Surviving a volcanic eruption.

This weekend I went to the adventure sports capital of Ecuador...I think. The journey there was absolutely ridiculous. First we had to get on Trole system that would take us to the bus terminal where we would catch a bus that would take us to Banos. Of course an adventure is not an adventure if things go right the entire time.

The Trole was packed because it was 4pm and everyone wanted to be somewhere...I guess. When we got to the bus terminal at 5pm because it takes an hour to get to the there. we booked it to the bus that was leaving in 2 minutes. Well, we missed that one and got on another one 5 minutes later, so much for wasting my energy. DUMB. Anywayyyy, we were on the road, the sun was shining, everything was great and the weather was beautiful.

It was good to finally see trees and not be trapped in a concrete jungle. When we were about 30 minutes from our destination there was a straight up stop on the highway. I asked and the bus driver why were were stopped and he said that the volcano was erupting. He said it in such a calm voice that it put me at ease.

"Oh yeah, the volcano is just erupting and we are waiting for it to clear"

WHAT THE FUUUUUUU?! My initial reacction was panic. WE ARE GOING TO DIEEEE! Then I thought, shit, this will be an epic story. I could see the headline on the Willamette website now "Four Willamette Students Die Valiantly in a Violent Volcanic Eruption in Ecuador" With the content being about how we were not wearing the right gear to survive a volcanic eruption. Also, we would have died sitting in a bus, not actually doing anything meriting the word "valiantly" but hey, people love sensationalism.

Stevie was trippppin'. "OMG,does this happen often, I am calling my host mom. Are we going to be okay?! How come we are just parked?! I need to call everyone I know and ask if I am going to be okay!!! Should I write a will?! I need to call my lawyer. Who will inherit everything I own?! OMG, who will enjoy my pink sheets as much as me?!!!! "

Me:"Steve, we are going to be fine. We would have turned around if it was that bad". My new nickname for Stevie is Steve, I use it when she is being irrational.

Stevie: "Okay, maybe we should ask someone, and by someone I mean everyone and then take the average of the responses and multiply it 4 and add 6, then we can really know if we will be okay."

Me: (Deciding to indulge her in her delusions) "Okay, on itt! Callie, go ask!"

And what does Callie go and do? She get's lost because it is night and she walks so far up that she can't remember which of the zillions of buses is ours. We use Morse code to get her back to the bus...not really. I sort of flashed my light and then waited for her to find her way back..survival of the fittest.

Callie reports back: "I asked the police what was going on and he said he didn't know but that it should only be about 15 minutes".

Of course this well informed policeman was kind of wrong...only off by 45 minutes but I had fun. And as it turns out, there was no volcanic eruption, there was only a car accident.

We got in like at 10pm and were starving so decided to go out for a bite, after we checked into the hostel. The food was great and we had talked to a tour guide and he said we could rappel down waterfalls at 9 in the morning and raft down a river next to the Amazon at 2.

SIGN ME UP.

The whole, risking my life and having fun kind of thing was new for me. I was sort of really terrified for the first rappelling down a waterfall. We had a mini-lesson before and it did not seem that terrible. And truthfully, the first two waterfalls were great, we just stepped backwards on the rock wall into the pools of water, the last one however, was a little more daunting.

The last waterfall was only a mere 140ft, so rappelling down it was going to be nbd. YEAH RIGHT. I volunteered to go 2nd and after seeing the first guy go, I was a little more scared. First he started on the rock wall then I peered down and he was just dangling....sans rock wall. WHATTTTTTTTTTT.

I looked at our guide and said: "Um, excuse me, but he is not touching the rock wall..."

Guide: "Yeah, he's fine."

Me: (Holy shiiiiiiittttttttttttttttt. I am going to die!)

I was next and the guide said told me just to lean back and walk back like usual, but then the rock wall ended... WHAT THE FUUUUUU!!!!

He told me to take my feet off the rock but I was too scared, I thought I would plummet to my death. However, the logic at that time was very flawed. My feet were higher than my head , as I was leaning back so I was going to be fine.

