The day is May 16th, 2025, and the mom lore in 30 years has already exceeded expectations. On this day, I started my day by walking out onto the balcony and to my surprise, seeing a family of 6 monkeys jumping around in the trees. This lodge was much less scary in the morning, and I felt confident enough to walk to breakfast without checking over my shoulders every three seconds. We had breakfast overlooking the Napo River, who gets to say they’ve done that? Oh, wait, this trip does. I’m totally going to brag about this; it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
After our lovely breakfast, we tried out some ceramics! Emphasis on the “tried”, the woman next to me took my bowl and made it much nicer and sturdier. Ceramics was followed by butterfly hunting, where we ended up finding a stick bug! The bug hunting aspect of the trip has been one of my favorites as it leads to the best section of any day, Skip Facts. Advisor Skip Glenn and his wide spread of
knowledge have served as a fascinating source of information on this trip. You could ask him about any bug or plant and he will list at least 25 facts about one aspect of it. Rich in experience that man is. Before his presentation, me and a few others went down to the Napo River and skipped some rocks before getting pelted by downpouring rain. It looked beautiful down there, and the rain felt great on my skin. We then listened to Skip give his presentation on all things chocolate and headed out to the lodge owner’s cocoa area, where we cut down and ate
the flemmy pod that surrounded the cacao bean. It was quite nice! It tasted like dry freezed mangos.
That night, we played pool and had a lovely bonded experience. The crew sat up in each other’s rooms and yapped the night away. Community was growing inside the community, we all began feeling like family. We begrudgingly bade our farewells and headed to bed in preparation for our busy day the next day.
May 17th, 2025. The day that will make me the most annoying person in history. The stories that were conjured during this day will be the only things I will ever be able to talk about for the rest of my life. We did a river hike for over an hour, trekking through water, mud, and leaves like there was no tomorrow. It looked like something straight out of a movie. It was beautiful. Good pal Mark and Skip hoisted me and a few other girls (Alexa, Emi, and Ava) in a little cave that a waterfall was coming out of. It was so violently cool. We continued moving forward until we got to a spot where we could swim freely in. We took turns jumping into the water from up above and seeing who could make the biggest splash. Unfortunately, there is not enough words in the English language to describe the feeling or the scenes that i was wrapped up in. It is just something you had to be there for and I am so happy I was.
I slept like an absolute baby after that. I was beat. That night, I was greeted by my old familiar friend, torrential downpour. The rain kissed the roof, and off I drifted into my sleep feeling safe and sound.