This week has been our student directed travel. We started in Tena and stayed for two extra days to go see the Jumandi Caves. We had a great time there in the dark. After that day in Tena we bought our tickets to Otalavo. After a long bus ride it was really relieving to get to a nice hostal, but figuring out who was going to stay in wich room was irritating for everyone. With that settled we all went into town where we saw an amazing market place called Plaza de los Panchos. Everyone except for me and Sunte'Ohna bought alpaca sweaters. Gabriela bought two. On the ninth it was Sunte'Ohnas birthday and we all went out dancing. We had a blast. The day after Sunte'Ohnas birthday half the group went to Cotacachi which is big on leather working. A day later we went on an amazing hike around lake Cuicocha. The hike took us about three and a half hours and the distance was around eight and a half miles. It is a crater lake around a volcano. Almost everyone in our group got burnt through the clouds. Today is the twelfth and we had some QT time in the morning. Later tonight we are going to listen to Betsy's life map. We listened to Mac's life map yesterday. I think everyone knows how they will do theirs after hearing his. We will be leaving Otavalo Friday the thirteenth. We are heading towards Pucara a small village about an hour and a half away from Otavalo. That will be the end of the student directed travel. It was difficult because we were the first group to do it in Ecuador thus far in the carpe Diem program, but we made the best of it and had a blast of a time.
-Jake Timney
