Tiputini

First, I just took an epic Art History exam in which I attempted to memorize 60 pieces of artwork/churches, the painter, place and the date.  There were only 2 of the 60 on the exam, but we had no idea which ones would be there so we had to study all of them.  Good news, I recognized both, and remembered all of the relevant information! 

Onto more interesting things.  This is the real post to Tiputini.  It was quite the adventure.
We left Lumbisi at 6:30am by taxi on Friday morning.  We took two taxis, the taxi that I was not in ran out of gas in the middle of the highway.  Here the fun begins.

First, the airport security in Quito for a national flight was very slack. I didn't need to provide any sort of identification.  I could bring liquids and keep my shoes on through security.  The plane ride was 30 minutes.  Then we took a bus for 15-20 minutes to our boat.  The boat ride was almost 2 hours.  Then we took a Chiva which is an old bus that does not have windows or doors, open air!  About 2 hours later we arrived and took another 2 hour boat ride on the Tiputini River (It's a tribute to the Amazon River).  Finally we arrived at the biodiversity station.  Throughout the boat/bus ride(s) everyone found creative ways to sleep.

We stayed in cabins with four people each and one bathroom.  There were 9 girls on my program and in a series of events I ended up being the 9th, so I roomed with 3 girls from North Carolina.  I almost roomed with 3 boys from North Carolina, so it could have been worse.  The 16 students who were at Tiputini had to split up into groups of 8, and I ended up going with North Carolina folks.  I enjoyed making new friends, but at the time it was a little awkward not being with people from my program.  Flexibility is part of being abroad and life in general. 

Outing number 1: Our group took a boat to a lake.  Then we all crowded into a tiny canoe to go around the lake. It was a bad decision, so half of us got out and we took two trips.  We saw many species of birds.  Afterward, we walked back to the station.  Along the way I ate some (3) ants.  They were special ants that live in a type of bush.  They had a nice limey taste.  We saw several species of monkeys, a large centipede (that our guide picked up), a large spider, and many trees/ vegetation. 

Outing number 2: The watch tower.  It was 45 meters tall.  We climbed a metal stair structure and hung out on a wooden platform for about an hour. We saw macaws, toucans, hummingbirds, and monkeys.  On our walk back we saw pocket sized monkeys.  Josue asked me why I didn't bring one home, and I told him that I'm a slow tree climber, the monkey escaped me.

Outing number 3: The canopy walkway.  The walkway consisted of hanging bridges above the trees, about the same height as the watch tower.  We had harnesses in case the bridge broke... amazing views.  We also climbed a ladder up 10 more meters and sat on a tiny one person wooden platform. 

Outing number 4: Boat ride and swimming/floating down the Tiputini river.  It was incredible, and incredibly cold.  Also, swimming against the current to get back into the boat was very difficult. 

Overall, a really cool trip.  Now I can say that I've traveled to the three main regions of Ecuador: the coast, the sierra, and the amazon.  We went home the same way that we came.  The taxi drivers wanted to charge us $15 to get back to Lumbisi (we paid $10 to get to the airport).  But we've been in Ecuador long enough so we bartered it down to $12. 

This week has been crazy busy for my classes.  Hopefully things will slow down a little bit.  Wishful thinking perhaps, since I already have plans to go to the beach this weekend for Carnaval (remember the water balloon festivity?)  It should be fun though!  I'll work on posting pictures soon :)