Friday morning we had to meet the bus at 6 a.m. and considering that I am not a morning person, it was pretty early. This was also when the "Viva la cumpleañera" began. Here it is tradition for one person to yell this phrase and then the rest of the group yells back "VIVA!" At various points throughout the day Juan would yell this just in case I forgot it was my birthday.
It was a two hour bus ride to our destination, Nanegalito but Noah and Andrew played the guitar and mandolin the entire way and we sang songs (including classics such as Nirvana, RHCP, and of course, 'Remix to Ignition' with a transition to The Beatles' 'Let It Be'). After stopping for breakfast, we went to un Mariposario, a butterfly farm! There were literally hundreds of butterflies in all sorts of colors and sizes. I kinda went crazy with taking pictures so here are a few from the trip:
I also had a special friend who stayed on my finger for about 10 minutes:
After the butterfly farm we changed and received a surprise: we were going tubing! There were 7 or 8 tubes tied together and each group had a guide to make sure we didn't hit any big rocks. The ride was SO much fun! The river was full of little rapids and tons of rocks to keep it exciting. Afterward we all laid in the river and someone joked that we should drink beer to celebrate my birthday. Low and behold, Juan, the leader of the program, brought giant bottles of Pilsener for everyone!
After changing, we drove (and okay, got lost for about 30 minutes) to our hotel. The hotel was the most beautiful hotel I have ever seen. It was located in the middle of the forest in the mountains and was a collection of little houses (casitas) decorated with pretty tiles and bottles. There were flowers and plants everywhere and millions of different trails throughout the mountains. We ate lunch and had a long talk about our community service (because every student has to do a minimum of 10 hours of community service per week with the organization of their choosing). After dinner, they brought me a cake with candles and everyone sang to me and toasted my health and happiness with wine. For the rest of the night we continued to play sing a long while I tried to get to 21 drinks (I didn't make it, if you were curious). Here's some pictures of the hotel:
And a picture from my party:
The next morning we woke up and had breakfast and went on a two hour hike through the forest, but the majority of the hike we labored in the river. I don't even have enough pictures to do it justice (it was reeeally slippery so I didn't use my camera much) but here are two:
Some members of our group also rode down a small waterfall:
After lunch we drove to the Tulipe Museum, which was about the indigenous tribes, The Yumbos. We went on another hike through the woods and saw the large bathing pools that they used for religious cleansing.
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