First Days on Felicity

Hola! A quick update on the past week or so...

I had my final week of volunteering in Quito and it was a bit sad to leave my family and the kids that I have been working with. Still, I was very excited for a new scene. On Friday, I joined an overland tour driving from Quito to La Paz, on a giant yellow truck named Felicity. Right now, there are 13 other participants on the tour, plus a driver and a tour leader, but we pick up 10 more in Lima. So far, I´m having a great time with the group. Everyone is from either England or Australia, and it makes for a pretty fun-loving crowd. Most people are around my age or a bit older and everyone is getting along really well and having a great time together.

On our first day, we drove to Mitad del Mundo, the centre of the world, which is a small museum on the equator. Basically, they do a series of silly experiments that are meant to demonstrate the unique physical properties of the equator, like the slightly lessened gravitational pull. It was fun and silly and informative.

We spent our first night in Otovalo, a town that boasts the largest indigenous market in South America. It was absolutely massive, with beautiful handicrafts and weird food items. We stayed in Otovalo for two nights, just going out and getting know one another, and then drove to Rio Verde, where we are now.

Rio Verde just next to Banos, where I have already been. But it´s no problem, because I have done completely different things this time around. We are staying in a fantastic hostel/campgrounds just outside the town. It´s really beautiful and there are loads of hammocks overlooking the valleys and forests. On our first night, my cook group was assigned to make dinner. For those of you who know me, you probably know that cooking is not exactly my strong suit. However, I managed to pull off a decent vegetable stir fry. Again, you may know that this is one of 3 dishes in my personal repertoire.

On our first day in Rio Verde, we hiked to Pailon del Diablo, which is a massive waterfall. There are a series of viewing platforms that descend toward the river and a tunnel that you have to crawl through to get behind the waterfall. It was pretty cool, but packed because it was a long weekend in Ecuador.

The next day, we went rafting, which was really amazing. We shot class 4 and 5 rapids, which was both awsome and scary. My raft tipped twice and I fell out on my own once, which was somewhat terrifying because all of the rescue instructions had been delivered to us in very broken English. But we all survived and I had an amazing time.

Today, we took ATVs and motorbikes (ATV for me) for a drive through the mountains. You drive on dirt roads that drop off on one side into huge valleys, which is pretty cool. The scenery was incredible and it was a really fun way to see the surrounding areas. Currently, I am covered in mud and recovering from that experience.

Tonight is our last night in Rio Verde and tomorrow we leave for the jungle. I´m not sure what internet access will be like for me for the next few weeks, but I will try to update when I can. Hope everyone is doing well, please send me an email!

Love,

Sarah