Well, after 24 hours of traveling home and a bit of procrastination, here we are at my final blog. Looking back on the trip, it honestly feels like a fever dream filled with surreal and unforgettable experiences. We gradually worked our way to the furthest point from society and reality, just to be right back in it again now. The trip has given me a completely new perspective of so many aspects of life.

Anyways, the last few days were our gradual climb back into reality. Once we returned to Iyarina, we had a relaxing night getting back to Wifi, cleaning up, unpacking, and heading to bed early.

We woke up the next day for breakfast, which was eggs and yuca, and then had some time before chocolate making. We had a guest come and teach us how to make chocolate. We grinded the beans down into powder, and then boiled it with water, sugar, and some different flavored leaves over the fire, and stirred until it was chocolate paste. He poured it out and we dipped strawberries and bananas into it. He then took some of the extra and made milk chocolate with it by putting milk and more sugar into it. We poured the chocolate onto a big leaf to dry and then headed back to our rooms to work on our video projects until we made pottery. Matt and I had a great time going through the photo circle and matching up the videos and images to our music. Afterwards, we headed to finish our pottery that we started last week. We painted them using homemade paint brushes (specifically with Malini’s hair). The paint was natural, with clay and rocks. There was some more chill time until dinner, which we headed out into town afterwards for some last fun to celebrate the trip.

Our last full day was officially upon us, in which we certainly fit in some fun. We headed out at 9:00 to another chocolate tasting/tour of a farm and fertilization of a brand. It was a great experience, and the people were so nice, however it was raining pretty hard, so we got soaked and a bit cold. I was excited when the chocolate tasting started up back inside. The farm itself was unique because they had all of these special plants that were morphs between two common plants. They had lemon-limes, among many other things, to prevent disease from spreading across the cacao if that was all that they had growing there. They also made these ice cream/popsicles with their cocoa, which were delicious (and a dollar). Afterwards, I took a nap before we shared our videos at 5:15. It was sentimental watching the videos, as the trip was replayed in front of us. We were all looking forward to the comfort of our beds at home at this point, but the sadness of leaving the group we became such good friends with had set in and leaving the place that we made so many fun memories. After the videos, we danced with another band that came in to play music for us, which was really nice and fun. We hit the pool for a bit after, and wrapped up the trip.

The next morning, we had a discussion with Eli about the possibility of Iyarina chocolate and then headed on our long journey home. It was truly a once in a lifetime trip. I couldn’t be happier with my decision to come to Ecuador for Plus3!