"I'm sorry, but a slide made of ROCKS is NOT fun."

Before telling about my intense weekend a couple of weekends ago, I'd like to apologize for not posting in SO long! Life has been abnormally busy for me lately, but I thought I'd take a minute (it actually takes longer than a minute...) to write about the intense weekend that I've told so many people about in person.

The weekend before USA Memorial Day weekend, I found myself face to face with an Ecuadorian three day weekend that is actually very similar to Memorial Day. I emailed my friend Kristin - the only other person in my TESOL course that stayed in Quito - and we decided to take a trip. We originally wanted to go to the coast so that we could have three VERY relaxing days at the beach, but that didn't work out. The school that Kristin works at was having a trip to a town called Baños, so we decided to hop on that 3.5 hour bus ride. A lot of my co-workers had been telling me to visit Baños, so I figured that I should when I had the opportunity.

The bus ride from Quito to Baños was HORRIBLE. The leader of the trip brought along her little dog named Bob. This name was enough to annoy me. I know I'm horrible. I have NO idea what kind of dog it is, but it's one of those dogs that looks like a puppy forever. Somehow, though I tried to avoid it, I ended up in the back row of the bus with Kristin on one side, and the DOG two seats away from my other side. Three and a half hours and THREE DOG VOMITS later (yes, I gagged), we FINALLY arrived in Baños.

One thing about Ecuador that kills me is the disorganization of the ENTIRE country. I mean, in all honesty, I don't know how the country hasn't burned down yet. When we got off of the bus, no one (there was a group of 17 of us) had any idea what we were doing, so we just stood at the bus terminal like a bunch of idiots - something that I find myself doing too often in Ecuador.

When we FINALLY got organized, we ate lunch and got a tour of the small, very touristy town of Baños from a girl about my age named Natalia. She is what I would describe as a firecracker: you NEVER know what she is going to say next, and item numero uno on her agenda is to have a good time. Actually, that's the ONLY item on her agenda.

We made our way to a huge bridge over a raging river (Ok, not RAGING, but there were a LOT of rocks at the bottom) and encounter activity #1: bridge swinging. It's not bungee jumping, but you are harnessed onto a rope that doesn't look like it's tied safely, and you literally jump off the side of the bridge and swing back and forth over the river. VERY scary. I didn't do it, but Kristin and my new friend Marty (a 48 year old man who moved to Quito after losing his job in the USA) did. I was almost in tears just watching them. I DID hike down the side of the valley that the river went through and walked over yet ANOTHER Indiana Jones bridge. Kristin commented on it too, so I'm not the only one! This one was actually over a river, but dang, no alligators, so still the scene was not QUITE right.

Later that night, we went to the natural hot springs that Baños is really famous for. The Ecuadorians transformed these hot springs into a tourist trap. It was not at ALL what I was imagining (hot springs in the middle of nowhere), but it was actually pools that were filled with the natural water. It was PACKED, being a holiday weekend and all, and people were body-to-body in the water. I was disgusted, so I just sat and watched, along with Kristin and Marty. The people who were in the pools didn't look the least bit relaxed anyways...

We went to a club on Saturday night, and this time I was pleasantly surprised at how wonderful it was (please refer to my post from a while ago "White Girl Can't Dance" to read about my previous club experience). The group of people that I was with was great, and we just danced and danced and danced. Well. I tried.

The next morning, we all woke up early because our first actual activity was supposed to leave at 8AM. 2.5 hours later, we were on our way. Rafting. I. Was. Terrified. The previous night I had made my new friend Mario (a 50-ish year old Cuban man who is teaching in Quito to support his family in Cuba) promise that he would sit by me in the raft, along with my new German friend Maike (pronounced Micah). They both held true to their promises, which made me a very happy, although not less scared, girl.

After putting on a damp wetsuit, and shoes that reminded me of the classy Keds that Jenna and I used to LOVE, we got out of the bus and were at the river. After a brief safety/this-is-what-you're-supposed-to-do session (which included: "THIS PADDLE IS FORTY DOLLARS. IF YOU LOSE IT, YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT!!), we were in the boats being pushed off.

For the hour and a half that we were in the water, I was screaming almost non-stop, but I DID enjoy myself. Until. There are safety kayakers going around the boats making sure that everyone is safe, and I'm sitting on the edge of my raft, minding my own business, when all of a sudden, one of the kayakers comes up, grabs my life jacket, and pulls me into the river. Excuse me? So here I am, floating in the river, holding on to his kayak, and we go to a different raft. Do you know how hard it is to get back into a raft? REALLY hard. I was basically worthless. The other rafters pulled me into their boat, and I literally couldn't move during the process, so I was like a dead fish. Embarrassing.

