For four days and three nights, I sacrificed modern conveniences for cold showers and candlelight in order to experience life in the Amazon Rainforest. To be fair, in the heat and humidity, cold showers were hardly a sacrifice. But I did have to sleep under a mosquito net and once woke up to the sound of a mouse (probably rat, but I prefer to think mouse) chewing through my friend Nora´s backpack. A few days of roughin´ it were more than worth the experience, though.
One of my favorite pastimes is shopping. Especially when the average cost for items is jaw-droppingly low and bargaining is encouraged. A two-hour bumpy bus ride from Ecuador´s capital and I was in heaven. Otavalo is home to South America´s largest market.
I woke up to roosters´ crowing before sunrise last week. I looked out my log cabin window to see clouds rolling in so thick I could touch their mist. It was time to get up. Juana the Cow needed to be milked.
As a kid, I remember chasing butterflies and trying to capture them in the fleeting moments that one flew by. It was of course an impossible feat. But at a butterfly farm in Mindo, Ecuador, dozens of the winged-beauties landed right on me.
Like every other girl who´s watched A Walk to Remember, I´ve wanted to be in two places at once for ages. I never imagined that I´d check that off my bucket list by standing in two hemispheres.
For two days, a local Ecuadorian family hosted our private tour of the cloud forest and surrounding rural cities. We went to the Equator, ziplined through the canopy, visited a butterfly farm, saw an artisinal chocolate-making production, hiked through calf-deep mud to a waterfall, milked a cow and spent the night in a cabin without electricity. But even better than the slew of thrilling activities was getting to know a local couple and their adorable youngest daughter.
I walked across the Colombian-Ecuadorian border a few days ago, and have been enjoying my time in Ecuador´s capital city, Quito, since. So far, I am completely in love with this country, and the best has yet to come.
