you know that feeling when you are looking forward to something so much that you think the time will never actually come? well thats how i have felt about the trip to tiputini. at the exchange student orientation back in january, a director at usfq told all of us that we would have the opportunity to visit tiputini, the school's biodiversity research station in the jungle. after speaking with other exchange students who had been in ecuador the past semester and hearing them rave about the awesomeness that is tiputini, i knew it was a trip i couldnt miss. so i signed up back in february and had to wait two whole months for the trip! two thursday nights ago, i packed my backpack full of ecua pants, a raincoat, and lots and lots of bugspray and was ready for the trip to begin...
friday morning, we all met at the airport at 730am and knew we had an extremely long day of traveling ahead of us. after an hour long flight, a two hour boat ride, a two hour bus ride, and another two hour boat road, we finally arrived in tiputini. it was about 9 hours of traveling but thankfully, tiputini had bathrooms, fruit, hot chocolate, and oreos waiting for us when we arrived and that made it all worth it. we met diego - head of tiputini - who explained the rules and regulations of tiputini, like dont put toilet paper down the toilet, the lights turn off at 9 pm, you must be awake at 6am for breakfast, etc. etc. after a delicious dinner, we got to explore a bit. basically tiputini consists of an open air dining hall, a library / research center (the only air conditioned place!), and about 5 or 6 cabins literally in the middle of the jungle. the cabins were actually very nice though - bunkbeds, cold water showers, and mosquito nets - everything you need in the jungle! we hung out in the library for a while and quickly realized theres not too much to do in tiputini once the lights are off. we played hang man and did puzzles and talked for a bit, but then headed off to bed once we realized we have to wake up at the crack of dawn. so the next morning, we met at 630 in the dining hall and had a delicious breakfast. then we broke off into groups each with their own tour guide. my tour guide was named mayar and he was probably the cutest little old man i have ever met. he took us on a hike through the jungle, pointing out cool plants and animals here and there. then we scaled a ladder that ended at a tree house in the highest tree in the jungle! literally we could see the tops of all the other trees in the rainforest... it was so cool! and mayar used a handy-dandy telescope to point out toucans, bats, monkeys, eagles, etc. while up in the tree house, we also encountered some of the craziest looking bugs i have ever seen. my new fear: bullet ants. they look like regular ants just about an inch longer but when they bite/sting it is so painful, it feels like you have just been hit with a bullet from a gun! can you even imagine? screw spiders and tarantulas - i was keeping my eyes peeled for the bullet ants the whole weekend. after lunch, a torrential downpour (i now understand why they call it the RAINforest), and an epic nap, we went for an afternoon hike. all eight of the people in my group, including mayar and myself, piled into a tiny canoa (canoe) that i think was only supposed to hold two people. we rowed around a little lagoon that is famous for its anacondas, crocodiles, and piranhas. thankfully, we didnt encounter any of those horrid creatures, but we did see some cool bats and birds and insects. we then hiked back to camp, again encountering, some of the coolest and most beautiful plants and flowers i have ever seen. after dinner, we set out on a night hike. it was very cool, yet super-eerie trekking through the rainforest in the complete darkness. but it was totally worth it because we saw gigantic bugs, jungle fireflies, snakes, and taranchulas! on sunday, our morning hike was the canopy tour. we climbed another tall ladder, and crossed three or four wooden bridges strung between gigantic trees, probably 100 feet off the ground. i saw amazing views, beautiful birds, and again, some scary insects up there, but it was one of the coolest feelings literally being in the trees of the rainforest! mayar then showed us some interesting leaves that he weaved into bracelets, a cool nut that left a blue tattoo on the skin for three days, and some of the widest trees i have ever seen! after yet another delicious lunch and amazing afternoon nap, the directors told us to get our bathing suits on and meet at the boat. soon after, they informed us that we were going to be floating down the tiputini river in life jackets for about an hour. sounds cool, right? well it would be cool if the river werent infested with anacondas, crocodiles, and piranhas! i felt like i was committing suicide as i jumped off the boat into the murky water, but hey, not many people can say they've floated down a river in the ecuadorian rainforest so i had to do it. i must admit, i was a bit scared, but im a small girl so i figured the crocodiles would go after one of the larger gringos before eating me so that was reassuring. but the water was freezing and a perfect brown color, so after about 45 minutes, we were done floating and the boat picked us up. on our way back to the station, my dream came true... we passed about 3 trees full of spider monkeys!!! I LOVE MONKEYS. they were so cute and curious and funny- i couldve watched them for hours and taken all of them home!
on monday, we woke up early, packed up, and headed out of tiputini around 8am. boat, bus, boat, airplane and 9 hours later, we were back in quito. the people in the airport must have thought we were nomads because we looked dirty beyond belief and smelled absolutely terrible. but it was totally "vale la pena" because spending a weekend in the rainforest of ecuador was one of the coolest experiences of my life and something i will definitely remember forever!