I'm sitting in this other raft, and the guide starts yelling at me to paddle. Paddle? My paddle is in my home raft. So what does he do? Takes his foot, and pushes me BACK out of the raft. I flopped my arms enough to get myself to my home raft where they pulled me in, and I began paddling.

A few minutes after this episode, we hit a rocky patch, and I legit fell out of the raft. I was really scared (and trying not to swallow the really bad, dirty, unsafe water!!!), but I hung on to the edge of the raft, and I HELD ON TO THE DAMN PADDLE. Instead of thinking about how I might die, I was thinking, "I don't have $40 extra on this trip to spend on this paddle. I am NOT letting go." After being dragged across the bottom of the river (of course I would fall out at a shallow spot), I got pulled back into the raft. Needless to say, I didn't paddle as much after that.

After getting out of the river, we took off our wet wetsuits and changed into dry clothes (on the bus, which was awkward), and had lunch. Then, we split up into two groups: people going canyoning and people not going canyoning. I didn't even know what canyoning WAS at this point, so I got into the line of people going. MISTAKE.

We get into a van and drive to basically the middle of nowhere at the base of a REALLY steep mountain, put on our wet wetsuits (DIFFICULT), grab a helmet, get harnessed, and are told to climb UP this mountain. OHMYGOD I almost died. It was so steep that at some parts I was using my hands to climb up, I was sweating like there's no tomorrow because it was about 3 in the afternoon and I'm wearing a wetsuit, and I was thinking, "Wow, if it's this hard going up, it's going to be HELL going down." I was right.

When we FINALLY got to the top, we were at the top of a waterfall. I quickly found of what canyoning is: rock climbing down waterfalls. After seeing the first few people go, I was about ready to cry. A. I've never been rock climbing before. B. I've never been rock climbing down a waterfall before. C. They said that you need to be strong to do this. I'm almost as weak as my sister Laura.

After slipping and sliding down the first waterfall, stopping in the middle and yelling down to the guide that I CAN'T DO THIS, I finally reached the bottom. Soaking wet, shaking, and with rope-burned hands because I was holding on so tight, I noticed that we weren't REALLY at the bottom. We were in a small pool. I look at the guide and find out why we aren't at the bottom. Surprise! Three more waterfalls to go!

You know how usually when you do something once, it's easier to do the second and third times? NOT WITH THIS. In the middle of the second waterfall, I was thinking, "No one who knows me is going to believe that I did this." Of course no one had a camera because we were soaking wet and they would have been ruined. I'm telling you now that if I would have known what I was going to be doing, (1) I would NOT have signed up, and (2) I would have spent $200 on a waterproof camera.

In the middle of the third waterfall, I was literally crying. Tears were streaming down my cheeks, and all I wanted to do was crawl into a warm bed that was DRY and get OUT of this mess. I would like to add that there were two other girls, Rosalie from Holland and Maike from Germany, that were ALSO terrified to tears.

At the bottom of the third waterfall, a girl who had done this before was saying how much fun the last one is: it's a slide! I looked at her and said, "I'm sorry, but a slide made of ROCKS is NOT fun." She judged me, but oh, I was SO over caring. When I got down the slide, I was SO happy that my feet were on dry land that I was almost crying. When Rosalie, Maike, and I got to the bottom, we decided that we were happy that we had this experience, because now we know to NEVER do it again. And, to give you an idea, I asked the guide the height of the waterfalls: #1 - thirty feet. #2 - fifty feet. And #3. NINETY FEET. MY GOD.

The next morning when we woke up, Rosalie, Maike, and I couldn't MOVE (and I STILL have bruises on my body from falling out of that raft), but we hiked down a mountain to see ANOTHER waterfall anyways. Hiking down is fine, but MAN that hike up was KILLER. For the bus ride back to Quito, Kristin and I made sure to get a seat AWAY from the dog. We finally got home around 10:30PM, after the taxi driver got LOST on the way to my house. I was yelling at him in Spanish, almost crying, and really scared because I was thinking that I may be getting abducted.

On Tuesday morning at school, I still couldn't move, and my students kept asking me if I had a relaxing weekend. Relaxing? HA. I don't think I relaxed until I was in my BED in Quito. The good news is that I can now say that I've done, though not enjoyed, extreme sports. Looking back though, I think I would do rafting again...

Until next time (which will be sooner than last time!),
Sara the EXTREME.