11
Location: Quito
Today started with me accidentally waking my two roommates an hour early because of my failure to set my alarm back to a time in Quito from time in Galapagos. After apologizing for several times (SORRY Helen and Madeleine!), we lay back in bed until 5:30 when I had the fabulous job of waking everyone up way too early. After everyone had breakfast, we prepared for a three-hour bus ride to a river for white water rafting. Many of us slept on the bus to make sure we were ready and awake to battle the waves while others hung out, played games, and answering riddles. Down at the river, we split into three teams for three rafts and got the boats in the water after a safety briefing. Once in the water, we stopped at a waterfall for a picture and then we rode level three and four rapids 18 kilometers all the way to the end. All the while we had splash attacks on the other boats. My team even had the bravery to attempt to pirate another raft. There were areas along the way where we had the opportunity to swim and at one point, in the gentler area, we got out of the raft and swam the rapids. After returning to shore, we ate a surprise lunch prepared by our guides and changed into our dry clothes. We then got back on the bus and slept, read, played ‘never have I ever’ and just talked all the way (four hours) back to the hotel in Quito. By this time we were all exhausted, but we went to a restaurant for a quick dinner and returned to the hotel for a squeeze session. After squeeze, everyone returned to their rooms to pack and ready for another early wake-up. But this time, its to take a flight to the Amazon!