School work this semester has picked up a lot. I actually have a ton of reading and studying to do during the week... Im not sure what my teachers or thinking or why they are trying to mess up my vacation... I had enough of schoolwork by Wednesday of last week and decided that it was better for my mental health to skip classes on Thursday and go on vacation for the weekend. So on Wednesday night at 11 I boarded a double decker bus and set off on an exciting 9 hour ride to Peru! The bus was surprisingly comfortable... it even had reclining chairs. I realized it was a truly classy way of transportation when we were awoken at 1 in the morning and given complimentary snacks... a glass of coke and a bag of potato chips with your own personal serving size packet of mayonaise.

Going across the border between Ecuador and Peru was rather tedious. The bus stops in Ecuador before the border is crossed and you have to get your passport stamped and fill out some paperwork... Then we got back on the bus and traveled another 5 minutes or so before we had to get off again and wait in line to show our passports again. And then had to wait around while they went through all the bags that were stored under the bus. This all was happening at about 4 in the morning. I was less than amused. But I got my passport stamped to say that I have been to Peru!

We finally made it to Mancora Peru around 7 in the morning. Immediately after getting off the bus we were bombarded by city tour guides trying to talk us in to staying at their hostels. We were all still half asleep and vulnerable and ended up being talked in to staying at a little hostel a little out of the way that was probably the worst place I had ever stayed. It was only 20 soles, which is a little less than 8 bucks... but the room lacked adequate flooring and the bathroom was missing multiple tiles as well as a shower curtain. There was also no air conditioning, no fan, and the outside reception area was being used as a construction site and carpentry shop... which was far from amusing in the mornings.

We stayed there for a night or two and then switched hostels to on a friend recomended. The second hostel was a complete 180. It was only $9 a night and was hands down the nicest place I have stayed in South America. It was complete with a pool, themed parties, day time games and activities, volleyball net, beach access, free internet and computers, and private bathrooms! I thought I had gone to heaven!
Anyway, we passed the time in Mancora on the beach everyday, all day. The waves were perfect for swimming and the weather was sunny and beautiful! We met some cool locals as well as a bunch of people from France and Argentina!

There were a lot of backpackers that were traveling freely around South America for a few months at a time. And the food was amazing! We met a local lady that was selling the most delicious basil and tomato calzone-bread on the beach and had really fresh seafood every night. Not to mention everything was very cheap! Dinner usually didnt run more than 2 or 3 American dollars. The guy in the bright yellow dress walked around everyday dressed as a lady selling gum to people on the beach. Its a popular tactic around here to grab attention, not to mention a lot of people will buy the gum just for the entertainment value.
Theres not too much else to say about Mancora besides it was a great vacation from vacation and I didnt want to come home! The bus on the way back was definitely not the same level of quality... it lacked air conditioning and was full of screaming kids. We also were stopped at least 4 or 5 times and asked to  show documentation and passports by Ecuadorian police which was a little irksome after a while.
But Im now back home and safe from my Peruvian adventure. Although I am exhausted and have a huge pile of homework to catch up on... I am not looking forward to Monday...

This is a view of a Peruvian town from the bus window on the way back home.



We met some local beach performers that let us sit down and try to play music with them.



The Darker Side of Ecuador

So it´s easy to write a bunch of posts on here about all the exciting and good things about Ecuador, but that’s really only a small percentage of the reality of this country.

The truth of Ecuador is that a large portion of the population still lives in severe poverty conditions. Although Ecuador has made major strides for improvement in education and economics in recent years, as well as political stability, it still has a very long way to go.

The combination of severe inflation, nine presidents in a little over a decade, high poverty levels, lack of organization, and corruption has left Ecuador in a bit of a mess. When it comes down to it Ecuador is still suffering the consequences for events and practices that are left over from the Conquistador period of history in the 1500´s. For example it is estimated that around 50% of the population is living on land or property to which they have no legal title. Many of these people have lived in the same place for over 50 years with no documentation.

This causes severe complications when it comes to taxation as well as other legal issues. This is largely due to the robbery of indigenous lands by the Spanish, leaving many of the Indians with no land titles. Also many historians believe that it has become part of the cultural tradition to just acquire any land that is not being productively used as your own.

