our brief training, one Argentina gal’s obsession with a cat, and a grueling climb up the top of all the waterfalls in 100 pounds of cloths designed to keep everything locked in, we made it to the first waterfall.

I think everyone shook off the nerves after the first descent, realized it was safe, and started to enjoy themselves. 

Everyone made it out relatively unharmed, I came away with a cracked toe nail and have to wear gauze around my big toe until it grows out and falls off. No worries though, since I’m the only American in my program, I just plan to tell everyone it’s a fashion trend.

Molly even woo’d the tour guide into accompanying us to our next tour – zip lining. He acted as our personal photographer, which was awesome. At each line, he would always ask the guides where the best picture taking angel was from, and go there first.

 

The first time I did this ziplining, I knew all other ziplining would be ruined for me forever. The zipline consist of 6 different lines and at each one you can try a different style/position. The lines cross between mountains and over rivers. You see views of the valleys that you could never see any other way. It is simply stunning. Unfortunately, pictures don’t do it justice because the most amazing views were always halfway down the zip lines.

Following ziplining, we had a pretty chill evening. Repelling down water falls and flying over canyons was enough excitement for one day. The next day would be a busy one – JUNGLE TOURRRRRRRR.

Through Jackie, we had arranged a private tour because we didn’t want to go to an Indigenous community. The whole experience seemed fake, including dancing and painting our faces. We didn’t want to participate in more capitalization of a culture for Westerners entertainment. We didn`t know that this decision would result in a whole different story, the MISTERIOUS JUNGLE TOUR

Our guide, who will remain nameless because throughout the whole day he never introduced himself, even when I asked, picked us up at the schedule timing, however this was the only thing that he knew. Originally, we didn’t even think he was our guide because when I said the tour company we were with, he didn’t even know the name. This was all happening in Spanish of course because even though I asked for a guide that spoke English, he spoke brokenly at best.

So, we loaded up with NoName and got started on our way. First stop was to pick up some rubber boots for later (little did we know how big of a deal this would turn out to be later). Then, we continued on to a little zoo. The guide let us wander around on our own, occasionally giving direction and a little information. We most liked the monkeys. One baby monkey found a little caterpillar and was playing with it. While playing with it, it bit him and he came running over to us, screeching and showing us what happened. It was so heartbreakingly cute.

Soon, we loaded back up in our van for another treacherous continuation of our journey. There are few people in this world I have observed who are worst drivers than NoName. He sped through the mountains and passed everyone in sight with pretty much complete disregard for the rules of the road or safety. In NoName fashion, he did not tell us where we were going next, instead we arrived upon our next destination, which was a gas station to buy snacks. Once there, he told us we need to pay more money because we got the boots he told us to pick out. I told him that was unacceptable and out of nowhere one of the owners of the tour company showed up.

We started to verbally duke it out in the store where I unleashed our many complaints about the day thus far, not limited to the fact that I had become the unofficial and unpaid translator for the company because our guide did not speak English as promised. In response, we got a broken “I speak” from NoName.

Claire and some others with way more patience then I had at the moment, stepped in and calmly explained to both NoName and tour company owner in the simplest English they could what the problem was.

Finally, we were back on our way. Of course, it would be too easy for NoName to tell us where we were heading next so, the mystery continued. He stopped at a market, got out of the car without saying a word, and left us wondering if we would be having lunch at this place where raw meat was hanging from wooden shop frames. Soon, NoName returned with a bag of raw meat and we continued on again, without word from him.

We ended up at a “giant fish farm” When we got there, we asked NoName for a little more information about the fish and he said one of his first English sentences, “they are big fish.” So, that was enlightening. I then told him (in English), I think we got off on the wrong foot, maybe if you could introduce yourself, we can start over here. He ignored me. I’d like to think it was because they sent us a non-English speaking English guide but who knows really. From then on, I just reserved myself to speaking to him in Spanish and translating for the group. We did not get much more information that way but it was better than no communication at all.

Our next stop was where we would go on our canoe right. Once again, we hoped into the next leg of the day with less information than we would have liked. All 6 of us got in the same canoe while a local guy paddled us down river. About 20 minutes into the ride, I asked if he could give us some more information about what we were seeing/where we were/wildlife, etc. He told us that 2 days ago an 11-year-old girl drowned in the river. I stopped asking questions after that.

The rest of the boat ride was beautiful and uneventful. We did not see much of any wildlife at all which as a bummer. We arrived to a little hostel type building where NoName was lazing in a hammock. The owners offered us a local tea, a local booze and to pay to take pictures with a snake.

We loaded back up and without a word from NoName, he took our to our next mysterious destination. We ended up at a big lodge. He started walking up a hill and assumed that we would follow. A little way up, he pointed into a cave and motioned for us to go in. Margret took the lead as we walked deeper and deeper into the cave until we had to use our cell phones for lights. Margret reported that somehow some birds got into the cave and laughed and kept walking, until she realized the bird were bats and that NoName had tricked us into going to a bat cave and we wondered why we ever thought to trust him in the first place.

The walk up the hill resulted in a beautiful view and chance to swing on the Tarzan swing which went off the cliff face. It was exhilarating and beautiful. 

