no pasa nada

thursday marked the beginning of easter vacation, so three of my friends and i went white-water rafting in santo domingo. after getting up at the crack of dawn (literally), driving three hours to the river, my friend suffering two heat strokes, i finally got to experience my first white-water rafting adventure! can you believe that i hadnt been white water rafting before? i remember going to colorado for gram's 70th birthday and everyone got to go rafting, but im pretty sure i was about 3feet tall at this point so i wasnt allowed to go. but here i am, 14 years later, and it was definitely worth the wait! i loved every minute of it and i cant wait to try rafting in the states now. after about 2.5 hours down the river, we grabbed some lunch, and headed back to quito with our guides. we were in a mad rush to make it back because my friends and i had to catch the 11pm bus to the beach... tough life, huh? a full day of rafting then leaving for a weekend trip to the beach - gotta love it! we did make it back to quito eventually, packed our bags, and headed to the bus.
we decided to go back to canoa this weekend (for the third time!) because its one of our favorite beaches, we have a bunch of friends there, and NORMALLY its only a 6 hour bus ride aka super easy. but this past weekend was semana santa or "holy week" and its the time of the year when every ecuadorian and their mother heads to the coast. we had a lot of trouble finding a bus company that was not completely sold out by wednesday. and when you hear this story you will not even believe how ironic it is that it happened on the busiest traveling weekend of the year...
we were on the bus en route to canoa at precisely 11pm thursday night. i remember my friend colleen exhaling a huge sigh of relief because after the problems with the bus tickets, hitting traffic on the way home from rafting, and scrambling to make it to the bus on time, we were finally on the bus and that meant we would be at the beach in no time. WRONG. at 2:45am i woke up to find the bus engine completely turned off. i looked out the window and realized we were in the middle of the highway surrounded by a bunch of other buses and cars and no one was moving. the bus driver told people to get off the bus and go the bathroom because we were going to have to wait here til morning. everyone was so confused and in a really bad mood, but we decided we'd just go to bed and hoped everything would be figured out by the time we woke up. at 5:30am, the bus people were getting antsy and some of us decided to get off the bus to see what the heck was going on. about 100 feet from our bus, was a humongous pile of rocks and dirt and mud. during the night there had been a humongous landslide that prevented all the buses and cars from passing!!! the driver told us it would be at least 24 hours before the pile would be cleaned up and even then, he wasnt sure if buses would be able to pass. this is typical ecuador! if this had happened in the states, there would have been a maintenance crew at the site at 2am cleaning up the mess and the cars and buses would have been passing through with no problem by 5 in the morning. since ecuadorians move at the slowest pace known to man, i knew the landslide wouldnt be cleaned up for days. so at this point, my friends and i were seriously contemplating hitchhiking to the beach because the last thing i wanted to do was spend a weekend in rainy and cold quito when i was supposed to be at the beach. but sooner or later, the us driver announced that we could go to the beach but just in a roundabout manner. so after being on the bus for 9 hours already, we pulled a U-turn and headed back towards quito, circled around through santo domingo (where i had been precisely 12 hours before!), and headed towards the coast. after stopping several times to go to the bathroom, eat lunch, and drop people off at other beaches, WE FINALLY MADE IT TO CANOA! get ready for this: we spent 18 hours en route to the beach when it normally takes 6!!!! i cannot even explain my feeling of happiness to get off that bus and see the ocean. its pretty obvious that whenever you travel in ecuador, you need to expect transportation problems. its awful and annoying, but at the same time, its so entertaining. my friends and i honestly think we could write a book because of all the crazy adventures we have found ourselves in this semester - mostly because of the ridiculous people, places, and things we've encountered on bus trips. and the 18 hour bus ride was so "vale la pena" (worth the trouble) because we had an amazing weekend in canoa with our beach friends and like always, did not want to leave when sunday rolled around.
here i am, monday morning, back in quito, obviously missing the beach and the "no pasa nada" lifestyle. but i feel like a spoiled little brat even having these thoughts because in 24 hours i will be on my way to the galapagos islands! i've taken so many amazing trips this semester and i just cant even believe how lucky i am that i get to travel to one of the most beautiful islands in the world on top of everything else! (insert: huge thank you to mom and dad). its going to be a trip of a lifetime, thats for sure, and i cant wait to share the pictures, stories, and adventures when i return on friday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! i know you desperately wish your youngest daughter were in town, but i hope you can get over this and still have a fantastic day! LOVE YOU.

aloha,
rastas (my nickname at the beach!)

 rafting!

 deslabe aka landslide

 clearly we couldnt pass it...

 i love you canoa!

amigos y la puesta del sol. 

trans-Ecuador

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 :)

cuenca y canoa me crazy!

as of yesterday, i have officially been in ecuador for three whole months. in some ways, it seems like three months and in other regards it feels like i just got here. my friends and i have definitely noticed how the time is whizzing by and we know the next few and final weeks will go by even faster. soooo we have and will continue to follow a strict schedule to make sure we get to see and do everything before our time in ecuador is up. so get ready for some crazy, fun-filled weeks!!!

