Day 12 was very bittersweet since it was our last full-day but we also went on my favorite excursion of the entire trip to Isla de La Plata. It was an hour boat trip from Puerto Lopez and as a person who gets motion sickness, I was feeling nervous. But Dramamine really did the trick…
Tag: Isabella John
Swimming in the Pacific
Day 11 was the day I had been waiting for: beach day! We all had breakfast and then headed over to Machalilla National Park. We started by going on a short hike up to a lookout point where you could see the blue and beautiful Pacific Ocean. We also went to Playa Tortuga (Turtle Beach)….
Exploring around the Rio Napo
Day 8 was more of a relaxing day which was much needed. We got time to work on our final presentations and my group decided to create our own rose company called Kawsaypac. That night, we went on a night walk which was more like a bug hike. We had our flashlights and tried to…
Feeling Like a True Adventurer
This was the most action-packed and memorable day of the trip. On the morning of day 6, we met some of the people in the Waorani tribe which we would be visiting later and were all given Waorani names. Mine was “O-nai” which means flower. After that, we headed out on the canoes to I…
Canoeing in Rain or Shine
Before I finish and post the exciting rainforest blog, I wanted to dedicated one to days 5 and 7. They were both travel days but not by typical car, plane, or train: by canoe! We were on the canoe for about 5-6 hours on both days. Day 5 was a bright sun but perfect weather….
Hammocking in Tena
Day 4 we spent hanging around Iyarina Lodge. We took a short walk to a jungle filled with cacao pods and got to harvest them! We had to look for the pods that had a reddish-yellow color which meant that they were ready to be harvested. The entire inside is full of seeds covered in…
Hiking, Hot Springs, and Hummingbirds
On day 3, we left our hotel in Quito and drove to Parque Nacional Cayambe-Coca where we could see the Andes Mountains. It was pretty cold and drizzling so we all were bundled up in our raincoats. Luckily I wasn’t feeling any altitude sickness despite being 13,000 feet up. It definetly was harder to catch…
Llamas love carrots
It’s day 2 and we started by taking our bus to Cotopaxi, Ecuador. We had our first site visit at Jet Fresh Flower Growers, a boutique rose farm. They not only had adorable dogs running around but took us through acres of their different rose varieties. Unlike rose farms in Holland that have to rely…
Churches and Chocolate Tasting in Quito!
Today was our first full day in Ecuador and we got to explore its capital city Quito! After eating breakfast and leaving our hotel, we spent the morning at the church and museum of San Francisco or St. Francis. Since it’s Sunday, there was a service happening while we were at the church but we…
Ready to explore Ecuador!
Hi everyone! I’m Izzy John and in less than a month, I’ll be embarking on the Plus 3 trip to Ecuador! I’m a freshman planning to major in Business Information Systems and Global Management (with a concentration in Latin America) and a certificate in Data Analytics. On campus, I’m the publicity freshman chair for the…