Puenting, Swinging, and a flaming Bob Marley Shot

This is my first time getting wifi since I left for Río Topo with my tropical ecology class! 

I am currently in Baños for the weekend. We stayed here after our field trip. Our excursion to Rio Topo was amazing. We stayed at this little fairytale resort. I wish that I lived there permanently, or could design my own house after it! It was very magical. 

We did a lot of hiking on the trip. We hiked up to part of the cloud forest to take measurements on rainfall, temperature, and soil saturation. Then, we had to put together a presentation. Sci writing finally came in handy as we uploaded, analyzed, and graphed our data. It was fascinating, and our data made a lot of sense, but it was pretty miserable to be literally in a cloud for 4+ hours. It's not very Mary Poppins, but more pouring rain. My class is really cool, but I've definitely ruled out Tropical Ecologist as a career choice.

The next day we went on a long and beautiful hike to this pond. It took us about 2 hours to get there because it was so muddy and the path was so little and covered with foliage! However, the view at the pond was worth it. It was freezing! I was not one of the brave souls that completely immersed myself in the water.

We are in Baños now, and I'm writing this before I go to bed. We went to a discoteca tonight, which was so much fun!! I love to dance, and it was great to let loose after a week of class. At this particular discoteca, they have a famous shot called the flaming Bob Marley shot. Since we were gringos, they gave us them for free! I am not a big shot person, but we had to do these. When in Ecuador, right? It was mostly orange juice, with some grenadine, and blue gin added in. The different densities separate to yield layers of red, green, and yellow. (I just had a flash of PTSD to writing up orgo lab reports) Then, they light the entire thing on fire! I was so confused as to how to drink it without setting myself on fire. You have to stick a straw in it and drink it before the straw melts. Very confusing, but fun at the same time! We bar hopped around on the main street Baños, and  had tons of fun. Being a gringita definitely has its privileges! 

Tomorrow, we are puenting, which is similar to bungee jumping off a bridge, and going to Casa del Arbol, which is a famous swing and treehouse that looks like it's hanging off the end of the world. 

Adios!