last weekend, a small group of friends and i went to cuenca. cuenca is an adorable town known for its rich history and art and culture. its actually the third largest city in ecuador by population but it doesnt feel like that when you are there. we left thursday night on the over night bus thinking it would take about 10 hours. well, two popped tires and 13 hours later, we finally arrived! we found a cute hostal for $7 a night that had a balcony that overlooked the restaurant-filled streets and the beautiful river. we had an awesome lunch at an italian restaurant then spent the day touring the city. we went in the New Cathedral of Cuenca, Parque Calderon, Museum of Aboriginal Cultures, and saw Incan ruins. we even stumbled upon a mini-bird zoo that had the most parrots and parakeets and eagles that i have ever seen in my life! after hardly getting any sleep on the over night bus and spending the entire day walking, we took a well-deserved afternoon nap. we finally woke up just in time to get some delicious mexican food and celebrate my friend molly's birthday!
the next day we got up early and caught a 2 hour bus to the incan ruins, called Ingapirca. oh before i tell more about the ruins, let me just say that the bus ride was one of the weirdest i have ever taken. first of all, we bought our tickets and were told to catch the bus outside. after asking ever person in the bus terminal which bus we were supposed to take, we realized that everyone was just trying to get us to come on their bus - no matter if they were headed towards the ruins or not. finally, we were told to follow this man, sprint outside the gates of the terminal and down six blocks to catch the bus. oh and if this werent crazy enough, we got on the bus to find out they had given our seats away to other people so we had to stand the entire time. but this was fate! i was standing next to a girl and said something funny and she started laughing. and i said "what?" ...she responded "oh its just i havent heard jokes in english in a while because ive been traveling around here for 6 months." well we got to talking and discovered that she goes to UNC and is a public health major as well!! what are the chances? this world really is uber small. she was really cool and we ended up going to her crepe restaurant for dinner in cuenca later that night! anyway, so back to Ingapirca... they are the largest Incan ruins in all of ecuador and the place has one of the most beautiful views i have ever seen! we spent the day there, shopped at the little markets, grabbed some cheap food at an almuerzo place and then headed back to the city. see the pictures below to see how cool this place was!
on our last day in cuenca, we got a delicious breakfast for $2 and then decided we wanted to see el cajas - a national park with rivers, lakes, and streams that everyone told me i needed to visit while in cuenca. the bus to el cajas was full but we convinced the bus driver to let us stand the entire way. but only under one condition he told us: we had to squat down in the aisles as we exited the terminal and had to duck if we saw a policeman or police car anywhere in sight hahaha... so ecuador! but anyway, el cajas was amazing! it was super cold but the view was absolutely worth it. rolling hills, a beautiful lagoon - i couldnt have imagined anything prettier! after an awesome day, a great dinner in cuenca, some more sightseeing around the city, we caught the night bus back to quito and arrived at about 7am dead tired :(

and what got me through this past week, was the fact that i knew i would be spending the weekend in canoa... and you all know how i love my time at the beach! so thursday night, my friends and i caught the night bus to canoa but once again, it wouldnt be ecuador without the transportation trouble. apparently a few months back, the bus company got in an accident and was supposed to fire all of its employees. so as we are driving through ecuador, we got stopped by the police, had to wait two hours while our bus drivers fought with the police, had to wait for another bus company to come and pick us up, got all of our stuff and got on the other bus. we thought we were settled in for good, but after an hour the bus stopped again and made us get back on the bus we were just on - i guess we had lost the cops by this time so they thought it was okay. how secure i felt riding illegally in on a bus operated by a suspended bus company! we got to canoa early friday morning and headed straight for a hostal recommended by lonely planet. it was a blessing in disguise that the hostal was fully booked because we found another one just down the road that turned out to be amazing. actually two dreadheads yelled down from the balcony of the hostal asking if we wanted to stay there, we checked it out, agreed on $7/night with breakfast included and threw our stuff on our bunkbeds. we quickly realized we were this hostal's first guests... some of the beds still had plastics wrappers on them, the dreadheads had to call the owner and ask if $7/night was okay, and the electricity and light was not quite up and functioning. anyway, we thought it would be a fun hostal to stay at since it was beachfront and right in the mix of things. AND WE WERE RIGHT! i absolutely loved montañita with all of my heart, and i think i loved canoa just as much - if that gives you a sense of how cool of a place it was. the owner of the hostal was an ex-professor from the states who has 5 masters degrees and a PhD and decided to travel ecuador for a year. he stopped in canoa, fell in love, and decided to turn this run down bar into a new bar with a hostal on top called "el caracol". AKA HE IS LIVING MY DREAM LIFE! we spent every day at the beach, ate delicious street foods and batidos or at the surf shak next door, and spent the evenings in the bar in the bottom of our hostal hanging out with the locals. we even got free surf lessons one day! we were super sad to go home on sunday because we had had such a good time and met so many cool people, and it was then that we decided we would return in a few weeks. its only a 6.5 hour bus ride and the hostal is so cheap and fun - my friends and i decided it would be worth it to return. we hope our second trip lives up to our expectations!

i leave for a trip with my school to a biodiversity station in the rainforest this friday! so so so stoked for that trip and all the amazing trips in my future :) SOY UNA CHICA CON SUERTE thats for sure.

paz, amor, y gozo
-shannon

 cuenca

 girls in cuenca plaza

 cuenca at night

 ruinas de ingapirca

 el cajas

 lagoon at el cajas

 we are spelling UNC if you cant tell!

 river in cuenca

 canoa!

 beautiful beach

 cliffs of canoa

 back to us at el cajas

 and the ruins once again

one more from canoa!