spring break, finally!

I say this jokingly because really, this entire semester has been one, long "spring break." But, we do get an actual spring break here too! It started on Wednesday afternoon and lasts until next Monday morning.

We started off the break right with a day trip to go whitewater rafting about 3 hours away from Quito. We rafted down the Lower Río Blanco, which were Class III rapids and totally different from rapids in the U.S.! Here, the rapids are like huge waves that you go up and down. I considered it more fun and maybe a little less dangerous because the rapids weren't surrounded by huge rocks here like they are in the States. It was also, of course, different because the directions were yelled at us in Spanish ("Adelante!"). It was super fun, and I got to take one more step toward crossing my "Raft a river on every continent" goal off of my bucket list!

Before we left shore!

We spent the weekend at the beach, of course. My friends Alice Ann and Shannon and I decided last minute to take a trip to Canoa, which you know by now is a beach that we love. After admitting to my host parents that I was once again leaving the house to go to the beach (Me: "Y mañana me voy..." My dad: "Oh, ya te vas? Qué raro!"), we got on a night bus to go (back) to our favorite beach. And this is where the adventure began...an adventure that I have to take another blog post to explain.

Anyway, we arrived in Canoa at 4:30pm on Friday (note: we left Quito at 11:00pm on Thursday, you must read the next blog post to find out why) and immediately changed into our swimsuits and ran into the ocean. The room we had asked our friends to save at our hostel had been taken, but we found some empty mattresses and figured we could crash wherever in the hostel. It was three of our friends' birthdays that night, so we celebrated at the hostel and then at a party at one of their houses. Saturday was spent soaking up all the sun we could, drinking Oreo batidos, walking along the beach, and hanging out with the friends we've made the past two times we've been. Saturday night, there was a reggae band that played in the hostel, so a ton of people came out for that. Because we had arrived so late in Canoa, the bus tickets for Sunday night (when we would normally leave) were sold out, and we had to scrounge all of our resources to find a way back. Luckily, Alice Ann's host dad lives in Tosagua, a town about 2 1/2 hours away, and he was able to buy us bus tickets back to Quito from there. So, Sunday afternoon, after even more sunbathing and Oreo-milkshake-drinking, we took a bus to San Vicente, taxi to Bahía, and bus to Tosagua, where we hung out with the dad until our bus left at 10pm.

*If you see my pictures on Facebook, the album title "tiki tan wata" comes from our friends trying to pronounce a surfing movie called "Thicker Than Water." Just FYI.

With Fabian, one of the cumpleañeros

We love Canoa & sunsets. And sunsets in Canoa.

Mentirosa, our friend's beach-loving dog

Hanging out on the porch with Sofía

Dinner at the Surf Shak

Now, after 27 hours of travel in the past 3 days, I'm now safely and soundly back in Quito!...until tomorrow, when I fly out to the Galápagos Islands!