so, i returned to quito on monday evening and as usual - it was cold and raining. this rainy season weather really sucks and has been getting me down, so my friends and i decided another trip to the beach was exactly what we needed. exactly 48 hours after returning from the western part of ecuador (the rainforest) we headed all the way to the east, back to canoa - the beach we had visited just two weeks before. why go back to the same beach if there are plenty of other places in ecuador? you ask. well, we planned on going back to montañita but it takes a third of the time and half the price to get to canoa versus montanita, and we made some really awesome friends in canoa, stayed in a really fun and cheap hostal, and the beach is absolutely gorgeous, so we said "why not canoa?" after taking the night bus that had its air conditioning on full blast, no bathroom, and blue spaceship-like lights on the entire trip, we arrived in canoa at 5am. of course our hostal wasnt open yet, so we chilled on the beach, watched the sunrise, and waited for a reasonable hour to go knocking on the hostal's door. oh i can now say that i have brushed my teeth on the beach while watching the sun rise!
we've pretty much got the beach routine down to a science: breakfast at the hostal, chill on the beach for a couple hours, take a walk, go surfing if possible, grab a fruit batido for lunch, go to happy hour, watch the sunset, eat dinner at the surf shak, and then spend the evening dancing and karaoke-ing in the bar in the bottom of our hostal with all our canoan friends.... what a tough life i lead, right? so thats pretty much the schedule we followed friday through sunday and i could do that everyday if possible. one day our canoan friend took us to "las cuevas" or the caves at the end of the beach. we hiked up this really steep hill, walked through a field, climbed under some barbed wire fences and then arrived at a completely deserted secret beach tucked in between two cliffs. we swam for a bit, and looked at the cuevas but unfortunately it was high tide so we couldnt walk through the cuevas. guess we will have to save that for another trip to canoa! when sunday rolled around, i fell into deep depression mode just thinking about leaving the sun, surf, and sand for the concrete, pollution, and rain of quito. i do love quito but when you've lived there for 4 months and you have the choice of quito or beach, beach it is. but we had to go, so sunday, we took the night bus home to quito, arriving at 3:20am to approximately 40 degree weather and - you guessed - lots of rain. TAKE ME BACK TO THE BEACH NOW!
one month from today, my roommate chelsea and i will be traveling ecuador (so stoked!) but the majority of my study abroad friends will have already gone back to the states. its really hard to believe how fast the time is flying so im trying to make the best of every minute i have - even if those are minutes spent in rain and cold weather in quito. easter vacation starts this thursday, and we hope to celebrate by going rafting in tena, then to some beach for the weekend. and after that, its 5 days in the galapagos!! I.CANNOT.WAIT.
that's it for me for now. can't wait to share just a few more blogs as i wrap up my amazing semester in ecuador :)
a hermosos puestos del sol y hermosos amigos ("to beautiful sunsets and beautiful friends"),
sha sha
view from the first canoe ride.
tree house in the rainforest!
the view
canopy bridges
the view
little baby frog on my hand!
rainforest = beautiful
bird friend i made in coca (town we stopped in before flying back to quito)
view on the second canoe
monkey from coca!!! <3
5:30am canoa beach
view of all of canoa from the look-out
swimming at the secret beach!
hermoso puesto del sol
friends!!
sunset again :)
friday morning, we all met at the airport at 730am and knew we had an extremely long day of traveling ahead of us. after an hour long flight, a two hour boat ride, a two hour bus ride, and another two hour boat road, we finally arrived in tiputini. it was about 9 hours of traveling but thankfully, tiputini had bathrooms, fruit, hot chocolate, and oreos waiting for us when we arrived and that made it all worth it. we met diego - head of tiputini - who explained the rules and regulations of tiputini, like dont put toilet paper down the toilet, the lights turn off at 9 pm, you must be awake at 6am for breakfast, etc. etc. after a delicious dinner, we got to explore a bit. basically tiputini consists of an open air dining hall, a library / research center (the only air conditioned place!), and about 5 or 6 cabins literally in the middle of the jungle. the cabins were actually very nice though - bunkbeds, cold water showers, and mosquito nets - everything you need in the jungle! we hung out in the library for a while and quickly realized theres not too much to do in tiputini once the lights are off. we played hang man and did puzzles and talked for a bit, but then headed off to bed once we realized we have to wake up at the crack of dawn. so the next morning, we met at 630 in the dining hall and had a delicious breakfast. then we broke off into groups each with their own tour guide. my tour guide was named mayar and he was probably the cutest little old man i have ever met. he took us on a hike through the jungle, pointing out cool plants and animals here and there. then we scaled a ladder that ended at a tree house in the highest tree in the jungle! literally we could see the tops of all the other trees in the rainforest... it was so cool! and mayar used a handy-dandy telescope to point out toucans, bats, monkeys, eagles, etc. while up in the tree house, we also encountered some of the craziest looking bugs i have ever seen. my new fear: bullet ants. they look like regular ants just about an inch longer but when they bite/sting it is so painful, it feels like you have just been hit with a bullet from a gun! can you even imagine? screw spiders and tarantulas - i was keeping my eyes peeled for the bullet ants the whole weekend. after lunch, a torrential downpour (i now understand why they call it the RAINforest), and an epic nap, we went for an afternoon hike. all eight of the