Sooo… although I am living in a paradise land (that resembles more of Miami than Ecuador) in the bubble of Guayaquil known as Samborondon, these areas are very rare in Ecuador. It is easy to see my pictures of all the tourist places where we have traveled and the restaurants where we have eaten and to ignore the less pleasant parts of the country, such as the towns we pass through on the way to laying in the sun on the beach.

It is easy to buy a delicious piece of pan de yucca from the vendor walking through the bus for 25 cents and to not stop for a second to think about the story behind this man. It is easy to forget that if this man doesn’t sell enough not only will he lose the money he spent on ingredients to make the food but he will have nothing to bring home to his family at the end of the day.

So I dedicate this blog to showing the real Ecuador.

Here is a closer look at reality.

·         45% of wealth is held by 5% of population

·         Under/Subemployment is around 63% (such as the pan de yucca on the bus)

·         70% of Ecuador is living BELOW the poverty line

o   What is the poverty line? By Ecuadorian standards the poverty line is $1 a day for each person in the family!!! That means almost 70% of the population doesn’t even make $1 a day!!!

·         For Children under 5

o   30% suffer from chronic malnutrition

o   20% suffer from severe chronic malnutrition

·         the average number of years of schooling as 6.7, this number is even lower among minority populations

·         There is one of the largest gaps in the world  in income between the rich and the poor

Most of the country consists of either country living or ramshackle huts surrounding large cities like Guayaquil. In all of the big cities the streets are filled with old men selling small glasses of Coke for ten cents. Even worse there are kids ranging from 3 and up running around selling individual packets of gum, shining shoes, selling scarfs, etc.

There are typically short old people looking sad and missing teeth begging around all major markets. They come up and stand behind you and stare at you with their hands out while mumbling their story under their breath until you give them change. Every public bus consists of at least one person playing music and begging for money or simply giving a speech in hope to receive some sort of compensation. The towns near major high ways set up food stands to cook cheap traditional snacks such as empanadas and secos and wait on the road until a bus is passing. They then jump on the bus with their baskets of food and sell whatever they can before climbing off at the next available stop and grabbing a bus back.

I think one of the most up close and personal moments I had so far with the poverty issue was downtown near the beginning of my trip when we were waiting to receive our visa cards. It was past lunch time and most everyone was hungry. Being Americans their mouths automatically started watering when they saw the tantalizingly tempting Golden Arches of the oh so familiar McDonalds soaring up above the city skyline. One of my friends rushed over to the buy a McChicken and came back to eat it on the side of the road. The second he unwrapped the sandwich a four year old girl dressed in rags with a dirty face stopped her rounds of selling gum and just stared at the sandwich. By the time he was two bites in the girl was sitting at his feet and staring up at him with these huge sad eyes. Of course the chicken sandwich immediately lost any level of satisfaction and he surrendered his lunch over to the little girl who scarfed it down almost whole. You always hear about hunger but sometimes you don’t realize what it means for someone to actually not have food until you see that look in their eyes.

Dos Mangas Excursion

Well the weekend flew past as usual. Its now Monday morning and Im stuck doing homework outside while some strange guy on a ladder is painting my bedroom…

I spent Friday at some cultural seminars and swimming in the pool and then we went to happy hour and our Mexican friend studying to be a chef made us true fish tacos, homemade tortillas and all. They were delicious. And then we went salsa dancing downtown.

Which made getting up on Saturday morning to leave for Dos Mangas just a little difficult… but we all made it. We left Saturday around 830 and we made it to the town of Dos Mangas by around 1130. The town has a lot of history of ancient civilizations. There have been multiple archeological excavations where they have found a bunch of old artifacts from before the Incas. The most common form of artifact found near Dos Mangas is a Venus statue. It is a statue of a woman with two legs and no arms and it is assumed to be related to fertility. Most of these statues are found broken by the neck. There is a huge statue that replicates the form of a typical Venus statue at the beginning of town.

Anyway, Saturday we went on a long hike, probably around 5 hours. But Leonor packed me an awesome veggie sandwich for lunch and there was plenty of fresh fruit around in the jungle to keep us going strong. We got to climb up a small waterfall and ended up bathing in some natural pools at the end of the path. It was really fun but the water was FREEZING!

Dos Mangas translates directly in to meaning “Two Sleeves.” The town was named Dos Mangas due to two small rivers that join close to where the town was founded. However by 2001 the river had all but disappeared due to the huge amounts of deforestation to export wood. At this point a few members of the community got together and signed a promise pledging to protect the forest from further damage, stop cutting down trees, and begin to re-plant.

