Day 11

After another amazing breakfast from the people of the lodge, we went to paint our pots that we sculpted earlier in the trip. They were finally done firing. we needed someone’s hair for our brushes, so our group chose Sherly for the hair person. With Sherly’s hair, we proceeded to wrap it around a toothpick to what would make our paintbrush. After making my toothbrush, we used white and black clay for our paint. I decided to go with a sea pattern for mine with sharks and turtles. With painting completed, my group, which consisted of Sherly, Maddie, Kayhaan, and me, began to work on our final presentation on chocolate. we decided to be a consulting group for Bios Chocolate. After working on our presentation, we had lunch and had a boat ride to the town of Misahualli. The town was filled with monkeys and shops. it was a good experience to relax at the end of the day. after walking around for a bit and some people getting food, we went back to the lodge for dinner and to relax on the Hammocks for the rest of the night.

Day 12

This day was not filled with too much. Compared to earlier in the trip, we only had our presentations to do. My group and I did some last-minute fix-ups along with some run-throughs of the presentations. After lunch, I packed up my suitcase and relaxed until it was time for our presentations at 5. Our group went third, and I believe we did a really good job with it. After the presentations, we showed our minute-long ads we made for people to come to Ecuador. My team got third. After all the work was done, we all ate dinner and got ready to go out into town to relax. My group went and got shawarma while the other group was in the mood for milkshakes. After we were all tired and our bellies were full, we went back to the lodge for the last night.

Day 13

This morning was bittersweet. It was hard saying goodbye to all of the nice people at the lodge. After breakfast, we all packed up into the bus and we were off to the airport. But before the airport, we made a few stops. Our first stop was in the cloud forest, where, as the name implies, we were in the cloud. The ground was very muddy and slippery for people, but I found it not too bad. After taking a small hike, we got back onto the bus for our next destination, the Hummingbird exhibit. You could hear the Hummingbirds flying by you like fighting jets. They were all so fast and so interesting. We had the opportunity to feed them by hand, and it was one of my favorites of the trip. We decided to eat lunch here and relax while looking at the birds. After watching the hummingbirds fly by us, we decided to get back onto the road. Our next stop was a small market where some of us got some more food and ice cream before we got back onto the road again. We took one final stop before the airport at a high-altitude place with a trout pond you could fish if you want. After that, we made our way to the airport and waited for our flights. This trip was something I will never forget and will always cherish.