My XTREME Weekend...

This weekend was totally amazing and out of control. I loved every second of it and wish I could relive it.

1)I biked 40 km which is about 25 miles.

2)Rafted the Toachi river

3)Went canyoning which is pictured above.

4)Ate Cuy (Guinea pig)

5) Danced until 4 AM with an Ecuadorian named Julio.

So let me start from the beginning.

Thursday I went to a place called Banos which is known for its beautiful scenery and its hotsprings (banos in Spanish). It is close to the Jungle but still in the Sierra. This means that the weather is great for doing outdoor activities. Although, there is a ton of tourism it is still one of my most favorite places in the world. Day by day I am falling in love with Ecuador and it is becoming hard for me imagine leaving here.

Nothing really happened on Thursday night. I was really tired from a 5 hour bus ride that was packed full of Ecuadorians trying to get home from work.. so on and so forth.

Friday we woke up ready for our bike ride. It looked kinda cloudy out but turned out to beautiful. My friend Andrea got bit on the eye by some kind of bug.. it was swollen and everyone was a little worried about it but everything turned out fine. We packed a lunch of huge carrots, Pb&Js, and pineapple. All of which was really cheap and worth it. Our goal was to bike from Banos to Puyo which is basically the jungle and quite a stretch. When we began it took a while for me to figure out the gears on my bike. Everyone was a little jolted because they hadn't been on a bike for sometime but after a while everyone got a hang of it. We stopped at a bridge where people were pendulum swinging which is basically like bungie jumping. There was 8 in our group.. 7/8 of the group did it. Guess who didn't? ME. I swear it is because my mom is a lawyer and I was analyzing everything that could go wrong. I also didn't really have the ganas (desire or something like it) to do it. There was really nothing inside of me saying 'Jess, this is something you have to do or else you will regret it'. So I didn't. We then went to this beautiful cascada (waterfall) called Pailon del Diablo that is said to have an image of the devil if looked into. I didn't see anything but beautiful cascading water. We could actually hike behind the waterfall and take a shower in it if one wanted to. I did.. haha. We then biked to San Fransisco where I wanted to stop because I was really dehydrated and wanted to go back. That was still about 25 miles we biked and I thought we did an amazing job.

After that we were REALLY tired, went to get dinner then went to bed around 10PM so we could be ready for rafting the next morning.

We woke up around 8 so we could be ready for rafting at 9. It was raining and it looked like hell outside so a lot of people were kinda leary but we decided that we should still do it because we probably wouldn't have the chance again. IT WAS AMAZING. The rapids were only class 3 and 4 but since it had rained so much the night before the river was super fast. I think our guide was a little scared by how quickly it was moving but we did great. We were one of the only rafts that didn't have someone fall out. I cannot even describe how beautiful it was outside. The best was to describe it would be rafting down the amazon.

We ate lunch...

Then went canyoning. Which is basically repelling down waterfalls. Again, I cannot descibe the beauty and niether can pictures but it was one of the most beautiful/breathe taking experiences I have ever had. We did it at these remote waterfalls out past Banos that were untouched by humans. The trees formed an archway above us (basically a canopy) with tropical flowers and such. I am not going to lie... when I saw the first waterfall I was scared. I couldn't believe that I would be going down the thing with just a simple harness. I did freak out a bit not knowing where to place my feet but after the first two I got it down. This is where I met Julio who informed me that I wasn't doing it altogether right and needed to hold the rope behind my back more. We also slid down a few which was basically sliding down a nature made waterslide. Super fun. When we were canyoning we made plans with a group of guys we met there to eat dinner then go out. Oh and by the way only 3 of us did the canyoning, me included.

We decided that it would be a good idea to try cuy since we were doing it XTREME.. It tasted like saltly pork. It was fine but I can't think about eating a cute little guinea pig. They serve it to you whole so you have to look at its whole little body while eating it. I ordered chicken too so I could actually eat something.

We went to a volcano viewing.. Couldn't see much because it was super cloudy/foggy.

Then went out. It was so much fun. I told them I couldn't dance but they insisted upon it. I ended up staying out until 4AM dancing but it was totally worth it. I think I learned a little more Salsa due to Julio who is amazing at it. I acutally hit him in the face with my elbow when he was spinning me. It was kinda bad... haha.

Came home the next day and went to bed at 7PM.

all I have to say is that it was one of the best weekends of my life.