"There is more to life than increasing its speed": Mindo Weekend

Well this weekend was one different from the past month. After eating lunch on Friday at Rusty's (a hamburger place outside of campus, opened by an American) 7 of us girls headed to an amazing ice cream place by my house. It was my second time and the rest of the girls first time, we will be back. After that it was just a hop, skip and a hike to my house. It was still sunny so Lauren, Willow, and I got some tanning done in the park. After heading inside and discovering my dinner looked less than appetizing we all headed to a cute coffee shop for sandwiches and coffee drinks (even though I don't like coffee it was great!). Willow then walked home and Lauren and I waited and packed up for the weekend until 7:30 when Anne, Cris, and Richard picked us up to drive to Mindo for the weekend.

It was about an hour drive to Mindo and as we rolled into town on the main street there were NO lights and just a few places still open with candle light. Uh o... did this town not believe in electric? get me out now. Turns out that a tree had fallen in the forest (did it make a noise?) and knocked out a power line, power would be back on tomorrow. So now we had to find a hostel to stay at, we checked a few places before we found this SUPER cute hostel, or it looked pretty cute in the dark, for only $12 a night per person- including breakfast and a pool. After we settled our sleeping and living conditions we headed out for dinner and found one place with electricity. Here we got simple sandwiches that look about 30 min to serve us. By this time it was about 11, and being Richard's birthday the next day, we surprised him with a cake and midnight then we all went to bed.

Saturday we got up early, ate, and headed out to view some waterfalls. We took a basket zip-line over to where we would start our hike. Yup, even after I swore off hiking I was at it again. Although it was WELL worth it. We chose the path with 5 waterfalls. It took awhile to get to the first one but the rest came soon after that. Out of the 5, we could swim in 2. The first swim-able waterfall was amazing. We got to walk/climb/crawl up the strong river current to the waterfall and fight the water as we tried to touch it. After some falling and swimsuit mishaps we headed off to the next. The second swim-able waterfall was much smaller but just as strong as the other, or so we would find out. Since it was smaller we though maybe we could stand under it. Being that water is my thing I took the lead, walking closer and closer then BAM I lost my footing because the ground dropped off and I was suddenly under the waterfall not being able to touch. So basically I started drowning and all I could do was hit the bottom, push off, and get pushed back down again by the force of the waterfall. Some how I got out coughing and spitting up water but still in once piece. Anne then decided it was a good idea to test out what I just did too, only twice. She too experienced the same results. Lauren then got very mad, 1. because we told her to "just try it" and 2. she didn't want to be left behind to explain what happened to us to our parents. After just seeing our lives flash before our eyes and the water being freezing we headed back up the trail, across the way in the zip-line basket, and to the car. After the waterfalls we went to a chocolate factory, met up with the other SNC girls, and learned about the chocolate process, and even got to sample some! We were all pretty tired so we napped, showered, and got ready to celebrate Richards birthday. We headed out to dinner then to a quiet bar for about 2 hours. Us 3 girls headed home after that and Cris and Richard went dancing. Walking home I found a dollar on the ground, SCORE, and we also thought this man was following us but turns out he lived on the same road our hostel was on. Anne, Lauren, and I sat up and talked for awhile until we discovered a live cockroach in the room. Lauren is apparently deadly afraid of bugs, which I did not know, so I laughed a little as she freaked out and said she was "just going to pack my things and go". After Anne spent awhile watching the thing and trying to get it in a good position to kill it I started to help out. After a good 15 min we killed it and the peace was restored.

On Sunday morning we went tubing down a freezing river filled with rapids. Being so scared and so cold, it was a great time. After the tubing, drying off, and changing we headed back to Quito. I finished some homework I had been putting off then went to bed.

Today class was boring as usual but now that there is only 17 days until we head back to the U S of A everything is coming to an end. We have about 2 big trips planned and then some smaller ones. I have 5 finals and a paper left and that's about it. I've been thinking about packing up my things and I get more and more excited for home everyday, but also each day I feel a little sad to leave all these things I've become used to.