So I let go and felt great, the view was amazing, the waterfall next to me created a rainbow and I was able to look out into the mountains...truly an amazing experience.

After we all rappelled down the waterfall, we went and bought some food. Then we were off to raft down the Pastaza River, in between two National Parks and eventually the Amazon. It was so much fun and best of all, nobody in our raft fell out. The other rafting group sucked and always lost people. Noobs.

We were pretty exhausted by the end of the day but it was well worth it. Banos is a cool little town that I will most definitely make frequent visits to. I want to be back there now...

Organs intact...for now.

What’s better than not doing homework? Not doing homework because I was at a club on a Thursday with a bunch of friends. I am so hardcore. I don’t even recognize MYSELF. WHO AM I?!

The group went to “Gringolandia” or La Mariscal. The locals call it Gringolandia because it is obviously where all the gringos hang out. DUH!

To get there we needed to take a bus and by bus I mean a tin can where if you move your left hand it is in a person’s hair or private tinky area. GROSS.  We played a game of Sardines really. First we went to buy some….drinks. And then hung out in a super sketch area doing super sketchy things.

Afterwards we headed to a sketchy Indian food place. They had hookahs, which I did not do and would never like to by the way. There was so much smoke in that place that I could not even see the person next to me. I thought for sure that we were going to be stabbed, kidnapped or have our fingers chopped off. I KNOW, I AM IRRATIONAL, GET OVERRRR IT!

It was an okay place to be, not dangerous, at least nothing happened to us. AND there was karaoke so I just KNEW everything was going to be fine. I could feel it in my bones. Plus, I kind of sort of blend in here and everyone just assumes I am from around here. I tell everyone that I am just visiting family for 5 months, ha! I am more worried for people like Stevie who looks like she could fit in your pocket. EVERYTHING WAS FINE THOUGH.

While we were walking to the club everyone was trying to hand us flyers, which if you read my previous post, is sketch as FUUU. Let me clarify for Sean and Alisha because APPARENTLY I was too vague. These flyers are laced with some sort of drug that enters your bloodstream upon contact with your skin. You blackout and while you are unaware of anything going on around you, the person who handed you the flyer steals your damn organs!!!! They then sell your organs on the black market for obscene amounts of money. I know that if my kidney was stolen , it would sell for a record amount of $500,000.

So yesterday we were being asked to take these flyers and I all I could think was: “Ummmmm….no THANKS. I am not an organ donor and you are unqualified for that type of procedure, thanks. I am also quite fond of all my organs, thank youuuu. Maybe next time, and by next time I mean NEVERRRR”

We go to the club and on Thursdays it is “Ladies Night” and ladies get to drink for freee. There are 5 girls with us and they are being handed flyers that would allow them to get free drinks. Obviously they do not want to take them because we were told not to so that our fucking organs don’t get stolen and sold for obscene amounts of money on the black market. None of them want to take it but I am all like well, free drinks…so I tell them to take it.

Stevie says to me, “I don’t want them to drug me and take my organs.”

I say, “Don’t worry I will take care of you, they are not bad flyers. You will be fine, I promise” But what I am really thinking is, “Fuck yeah! Free drinksss!!!!” JUST KIDDING. Kind of.

Nobody was injured or had their organs stolen and best of all...everyone looked like death warmed up the next day at school. Except for me of course because I was responsible and went home early so that I could sleep to get up early and start and finish my homework before class at 8:30. So responsible. I know.

I also went on my first run at 9,350 feet and thought I was going to die. I was so excited to run  because I hadn't done it since the I was in the States. As Stevie and I were taking off to the park a little boy and his stupid little schnauzer started chasing us. That damn dog was preparing to feast on my ankles.

No thanks dog. I need my ankles, I said to the dumb little rat chasing us. What got me though was the boy who was laughing gleefully at the situation. Well kid, you are a JERK. That was terrifying and I thought I was going to lose my life!

I felt freeeeeeeee. I was running around and it was FUN. That is until my body decided that there wasn't enough oxygen and started to punish me for it. Thanks body. BUT I did have a good run, except the parts where I inhaled exhaust. Living in a city ROCKS.