17
Location: Andes
Waking up to the breathtaking views of the Andean landscape is something that none of us will ever forget. At breakfast, everyone was ecstatic for the upcoming day. We were again split into two groups – one group going on a horseback ride while the other group did community service. I was in the horseback riding group. We all had to wait in anticipation for an hour as the horses were delayed, but once they arrive, we chose out horses for the journey ahead and headed out into the Andean mountains. Our first leg of the horseback ride was very enjoyable for most of us. One of the boys managed to fall off his horse and ended up with some scrapes, but nothing too bad. At the front of the pack, we raced our horses, which was a lot of fun. The views throughout the horseback ride were spectacular, however, none of the views compared to the view of the cloud forest. This is the location that was chosen for lunch, and everyone needed this time to recharge after the long, bumpy ride. After lunch, our guide led us on a short walk through the forest as he talked to us about the surrounding enjoyable, but everyone was starting to ache by this point. When we got back to the Ecolodge, we had a few hours of free time before dinner. The expectations for dinner were not that high as it was going to be vegetarian, however, we were all pleasantly surprised as it was delicious.