day 3 - a big change

So we wake up to a brand new day, and to another 4 hours of classes with the one and only Gustavo. We eat another wonderful lunch and are told that today's the day we get to swim in a lagoon. YYESSSSSSSSS. It is sticky hot, the sun is out with a vengeance, and this would be perfect. Our guide, Fernando, takes us on a 30 minute walk on the way to the lagoon. On the way, we learn that the water that flows into it comes from Mt. Cotopaxi, the tallest mountain in all of Ecuador aka the water is going to be cooler than ice cold. Perfect.

So we arrive at the lagoon, and here is what I see. . .

The upper part. . .

. . .and here is the lower section. Beautiful!

That first part actually is a slide that you can go down into the second section. At first it looked like it was going to be something that was going to be a ridiculous amount of fun, but thats ONLY if you kept your butt up in the air while you were going down. If not, you get a huge section of rocks right in your rear as you go down. Luckily, I was the last to go down, so I got a fair warning beforehand. Swimming in the ice cold water was wonderful. . .such a fresh feeling. Not to mention the view of the water that flowed from the lagoon onward. . .

Jealous much?!

So we leave the lagoon, go back to the original camp, and pack up all our gear because we were leaving to go to another camp. Now this new place was described as a paradise for 3 reasons:

1. the view from the cabins
2. The hot water
3. electricity

If it was me, I would have added the bar that was in the middle of it, but I'll get into that later. We all pile into two different trucks and drive 45 minutes in the darkness to our new campground. Thankfully, the trucks didn't go a million miles an hour haha so it was much more accommodating. We got out of the trucks, grabbed our packages, and walked through a small path in the jungle to the campground.

The first thing I see was a massive table all set, with lamps set on a high set ceiling. On the left of the kitchen, there are two large sections of a few tables and hanging hammocks everywhere overlooking the forest and the river. You see, the whole campground is set right on the top and edge of a cliff overlooking the Amazon rainforest. INSANE. On the right are steps, leading to quaint, small cabins and bathrooms. We sit down to a delicious dinner and put our stuff in our respective cabins. Here is the view from when I open my cabin door. . .

Amazon rainforest? YES PLEASE.

So we decide after dinner to head to the bar in the middle of the campground, just to have a beer and take in everything. Little do we know that things are about to GET REAL. At the same time we are there, it just so happened to be the last night for another group of traveling europeans, ranging from all ages. . .friends from australia in their 20s, a family of 3 sisters and their mother, a few grown men from Germany. . .and they wanted to get bottles poppin. As we're all drinking our beers, these dudes plug their ipod in, take a few handles, and start chugging. People are taking swigs, dancing out of control, and playing music that I would have heard in a 6th grade mixer. While we were watching all this go down in front of us, we got a small introduction to the insect kingdom in the jungle. A spider showed up that was the size of my hand, which scared the crap out of everyone in the whole bar except for the bartender. He managed to trap the guy and let him walk on his arm. . .apparently this spider is harmless, but to be it looked like the spider that bit Peter Parker.

WHOA NELLY

So eventually the bartender places the spider on a branch, and it slinks away. The party music gets put back on blast, and people start dancing on the bartop. Everyone is vibin to the beat, and then we get another guest. . .this one came down from the ceiling crawling down. It was the biggest grasshopper I've ever seen. Now, I never thought I'd be intimidated by them. . .after all, the only ones I've seen are green and relatively tiny. This one, however, was MASSIVE, with a deep maroon color body. We pointed it out to the bartender, who shut the music off and walked up to it. . .he said he wouldn't dare touch it, because this was the kind that bites down deep.

Yep, thats an axe head that is smaller than the grasshopper. Sweet Jesus.

I mean, this thing looked like it should have been in a Godzilla movie and not in a rainforest bar. But there it was. It eventually sauntered away and the huge crew resumed their partying until the bar closed aka it ran out of booze. It was pretty entertaining to watch the whole group get down, esp to hits like "welcome to the jungle" and the closing song, the fresh prince of bel-air theme song.

Needless to say, sleeping that night was a tad bit difficult after seeing insects that big. . .but this was the rainforest, and I wasn't about to complain about a thing. Until next time. . .