There was an optional bird watching walk at 6, but most people woke up at 7 and had breakfast by the pool at 7 30. We had to dress comfortably to hike through the forest. Lots of bug spray! The hike was at the National Podocarpus Park. It was a secondary forest so there was a path to walk on. We stopped at a building to sign in and learn about the park. Then we kept hiking and reached a beautiful waterfall. It was so big and the Liceo students even jumped in. We hiked back to the bus quickly because we were running late to see a wildlife animal preserve. There were parrots, turtles, snakes, monkeys, sloths, and other animals. Matt, Julia, and Stephanie held the turtles. We learned that male turtles have curved stomachs and females have flat stomachs. There was a huge boa constrictor. She was pregnant and shedding a lot of skin. We learned that she only eats three times a month. There were 2 types of monkeys; carnivores and herbivores. The carnivores were very feisty. They tried to yank Matt's finger through the cage! At the end of the tour we saw a wiesel. He was 4 months old and very adventurous. He got many tours on the backs of Stephanie, Julia, and Mr. Garcia. After the wildlife animal refuge we drove back to the hostel for a quick lunch of frog legs and full talapia with eyes and all! We had to skin it and pull the bones out too. This wasn't everyone's cup of tea. We packed up and went for a 2 and 1/2 hour car ride back to Loja. We had a few stops on the road to make calls to another hotel because our original one gave our rooms away accidentally! We had about 2 hours to freshen up and get ready for our big farewell dinner with the Liceo families. There were many thoughtful and heartfelt presentations about this whole experience.Some Liceo students even sang songs! They all gave us gifts about Ecuador to help us remember our experiences. We saw a slide show of a few pictures from the whole trip. We were given many gifts about friendship and how the trip will always be in our hearts. One Liceo student, Maksim, made homemade jello with an edible Liceo logo on it! We had rice and chicken with vegetables and potatoes. Some sauce didn't go down too well with Matt and left early to go to the hotel and get medicine; but he is all right now. Then it was time for the students to teach us how to dance! We learned to salsa and move our feet. This was a great bonding experience for all of us and we really got to know the kids better. After that, it was so hard to say goodbye; it felt like we just met. There were many tears back at the hotel but we realized how far we had come from the beginning of the trip.
Here are 3 thinks of the Liceo school website and 2 articles about the Pingry students visit.
http://liceodeloja.org/content/
http://liceodeloja.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17:12-alumnos-estadounidenses-comparten-experiencias&catid=5:noticias&Itemid=5
http://www.lahora.com.ec/index.php/noticias/show/1101109917/-1/12+alumnos+estadounidenses+comparten+experiencias.html
Blogged by Jonathan and Julia :D
matt hope your ok were all thinking about you
ReplyDelete