Of course this required that the people find a new source of revenue to survive and make money. What did they turn to? Eco-tourism. The people of Dos Mangas received a loan from a World Bank organization to begin a small tourism protect. This allows the natives to use their expert knowledge of the forest to guide tourists on breath taking hikes as well as allowed them to buy the equipment necessary to begin large scale levels of artisan crafts. Almost the entire town (around 1000 people) now works in either artisan crafts or tourism. The only products that are now permitted to be cut and sold in the close by forests are bamboo (which grows like weeds here and is used in all main construction products) and the toquilla plant which is used to make Panama hats.

As a result there were tons of horses and mules lugging out bamboo and toquilla while we were hiking. The next day we learned how to shred, cook, dry, dye, and weave with the toquilla plant. Although we didn’t quite reach the level of master Panama hat makers we did manage to weave some little pendants…

The tagua plant is another native plant to this part of Ecuador. The seeds of the plant are large and liquid in the inside when they are first picked, but when aloud to dry and harden you end up with a really durable material that the people can make jewelry, pipes, and pendants out of. We also made our own tagua necklaces using a process cutting, sanding, polishing, and engraving. There was also this cool plant in the jungle that produced seeds that were filled with a really sticky liquid that could be used as glue. My friend Tricia from Clemson decided it was her new favorite thing and glued flowers all over her and then stuck some in her pocket for a scrap book later. Our guide made her the hat out of toquilla.

The tourism industry in Dos Mangas is still at an infant stage but the people of the town have a lot of heart and perseverance. There is only one hostel in town and we paid for our lodging by each person donating a pair of rubber boots that cost about six dollars so that they would have shoes for future tourists to hike in. No one in the town can speak English but they have recently found a volunteer English teacher from a neighboring town. He is from Georgia and has agreed to learn how to guide as well as begin to teach the guides the English necessary for a hiking tour so that they can further extend their business. After dinner the guides sat around and told us a few of their old tribal legends. One of them was about an ancient spirit called the Tintin man that would carry women out of their beds in the middle of the night and then would return her before morning. She would be pregnant the next day with no recollection of what happened and the only way she knew it was the Tintin man was because you would find food in the bathroom…

I also got to talking with some local women. It was really cool to hear how passionate they are about what theyre doing and the progress they have made. One of the founders of the tourism organization told me all about her three children and how all three have been able to go to school instead of working with the family full time, which is what happens most of the time in Ecuador. She also explained how this was the first time that women have been able to contribute economically to the household.  I have never seen a lady look more proud.

Anyway the trip ended with a relaxing lunch staring at the ocean and a few good hours spent in the Ecuadorian sun on the beach.

But most excitingly I finally got my hammock to hang in my house next year! And it was only 12 bucks! And it made an excellent pillow-blanket on the ride home.

Well the tsunami didnt end up doing much of anything. It caused some high waves on the Galapagos and some damage to ships and minor coastal businesses, but it was a lot smaller than expected, which was good. I don’t have any new pictures to add really so I have decided to throw in a few more good ones that I got from Baños during Spring break just to spice things up a bit.

Classes for the second bimester started on Monday and its rapidly becoming apparent that I only have a month and a half left in Ecuador! L This bimester is shorter, only about 5 weeks and then after that Im only left with one more week to travel around before coming home! Four months seemed like a much longer time when I said it in the United States…

Even worse I actually have to take real classes this semester. I didn’t realize how easy I had it last semester… now I have 70 pages of reading to catch up on already for one class. And my classes go from 5 to 1020 at night…. Definitely not my style but oh well. I cant wait for tomorrow and my day off!

