Day 4
We all woke up rather quickly, however motivating ourselves
to take action and finally make it out of our room took a little more
time. We were told the night previous
that there are some pretty sweet waterfalls about 20 minutes away so we decide
to head for those. It?s best to take
advantage of late check out times so we can leave our bags locked in our room
and just travel light. It is misting as
low lying clouds shroud the surrounding mountains. We stop and get bread for breakfast and some
grenadinas (grenades). It is my favorite
fruit from
grows on Nathan. We start walking toward
the cascadas (waterfalls) and eventually catch a bus. However, we don?t make it all the way to the
main waterfall as it is about 45 minutes away and we have a noon checkout from
our hotel. We enjoy our hike, taking
pictures and looking at architecture and flowers. On our return we run through a tunnel that is
like a quarter of a mile long as oncoming traffic narrowly misses us. It was exciting and ignorant as we are made
aware by a child riding on a passing truck.
After running through the tunnel, uphill by the way as we are in the
sierra (mountains) we decide that we should hitch hike back. So we try and stop a few buses and are
finally picked up by a guy with a truck.
It is a harrowing ride weaving through cars and around buses on the
narrow mountain road but we make it back to the hotel just in time to check
out. We buy bus tickets for the 1:35 bus
to Tena and then tour around downtown Banos.
It is scenic. Jennifer buys a few
items from a lady selling tagua (???) It
is a natural ivory like substance. Then
we finally get on the bus around 2 and head through the mountains for the
Jungle. The first hour we spend standing
on a packed bus, but then we reach
and it clears out. Jennifer does get a
seat next to a young woman with a baby who keeps reaching for my hand. So I spend half an hour standing up holding a
babies hand, whom I did inform by the way that I have a girlfriend. She didn?t seem to care. After
we all sit together in the back this woman with half a shirt on keeps laying on
me. The hot and sticky bare skin of her
side and belly and the fact that her hair keeps blowing all over me get me a
little irritated. But between listening
to my ipod and doing crossword puzzles I make it. We finally arrive in Tena and catch a taxi to
the Pratts. It is good to see them. We catch up for the longest time and then
head outside to test out the projector.
Once outside we see a tarantula and a sweet tree frog. Tomorrow we are going preaching all day and
then inviting interested ones to see a video.
I?m pretty exhausted, I haven?t acclimated from the flight and to the
humidity yet. I better get some
rest.