It's been super busy lately, so I haven't had a chance to write. Now that I have a bit of free time, I'm going to recount our trip to the cloud forest. On Wednesday, all the GAIAS students arrived at the university and piled onto two buses. Then, we traveled for around 2 hours to reach Maquipucuna. This included a half-hour trip up a mountain on a poorly maintained dirt road, on a bus. Yeah, that was painful. Anyway, the ecolodge is gorgeous. The first thing I noticed about the place was that there were birds everywhere! They've hung hummingbird feeders around the dining area, so there are always several species of those buzzing about. For the most part, we hiked during our two day stay there. We went on a late morning hike once we got there, an afternoon hike, a night hike (which was cool, we saw bats), an early morning hike, and another late morning hike. We saw all sorts of birds. Our guide, Andres, used to work at Maquipucuna, as well as at Tiputini (in the rainforest), so he knows a lot about the area. We saw a coocoo (probably spelling that wrong, but that's how it sounds), woodpecker, many types of tanegers, lots of coloful (blue, green, orange, yellow, red) birds that I can't remember the names of, a toucan, kite, etc... It was great, and the area was also amazing. Our longest hike (which was supposed to be a 2.5 to 3 hour trek to a waterfall) ended up being about an hour and a half. Did not much enjoy the end of that one (my feet tried to kill me). Then, we reached the river and the beautiful waterfall and got to swim and fool around there for a while, so it was all okay. We also climbed up into a crevice behind the waterfall (all ten of us), so that was cool. While we were there, we drank some of the water (probably not a good idea, but it tasted delicious and we're all still alive and well so far). The water was freezing cold, but it felt good so long as we didn't spend too long in it. The trail we walked along was apparently a trail used by the Incas to transport things between the Quito area and the coast. It was not a claustrophobia-friendly trail. The dirt is piled up on both sides of it in places so you can barely fit through. It was a fun hike, though. Before we left Maquipucuna, we also walked down the road a bit and swam in the river. Erick and I climbed up a waterfall (not a very steep one) while we were there. I have cuts and bruises all over my legs from it. :) I was sad to leave the cloud forest, especially since we got back and had to attempt to study. Our final exam for our first class was Friday.
It's been super busy lately, so I haven't had a chance to write. Now that I have a bit of free time, I'm going to recount our trip to the cloud forest. On Wednesday, all the GAIAS students arrived at the university and piled onto two buses. Then, we traveled for around 2 hours to reach Maquipucuna. This included a half-hour trip up a mountain on a poorly maintained dirt road, on a bus. Yeah, that was painful. Anyway, the ecolodge is gorgeous. The first thing I noticed about the place was that there were birds everywhere! They've hung hummingbird feeders around the dining area, so there are always several species of those buzzing about. For the most part, we hiked during our two day stay there. We went on a late morning hike once we got there, an afternoon hike, a night hike (which was cool, we saw bats), an early morning hike, and another late morning hike. We saw all sorts of birds. Our guide, Andres, used to work at Maquipucuna, as well as at Tiputini (in the rainforest), so he knows a lot about the area. We saw a coocoo (probably spelling that wrong, but that's how it sounds), woodpecker, many types of tanegers, lots of coloful (blue, green, orange, yellow, red) birds that I can't remember the names of, a toucan, kite, etc... It was great, and the area was also amazing. Our longest hike (which was supposed to be a 2.5 to 3 hour trek to a waterfall) ended up being about an hour and a half. Did not much enjoy the end of that one (my feet tried to kill me). Then, we reached the river and the beautiful waterfall and got to swim and fool around there for a while, so it was all okay. We also climbed up into a crevice behind the waterfall (all ten of us), so that was cool. While we were there, we drank some of the water (probably not a good idea, but it tasted delicious and we're all still alive and well so far). The water was freezing cold, but it felt good so long as we didn't spend too long in it. The trail we walked along was apparently a trail used by the Incas to transport things between the Quito area and the coast. It was not a claustrophobia-friendly trail. The dirt is piled up on both sides of it in places so you can barely fit through. It was a fun hike, though. Before we left Maquipucuna, we also walked down the road a bit and swam in the river. Erick and I climbed up a waterfall (not a very steep one) while we were there. I have cuts and bruises all over my legs from it. :) I was sad to leave the cloud forest, especially since we got back and had to attempt to study. Our final exam for our first class was Friday. 
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