Afterwards, we ate lunch and continued on. Honestly, this is when things started to get better with the tour. Not because NoName got better, although he did seem pleased that we enjoyed the swing, but because we settled into enjoying each other’s company and knowing that we needed to enjoy the day for what it was because it was not going to change.

Next, along the way to who knows where, we stopped along the side of the road – well, to be clear, we parked in the middle of the road in the wrong lane – and got to check out a cacao farm. 

The owner showed us how chocolate was made, and we even got to participate ourselves. At the end, we had hot chocolate and a cheese filled Arepa.

Here is the promised parrot from last week's blog title 

Our last stop was a walk to a waterfall. We arrived at the start of the walk and NoName left us to find the path for ourselves. Some random guy had to point us in the right direction. After 20 minutes of walking, NoName showed up behind us.

Snagged a selfie with our boiii behind us.

The waterfall was beautiful and the perfect ending to our very, very weird day. 

We thankfully made it back to the town alive, despite NoName’s best efforts and we explored the town a little. Molly got invited out to dance with another one of her suitors, but most people were ready to head back and shower and eat after a long day.

Here's us, driving on the wrong side of the road with approaching on coming traffic.

We headed back, had dinner and played some cards. Molly, Ohafa, and I ended up going out after all and checking out a local bar that had a salsa night. Although we didn’t find Molly’s guy, it was super fun. The whole place was filled with people just happy to be there and to be dancing. We watched in awe as incredible salsa dancers tore up the floor. We tried our hand and even got some lessons from a salsa instructor. It was here we found our creepy and crazy hostel owner. The one who came knocking on our door at midnight asking for us to pay for our nights stay. We called it an earlyish night because we had another adventure in the morning.

Early the next morning, we woke, packed up our stuff and got ready for rafting. We had to bring our things because following rafting, we would be going our separate ways. Ohafa and I would continue on to Tena and the Law GFs would return to Quito for their flight home.

We got suited up for rafting and soon we were on our merry way. Rafting was the activity some were most nervous for. I have been about 5 or 6 times, so I did my best to answer questions honestly. In my experience, I had only seen one or two people ever go overboard who didn’t want to go overboard I assured them.

We got divided up into our boats and we got our safety instructions. 

Molly had to go with a different boat and we had two random people in our boat. I’m not sure why it ended up that way, but Molly was a good sport about it. The two random women were the “captains” of our boat because they were the lead paddlers. Soon, we were on the river. Within a minute or so, our guide told us we had too many paddlers and asked if any of use like titanic because one of us would have to sit on the front, without a paddle, and just hang on and try not to fall off. Since I was the least afraid of falling in, I offered to do it.

That's me at the front

Seated at the front of the boat, hands wrapped under the rope, we continued to the rapids. Sitting in the front was super fun. It was like being on the front of a roller coaster, as we went over the biggest rapids, I just saw nothingness below us and soon I would be hit with a huge wall of water, sometimes strong enough to knock me off the raft and into the boat itself.

*Excessive detail and graphic content is in this caption* Soon after leaving land, I realized I had diarrhea which gave a truly new meaning to holding on tight. The only way back to civilization was by completing the rafting and ending up down river, so we carried on. In between rapids, I got to sneak off into the woods and in the end no one and no wet suits were harmed during the journey. 

The water was high and the ride was rough, our boat was full of inexperienced paddlers. This proved to be our downfall at one of the last rapids. Our boat flipped and we all were fending for ourselves.

I can't figure out google photos to upload the actual video but here is a video of a video of us flipping

Some got trapped under the boat for a while and others were heading downstream right away. I was thrown off and dragged under the boat and to the other side. Before I knew what had happened, I was quickly making my way downstream. The other boats were quickly rescuing my friends behind me and I was told to swim to the left side of the river. Since it was upstream and in fast current, it was one of the most physically exhausting things I have done. I remember reaching a rock and clinging on to it while I caught my breath to drag myself up. From there, another boat picked me and we met up with the others downstream.

The rest of the trip was much less eventful and before we knew it, we were back on land heading to grab lunch.

From there, we returned to get our stuff and then went off to the bus station where we would part ways. It felt extremely weird just leaving my friends at the bus station but both of our buses arrived so quickly we didn’t have much time to think about it, in minutes were we saying rushed goodbyes and heading our separate ways.

Having the Law GFs in Ecuador was special for so many reasons. For one, it was an adventure of a lifetime and I created memories with some of my dearest friends that I will have forever. Both my Law GFs and Ohafa were so good about meeting one another. For both parties, I imagine it to be strange and hard to be thrown into these experiences with strangers but they got along so well together which I’m really grateful for.

I was truly amazed at my friend’s adaptability and willingness to try anything. For some of them, it was their first time out of the country and for most, if not all, it was their first time travelling in a developing country. Although that style of travel is exhilarating, it is not luxurious, especially when you are on a budget. They were patient with me when I was at my most stressed, they were gracious when plans did not go according to plan, and throughout everything they maintained an amazing sense of humor and fun which is why I love them all so dearly. However, I suggest our next group vacation be a lazy beach one or that winery tour ;)