¡Hola! Today was a much-needed rest day after our long travel day yesterday. I woke up for breakfast at 8am to oatmeal, fruit, coffee, and a doughy bread that almost resembled a homemade donut without all the sugar. After eating, we went straight into our pottery painting to finish up our creations. So far, my pot has made it, but we are still waiting to see how it goes after the fire and the last few steps. Since we did not have access to paintbrushes, someone had to volunteer to have their hair cut by the woman. I volunteered myself and had my first ever international haircut! (It was just one piece of hair cut off) With my hair, we cut it into smaller pieces and tied it around toothpicks to make thin and thick shaped paintbrushes which was funny to see everyone using my hair to paint their pots. I tried to paint my pot simple since I am not the most artistic person, and I enjoyed seeing everyone else’s shapes and unique designs.

Now that we are getting to the end of our trip, we have to begin working on our video and final project presentations with our groups. My group includes Mark, Shirley, and Kayhaan. We are focusing our project on the supply chain of chocolate and the cost efficiency of Bios Chocolate, the factory we visited last week. I am excited to share our ideas with the group and everything I have learned throughout our (almost) two weeks spent here.

After working on our project, we had lunch, which was my favorite meal yet! We had stuffed peppers, rice, and an avocado salad with watermelon. Eating a stuffed pepper reminded me of home and made me miss both my parents’ home-cooked meals. However, I know I will be home in a few days and am taking these next few days all in because I will be forever grateful to have had the opportunity to visit such a beautiful country.

It started to rain, but we all wanted to go to a small town one last time before dialing in on our projects and packing to go home. We went into a much bigger boat with seats, and went twenty minutes down the river to Misahuallí. This small town had shops, restaurants, and best of all, monkeys everywhere! We spent two hours walking around, shopping, looking at the monkeys, and ending it at a pizza shop before heading back onto the boats. The monkeys were on trees, poles, houses, and even restaurants. We couldn’t get too close to them for safety reasons but it was amazing to see them as close up as we did. Afterward, we left to take the boat back before it was dark outside.

The river ride back was rocky and against the current, but the view back was amazing because the clouds were so low and the sunset was pretty. After getting back, I packed up a few more things to make packing tomorrow a little bit easier and started to get ready for dinner.

Dinner tonight was another taco night with a pea soup. The pea soup was served plain and had popcorn that we had to put into it, which was oddly good and something I would want to eat again. After dinner, I went back to the hammocks for a little bit before heading back to my dorm for an early night in.