Talking about classes here this school is really starting to crack me up. Sometimes when Im on campus I feel a little like Im in a dream world (and not just because every once in a while a giant Iguana falls out of a palm tree). There are all these students that walk around in lab coats at all hours of the day acting like theyre doctors already and not just going to class… The med students even wear them when theyre studying in the library. I know this because Im looking at one right now. The law students all walk around everyday in practically full suits and high heels. At first I assumed this was due to the tradition to dress up a little more for school unlike the US where you can show up in pajamas. But I have since changed my opinion. I think it has to do with the school attempting to appear a lot more advanced than it actually is. This school is a very expensive University. I would say at least half of the people in my business classes are only going to school to appease their parents so that they will let them inherit their businesses when they graduate. Im starting to doubt some of the actual credentials of the University, it seems much more like the parents are just paying oodles of money for their kids to receive fancy clothes and look official with lab coats and a pretty diploma. My host sister is one of them. She is a law student and only goes to her classes about once a week because she accidentally sleeps too late the rest of the time… I cant imagine that ever flying back home! Accordingly there has been a huge movement by the government recently to instate examinations in all public high schools because there were too many teachers that had bribed the schools to hire them. They literally paid the school so that they would get the job when they actually know nothing about what they are teaching. Its one thing to always hear about bribery and corruption, but an entirely different thing to live in it. And that is my random musing for the day J

Anyway, yesterday I was sitting at lunch eating with Leonor when my crazy host sister came running down the stairs and launched herself outside. Leonor and I just looked at each other and figured she was being weird… or she was just really really excited to eat… until she started jumping up and down and pointing at the sky. Turns out there was this weird halo thing around the sun yesterday. I know it could be seen from Ecuador and Peru but Im not sure about the rest of the world. We looked it up and it had something to do with ice particles that were hanging around the sun in the atmosphere. Ofcourse no one knew what it was at first so everyone was freaking out (which at my University in Ecuador means that every student was rapidly sending pictures of the halo to every single one of their friends on Blackberry messenger). Anyway, the automatic reaction of a lot of people was to become alarmingly afraid and claim it was another sign of the ever looming end of the world in 2012. The whole thing was rather interesting and definitely spruced up lunch a little more than normal.

But the best part of lunch was Leonor waiting until my host sister went back upstairs and then sneaking me a buy one get one free movie ticket that she had saved for me. I always knew I was her favorite J

But now its time to start my 5 hours of night classes. Thankfully Leonor packed me a banana and some veggies  to hold me over until dinner.

 I have a full day of cultural seminars and educational movies planned for tomorrow and then off to a weekend trip with the study abroad department to a little town called Dos Mangas on the coast. Until next time amigos…

Todo es extremo

Okay this is a long one… so heres the summary and a link to a video one of my friends made about our week adventure.

·         Baños was full of extreme sports and scared girls

·         Carnaval is a terrible holiday and no one should ever be allowed to throw eggs and smelly foam at innocent people in the streets.

·         Ecuador should not be allowed to operate roller coasters.

·         Evacuation buses are full of screaming children and sweaty people.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=10150108801127055&comments&notif_t=video_comment_tagged

But for the longer version…

Well it’s been an extreme week here to say the least… But I am safe despite the tsunami panic. My friends and I were evacuated from Puerto Lopez, Ecuador Friday morning to return to Guayaquil and our families. We sat on a packed and sweaty bus without air conditioning for four hours when we supposed to be laying on the white sandy beach of Los Frailes… But I know that I can’t complain that my vacation was ended early when I think about what happened to all those people in Japan. Thankfully the tsunami ended up only causing minor damage to Ecuador. I think some boats were wrecked and some minimal shore damage, but it could have been a lot worse.

But let’s rewind. I have a lot to tell about my exciting vacation from my vacation. We left Friday morning around 11 since I finally bullied (I mean sweet talked) one of the other girls in to skipping her Friday class so we didn’t have to wait until the afternoon. Which turned out to be a very good thing since it still took us until almost 8 or so to get to Baños. There were no direct buses left so we had to take two and it was a mess trying to navigate the second terminal… but we made it eventually. When we finally checked in to our hostel on Friday there were already some warning signs of what was to come. People walking up and down the streets were already armed and prepared with bottles of spray foam to launch at your face whenever you weren’t paying attention. But that was just childs play to what was to come.

We were all too tired from traveling to go out that night after dinner so we just hung out in the hotel. There were people dancing, screaming, playing music, and throwing water in the streets all night long. They were so loud that they even woke me up which is a very rare thing.

Our adventure tour started Saturday morning at nine with a guided tour through the city of Baños. We checked out a museum and this pretty cool church that they light up neon purple at night, and then saw the market, the waterfalls, and the thermal baths

Random indigenous person on the side of the street.

The thermal baths that are famous in Baños. Not sure how I feel about public bathing. Not to mention the water is tinted this weird nasty looking color because of all the minerals.

