To start off day seven, and the official second half of the trip, we had french toast for breakfast. They also served juice and a fresh bowl of fruit like usual. French toast is my favorite breakfast, so I was very excited when I saw it. Immediately after breakfast we went on a river hike. It was actually more of a stream. We drove a couple minutes down the road and entered off the side. The first couple minutes we were walking through the forest until we hit the stream. We immediately plopped in and started walking upstream. 

It was such a surreal experience, and I can now say it has been my favorite part of the trip so far. The greenery and vines just took over everything except for the water. There were so many colorful plants and mosses everywhere. The banks were covered in red clay and at some points the water was up to my chest. Skip said there weren’t really snakes where we were because they prefer the bigger rivers. However, we did see a few spiders. Our first stop in the trek was a cave like hole in a wall of rock. There was a waterfall behind it that filled a pool in it and then it fell out down the wall. The pool when you got up there was an undetermined depth because no one could touch the bottom to find out. However, there were ledges of rock you could stand on. To get into it Skip and Gavin had to lift everyone up. Everyone came back down with lots of scratches and scrapes but it was well worth it for how cool it was in there. 

After everyone came down, we continued our walk until we hit our next stop. Our next stop was a short stretch with high walls that we had to swim through because it was so deep. It was really cool because there were bats flying above us while we were swimming. We also had the choice to hike around but I don’t think anyone decided to do that. We kept walking and the cool water felt so nice since it was pretty hot out. We made it to a big waterfall and took a few photos I front of it before we kept moving. Our next stop was a small ledge that led to a deep section of stream. Matt tied a rock to a vine, and we estimated it was about fifteen feet deep in that area. I jumped off the ledge a couple times and so did everyone else. It was so much fun. Again, we kept walking until we reached a smaller waterfall where we took even more photos. 

Finally, we made it to the section of the stream that was like a waterhole with a small little waterfall. Next to the waterfall there were a few small rocks you could jump off so after I explored for a few minutes, I jumped off and decided to join everyone playing with wild clay. There was purple, orange, and white clay. Everyone was painting their faces and some even treated it as a spa day and covered their entire body. After we were all done messing around, we started walking out of the forest and back to the main road. The truck picked us up and we headed back to the lodge. We were gone for a few hours, and I think someone said the walk was about three to four miles. 

All of us were really muddy and soaking wet still so I got into the shower to rinse off before going to the hammocks to write more of my blog. I was so tired though and the hammocks were so comfy that about ten minutes in I fell asleep. I woke up just in time for our next chocolate tasting. The brand was Kallari and this time they came to us. We tried flavors like almond, passion fruit, and plain 100% cacao. They also brought other brands of chocolate to compare how they taste. They brought cocoa powder for us to try and compare as well. They had other flavors like coffee, banana, orange, and vanilla. I bought a couple bars and afterward decided to take a dip in the pool for a little bit before dinner. Our last dinner before going to the Waorani was potatoes, carrots, and beef with gravy. Per usual there was also salad and that night we also got desert again. It was bananas with dark chocolate sauce which was the same as last time. 

After dinner Skip did a presentation on the biology of chocolate. We only got so far through it before his computer died though. After the presentation I decided to call it an early night and pack up my things for the Waorani, shower, and go to bed.