Hola parents. We are yet again finishing up another week in beautiful Ecuador. Sadly our group of nine was split in two this last week. One group consisting of Amanda, Andrew, Jordan, Jordi, Hannah and Alejandro, visited the cloud forest outside of Otavalo. They spent their time teaching at two different rural schools. The little ninos were absolutely adorable. We taught them as much English as possible, as well as teaching them songs, how to make bracelets, and how to play Hangman. At lunch we played epic soccer games that lasted almost an hour. We became totally attatched to the children, and it was very hard to leave them. When we weren´t teaching at the school we spent our time eating amazing food, taking siestas, and hiking through the magnificent cloud forest. We visited not one, but three different stunning waterfalls where we practiced different types of meditation and became one with the cloud forest.
The other group (Drew, Eli, Claire, Patrick and Zoe) aka the “Blink 182-ers” spent their time in the wonderful city of Otavalo. Each student was placed in a seperate host family as to perfect their spanish abilities. The majority our days consisted of some spanish lessons in the morning and some adventuring throughout the evening. Drew was kind enough to welcome us into his wonderful world of yoga and teach us a couple tricks of the trade, leaving us very sore yet more in touch with our spiritual beings. The Blink 182ers also practiced their teamwork in a variety of ways such as, a 3 second human knot, and a successful hack in hackisack(sp?). Que Bueno!! One of our fabulous professors Juan (with questionable humor) led us on a hike to 2 gorgeous waterfall where we were able to bath ourselves and even climb through caves…We continued our journey on our own over the river and through the woods (and moiuntains) in order to reach the Condor Park. There we were able to see and learn about some amazing endangered birds as well as view the entire city. We also visit the spiritual tree of Lechero where we chose taroah cards (also super fun).
Finally our group was reunited on Friday. After catching up we took a journey to the Mohando Lakes. We did some crazy things like climbing a 14000 ft mountain and singing ridiculous songs at the summit. Although extremely challenging, our group is hardcore enough to handle such ventures. So to summarize, all is well down south. Everyone back home is dearly missed and we´ll see you back at the blog in about a week.
Que Les Vayan Bien!
Your Bloggers
Andrew and Zoe
