Hey everyone! This is my last blog post for Plus3 Ecuador, which is crazy because I feel like I just started this journey. This post is going to be a little shorter than usual as we didn’t do much the last 3 days, but it was a nice break from our jam-packed days that we have become accustomed to.
On Wednesday (Day 12), I woke up around 7:30am even though I was still tired after our long canoe ride back to the lodge. We had a good breakfast and then we immediately headed over to a separate area to finally paint our ceramics from the other day. It was very hard trying to identify which one belonged to who, and I ended up only being able to paint two because the third one that I made seemed to disappear. The painting process was a lot harder than I expected as we used human hair as our brush and tied it to a toothpick type stick. I could barely control which way the brush went, so I accepted my fate to see how it turned out. After painting, I went back to my room, rested a little bit, worked on a blog post, and started thinking about what I was going to do for my final group presentation that was taking place Thursday. We didn’t have a lot of time to work on it throughout the trip, so everyone had to work fast and put together a good presentation in a timely manner. We had lunch, and I meant with my group, and we decided to present as consultants for a rose farm that we visited on our trip called Ecuaroscanada. We worked for about an hour or so and then we got ready to start heading to the town Misahualli. We traveled by “boat” (more like a canoe with seats), and we arrived after 20 minutes. This town is known for being run by monkeys and luckily, we got to see a few out and about. I did some shopping with some friends while the rest of the group decided to grab a snack at a pizza place. The night ended with us having dinner, and my group meant again to finish up our presentation.
On Thursday (Day 13), I woke up for breakfast around 8:30, and I must have been very tired because that was my first time getting to breakfast later than everyone else. For me, this day was all about practicing for my presentation and resting for the long travel day taking place on Friday. I practiced presenting a few times by myself, and after lunch, my group and I meant and went through it a couple of times. Our practice went well, and we were feeling confident to present at 5:00. I rested some more, did my presentation, and then our professor showed our Ad videos that we had made with a partner. Our group along with some of the workers at the lodge got to vote on their favorite one, and unfortunately mine was not a winner but it at least got 1 vote (LOL). Following that, I went back to my room, packed up my belongings, and then headed back over for dinner. I finished packing which was a good thing because we were visiting another town in the surrounding area to explore and have a good closing to our trip. While I was there, I got an Oreo shake that I had been craving since leaving Miami, and when we got back, I fell asleep immediately.
On Friday (Day 14), I woke up at 8am, finished some last-minute packing, doubled checked that I wasn’t leaving anything, and took my suitcases to the bus that was taking us to the airport. We had breakfast at 8:30, and it was French toast which was a nice surprise! This was going to be a long day as we were leaving around 10am, and our flight didn’t leave until midnight. I was sad to leave, but I think I underestimated how long our two-week trip actually was. Our first stop on our travels was a cloud forest that had the most beautiful views. We were supposed to stop at this place a week ago, but we weren’t able to because it was dark out. During our stop, we went on a mini hike, and it was lowkey kind of a workout. We boarded the bus again and had another stop in an hour, which turned out to be a hummingbird sanctuary called La Brisa. We had lunch there, and the owner of the place put a feeder on our hands, and we got to experience what it was like for a hummingbird to land on us. We also were taken to a cool waterfall that wasn’t too far from the property, which was a nice break from being on the bus. We drove for another hour and stopped at a rest stop where we loaded up on snacks and ate chicken empanadas. More hours went by, and we stopped at our final spot, Polylepis, where we got to see endangered trees and alphas. It was hard to enjoy though because it was very cold, and I was wearing shorts. We finally made it to the airport around 7pm, and a group of us got KFC for dinner. At 8:45, we checked our bags, went through customs and security, and then relaxed before our flight. During the flight, I had an aisle seat, and I started passing the time by watching the newest Hunger Games movie, but I didn’t have the energy to pay attention, so I closed my eyes instead.
Currently, I am writing this at the Philadephia International Airport where I had one of the best flights I have ever experienced. The plane had three seat sections, no one was next to me, and it was under half way full. We have a layover in Philly for 4 hours and we are going to start boarding around 1:51, making us arrive to Pittsburgh around 3:30.
Thank you all so much for following along on my Ecuador adventures over the last couple of weeks. These memories will last a lifetime and I’m so grateful that I have been able to cross off a bucket list item (visiting the Amazon Rainforest) so early on in my life. This country has truly been beautiful, and I couldn’t have asked for a better place for my first real trip abroad. The country that I most likely will be visiting next is Florence, Italy over spring break and then I plan to stay in Sydney, Australia during my spring 2027 semester. I have always wanted to travel, and this trip has fueled my passion even more.
