After our night filled with music and dancing we left Hostal Curiñan and started our long day of traveling. Our first stop was the equator where we got to see all three 0s, the exact line of the equator. I learned that the sun rises exactly on the East only two days of the year, March 20 or 21 and September 22 or 23.

After walking and taking pictures, we stopped to say goodbye to our translator, Gabby, who was super kind to us throughout our first few days. We then stopped at the highest point of elevation that we would be at on this trip, which was over 13,000 feet. It was drizzling, cold, wet, and nothing like I’d ever seen before. We saw small flowers and tried cranberries that were growing on the side of the mountain, and they had a sweet taste to them.

We then took our fourth stop to Termas Pallacta, hot springs right near the volcano. We went to different hot springs and learned that the majority of the water temperature was straight from the volcano. We all jumped or walked through the cold water and ran to one of the hot springs to get the full effect. Then, we changed and had a late lunch, which consisted of chicken, rice, lentils, and salad, accompanied by a guava fruit drink. 

We were all excited to get to the cloud forest, so after lunch, we got on our bus and headed straight there. However, it was too dark to go into the forest by that point, but it was still nice to see the view we had when we got off the bus. I do hope to see the cloud forest at some point throughout the trip!

After a few more hours of driving, we finally arrived at the Lyarina Lodge where we had a delicious chicken noodle soup and taco dinner with a chocolate-dripped banana as a dessert. Within the first hour, we came across 3 tarantulas, which was a pretty scary sighting to see at night! After dinner, and with our long day of driving around, we all went to our lodge and went to bed.