Going back to the highlands means going back to guinea pig land too. This was a picture of the little guys they were roasting on the side of the street. Kind of looks like the raw ones are still yelling to escape... ick.

This is the inside of the church we went to. The side of the church was lined with paintings and stories about how the water in Baños had healed a bunch of saints in the past from all sorts of diseases and injuries.

 Baños is a huge producer of sugar cane so there were a bunch of people making this candy that’s kind of like taffy.

They also sell pure sugar cane that you can suck on too which is pretty good. Then our guide had one of the stands prepare us a specialty drink called “sanduiche.” I have no idea why it’s called that since it translates in to “sandwhich.” But anyway it’s made with pure sugar cane and alcohol. They actually took fresh sugar cane and ran it through a press right in front of us to get the water for the drink. It wasn’t too bad but it was a little much for 11 in the morning… Anyway we spent the rest of the day just walking around town and I bullied (I mean sweetly convinced) everyone in to signing up for a white water rafting trip the next day. We were supposed to go on a chiva that night, which is a double decker bus, to see the rest of the city and to drive up to a lookout point, but we missed the bus because a few of the Ecuadorians don’t understand the concept of being on time and made us all late. But that’s how things go here. I don’t think they know the concept of the word hurry.

We went out to a karaoke bar that night and had a good mix of Spanish and English singing going on. We even had my favorite Korean friend singing Living la Viva Loca by Ricky Martin. After that we went out dancing with everyone. They were still throwing spray and foam all over the place inside the discoteca too so the floor was really wet… our poor Korean kid ended up falling during his karate style dancing and hitting his head on the floor… He was fine but very dramatic about the whole experience. He wasn’t making any comprehendible sense in English, Spanish, or Korean, so we ended up having to take him to the doctor to make sure he didn’t have a concussion and nothing was broken. The doctor pretty much laughed and said everything was fine he was just extremely chuchaqui (hung-over) and his face was just bruised. He spent the next day and a half in his room with ice on his face and a very swollen cheek (and I assume a raging head ache). I would have liked to hear him try to explain what happened to his host family when he went back home…

The rest of the week consisted of an array of adventures. Sunday we went canyoning in the morning. We got dressed up in wet suits that made me feel like one of Charlie’s angels and then we literally walked backwards down waterfalls and suspended down huge cliffs. I thought it was awesome… I don’t think some of the other girls appreciated the idea quite as much. Apparently they had no idea what they were getting in to when I told them the tour included canyoning. One of them didn’t even realize the tour was in the mountains… she thought it was on the beach. But that’s what they get for not doing their research. Anyway we rushed back that afternoon to scarf down some lunch and head out for rafting. Only one out of four Ecuadorians went rafting with us because all the other ones said they don’t like to be rushed after lunch…

And then we spent the rest of the day visiting some indigenous people where I got my face painted with achiote, one of the typical plants. They also showed us how to use their blow weapons which are traditionally loaded with poisonous darts. Then we went hiking up a random cliff on the side of the road where there was barely any path. I thought I was going to end up falling and rolling down the cliff a few times. One of the girls spent the whole way up cursing us all and mumbling about how much she hates hiking. But when we finally made it to the top it was worth the effort. We were met with an amazing view of the Ecuadorian jungle and you could make out exactly where the Sierra started. After the hike we finally got to eat lunch… a specialty fish dish from the jungle that is cooked in plantain leafs. I was excited about until I opened up my plantain leaf and realized that the fish still had its head and was staring at me… seriously I don’t know why these people cant learn to filet.

After lunch we went on a really cool hike through the jungle where we saw all sorts of cool plants. I was deemed the princess of the group by our guide and he made me a crown out of the same leaves they use to make Panama hats (which are actually from Ecuador if you didn’t know). We rubbed exfoliating clay on our faces and found the plant that they make immodium from. When we got to the end of the hike there was an amazing waterfall that we went swimming in. The water was freezing because it comes down from the mountains, but it was worth that little bit of suffering to say that I had been swimming in a waterfall in the Amazon rainforest.

On the hike back we got to pretend like we were Tarzan and swing from some cool tree vines which was also pretty exciting.

