We have now been on our trip for almost an entire week. It has been going by very fast, but we are still having a lot of fun. We went to Cayambe, which is a lake inside an old volcanic crater, and we got a boat tour of it. The views were amazing, and they got even better when we started our hike around the lake. It was so cool to see the lake from the mountains surrounding it. I would have loved to hike all the way around the lake, but we had limited time. When we started the hike, there was a dog that followed us on the trail and stayed with us for the entire hike. It was so funny. After Cayambe, we made a quick stop to see a nearby waterfall. Next, we made our way to the Condor park. It was a crazy drive there because the bus driver made a wrong turn, and then we had to go up a very small and windy road. We finally made it there and saw owls, eagles, a condor, and many other cool birds. After exploring all that the Condor park had to offer, we headed back to Otavalo for our last night there before we traveled to Iyarina in the morning.

The next day, we had breakfast and then got on the road. We had some stops along the way before we got to the Iyarina. Our first stop was at the Equator. We pulled out our phones, and they showed that we were at 0° latitude. After this quick stop, we headed to the highest elevation we would reach on our trip, which was around 13,300 feet. We got off the bus and went for a little walk down the road to see all the mountains around us. Now we were headed into the jungle. We made our last stop at the cloud forest, where we went for a little hike in the pouring rain. It was really cool because when you looked down the mountain, all you could see were clouds. After getting soaked on our hike, we got back on the bus. After about 2 hours of singing and blasting music on the bus, we made it to the Iyarina. We unpacked our stuff and then had a really good dinner. After dinner, Gavin, Matt, and I walked around looking at all the plants and insects around us. We ran into one of the indigenous people here, and she gave us a little tour, which was very cool. After that, we went to sleep.

The next morning, we had breakfast and then started making our pots. One of the indigenous women, who had been making pots for a very long time, helped us make ours. We finished shaping them, and now they are drying. Next, we swam in the river for a little while and then had lunch. After lunch, we went down the road to harvest some cacao beans. When we came back, we relaxed for a little bit.