people in my group, including mayar and myself, piled into a tiny canoa (canoe) that i think was only supposed to hold two people. we rowed around a little lagoon that is famous for its anacondas, crocodiles, and piranhas. thankfully, we didnt encounter any of those horrid creatures, but we did see some cool bats and birds and insects. we then hiked back to camp, again encountering, some of the coolest and most beautiful plants and flowers i have ever seen. after dinner, we set out on a night hike. it was very cool, yet super-eerie trekking through the rainforest in the complete darkness. but it was totally worth it because we saw gigantic bugs, jungle fireflies, snakes, and taranchulas! on sunday, our morning hike was the canopy tour. we climbed another tall ladder, and crossed three or four wooden bridges strung between gigantic trees, probably 100 feet off the ground. i saw amazing views, beautiful birds, and again, some scary insects up there, but it was one of the coolest feelings literally being in the trees of the rainforest! mayar then showed us some interesting leaves that he weaved into bracelets, a cool nut that left a blue tattoo on the skin for three days, and some of the widest trees i have ever seen! after yet another delicious lunch and amazing afternoon nap, the directors told us to get our bathing suits on and meet at the boat. soon after, they informed us that we were going to be floating down the tiputini river in life jackets for about an hour. sounds cool, right? well it would be cool if the river werent infested with anacondas, crocodiles, and piranhas! i felt like i was committing suicide as i jumped off the boat into the murky water, but hey, not many people can say they've floated down a river in the ecuadorian rainforest so i had to do it. i must admit, i was a bit scared, but im a small girl so i figured the crocodiles would go after one of the larger gringos before eating me so that was reassuring. but the water was freezing and a perfect brown color, so after about 45 minutes, we were done floating and the boat picked us up. on our way back to the station, my dream came true... we passed about 3 trees full of spider monkeys!!! I LOVE MONKEYS. they were so cute and curious and funny- i couldve watched them for hours and taken all of them home!
on monday, we woke up early, packed up, and headed out of tiputini around 8am. boat, bus, boat, airplane and 9 hours later, we were back in quito. the people in the airport must have thought we were nomads because we looked dirty beyond belief and smelled absolutely terrible. but it was totally "vale la pena" because spending a weekend in the rainforest of ecuador was one of the coolest experiences of my life and something i will definitely remember forever!
so, i returned to quito on monday evening and as usual - it was cold and raining. this rainy season weather really sucks and has been getting me down, so my friends and i decided another trip to the beach was exactly what we needed. exactly 48 hours after returning from the western part of ecuador (the rainforest) we headed all the way to the east, back to canoa - the beach we had visited just two weeks before. why go back to the same beach if there are plenty of other places in ecuador? you ask. well, we planned on going back to montañita but it takes a third of the time and half the price to get to canoa versus montanita, and we made some really awesome friends in canoa, stayed in a really fun and cheap hostal, and the beach is absolutely gorgeous, so we said "why not canoa?" after taking the night bus that had its air conditioning on full blast, no bathroom, and blue spaceship-like lights on the entire trip, we arrived in canoa at 5am. of course our hostal wasnt open yet, so we chilled on the beach, watched the sunrise, and waited for a reasonable hour to go knocking on the hostal's door. oh i can now say that i have brushed my teeth on the beach while watching the sun rise!
we've pretty much got the beach routine down to a science: breakfast at the hostal, chill on the beach for a couple hours, take a walk, go surfing if possible, grab a fruit batido for lunch, go to happy hour, watch the sunset, eat dinner at the surf shak, and then spend the evening dancing and karaoke-ing in the bar in the bottom of our hostal with all our canoan friends.... what a tough life i lead, right? so thats pretty much the schedule we followed friday through sunday and i could do that everyday if possible. one day our canoan friend took us to "las cuevas" or the caves at the end of the beach. we hiked up this really steep hill, walked through a field, climbed under some barbed wire fences and then arrived at a completely deserted secret beach tucked in between two cliffs. we swam for a bit, and looked at the cuevas but unfortunately it was high tide so we couldnt walk through the cuevas. guess we will have to save that for another trip to canoa! when sunday rolled around, i fell into deep depression mode just thinking about leaving the sun, surf, and sand for the concrete, pollution, and rain of quito. i do love quito but when you've lived there for 4 months and you have the choice of quito or beach, beach it is. but we had to go, so sunday, we took the night bus home to quito, arriving at 3:20am to approximately 40 degree weather and - you guessed - lots of rain. TAKE ME BACK TO THE BEACH NOW!
one month from today, my roommate chelsea and i will be traveling ecuador (so stoked!) but the majority of my study abroad friends will have already gone back to the states. its really hard to believe how fast the time is flying so im trying to make the best of every minute i have - even if those are minutes spent in rain and cold weather in quito. easter vacation starts this thursday, and we hope to celebrate by going rafting in tena, then to some beach for the weekend. and after that, its 5 days in the galapagos!! I.CANNOT.WAIT.
that's it for me for now. can't wait to share just a few more blogs as i wrap up my amazing semester in ecuador :)
a hermosos puestos del sol y hermosos amigos ("to beautiful sunsets and beautiful friends"),
sha sha
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