We finished up our tour through Baños on Tuesday with a morning of canopy, which is just a monster zip line through the jungle. I didn’t realize quite how sketchy the little zip line hut was until I saw the pictures later. But it was a lot of fun… we got to pretend like we were superman and fly across on our bellies. And I didn’t even yell at the girl that was crying and saying she was going to die once. I think there are probably a few of the internationals that will never go on another vacation that I plan again. I think it was too much adventure for some. But at least they cant say that they didn’t do something new in Ecuador J

Tuesday afternoon was when things got really crazy with Carnaval. Technically the holiday only lasts Monday and Tuesday but people get too excited and start early. At first it didn’t seem too bad because it was just spray foam. But by Tuesday people broke out huge water canons, eggs, flour, dyed water, water balloons, spray, foam, and whatever else you can think of and were throwing them everywhere. It was almost impossible to walk down the street without getting caught in a water fight. Not even the people sitting on the side of the streets in the restaurants were safe. In fact, even the shop owners were standing outside holding cans in either defense or to spray anyone that didn’t want to stop in their store.

At that point we had seen most of what there was to see in Baños and had enough of the mosquitos from the jungle so we took off for the beach at six o clock the next morning. After spending over 13 hours in bus we finally made it across the country to a beach town called Manta. Turned out Manta was ugly and smelled bad and the hostal that our taxi drive recommended was in a dangerous part of town… so we only spent the night and we left the next morning on another three hour bus to get to Puerto Lopez. Which turned out to be an excellent decision. The beach was amazingly beautiful and we spent a great day relaxing and swimming… although I did get bit by some random fish. We also met some cool German people that were volunteering as well as an American tour guide who almost wet his pants because he was so excited to find someone in the small town that spoke English. Another exchange student friend from Guayaquil met us at the beach as well. He is from France and was showing his father around the country that week. So we ended up with two German guys who spoke some spanish, two french men, one of which spoke nothing but french, some americans, a guy from sweden who only spoke english, a canadian and a mexican.. We spent the whole night switching between languages with a good amount of charades mixed in.

We had grand plans of relaxing on a private beach about fifteen minutes away the whole next day… but they got shot down almost immediately when we got a phone call from a friend at 8 in the morning telling us about the earth quake in japan and to get out as soon as possible. We were grumpy and I demanded breakfast first, but afterwards we luckily found a seated bus ticket for only five dollars. They were evacuating the entire coast. The streets were closed down and only allowing outbound traffic and buses were only running to Guayaquil. The bus was completely full including people that had to stand the entire four hours. Most of the bus was full of moms and kids, Im guessing the dads stayed behind to secure the houses.

What I found the most interesting about the whole experience was that on the news they were claiming that the government was providing free buses and that police would be out in full force to offer assistance, but from what I saw none of that was happening. On the contrary on the bus where we were the company just kept increasing the cost by the minute. We paid five but I know some paid six and then the price when up again when the company had to be bribed to allow the people on that were going to stand up. I didn’t see a single police officer anywhere. When we drove past a lot of the smaller beach towns along the way there were still boats out in the water and people on the beach, almost as if they still didn’t know about what was happening.

But the tsunami turned out more or less fine and we all made it home safe. Now Im just relaxing back in Guayaquil until classes start again on Monday…

Rafting was another interesting adventure. The guide was attempting to explain everything in Spanglish. He decided to use me as the guinea pig for all his explanations… which ended up with him catapulting me by my life jacked from the ground in to the inside of the boat in order to demonstrate how to rescue someone from falling out. But I guess the demonstration proved useful since one of the crying girls actually did end up falling out in the rapids. And then yet another girl that was still in the boat started crying too because she saw the first girl fall out and thought she was going to die… But in the midst of all the tears she ended up getting rescued and everything was fine. I think she was about ready to kill all of us for convincing her to get on the boat. She told me it was the most traumatizing experience of her life and she would never be caught dead sitting in other raft again. Even I have to admit it was a little scary. There was a moment or two when I found myself barely hanging on to the boat, one particular time I was hanging in midair with my feet above my head before my friend Alberto grabbed on to my foot with a death grip and yanked me back in. But all in all I thought it was pretty fun, except for the fact that it was a little cold since we were in the mountains and  it started raining halfway through. We spent Monday on a jungle expedition. We started with an air ride across a valley to see some cool twin waterfalls.

Then we went to a really cool monkey reserve where the monkeys just ran around everywhere. I was beyond excited since Ive always wanted a pet monkey. I got to hold a baby one and feed it guayaba and I got to see someone else get their camera robbed by another monkey. It was awesome.