Yo Conoces Papa de Yankee?? Out of Control!

Oh my dear. Where do I begin. This past weekend was absolutely pheonomenol. I already scared mom when I talked to her on SKype so I will try not to scare the rest of you. Honestly, I am with a group of people who have traveled alot and we always stay together so MORAL(E) of the story...DON`T WORRY! So Saturday morning we went mountain biking...for six hours. My butt started hurting after two. We paid $5 for the bikes for the day (1st sketchy thing) but they were great!! We biked in the mountains and saw about 7 waterfalls! It was breathtaking and I got some cool pics! There was a group of 8 of us but we all had different speeds we wanted to bike. So a group of four of us went ahead and about a mile later my friend Julie turned around to make sure I was behind her and lost control of her bike and face planted on the concrete. We were in the middle of the road so I quickly stopped and made sure no cars were coming when she came up to me and said, "Am I missing any teeth?" I kind of laughed and said no and then saw blood rushing from her chin. I carefully led her over to the side and luckily I was prepared with bandaids and kleenexs (thanks mom). So I was trying to get her cleaned up when the two boys we were with turned around and came to see what was going on. When she took the kleenex away we could see the fat. (Sorry BJ) We knew she definitely needed stiches but we were in the middle of the mountains. So a nice couple pulls up on bikes and tells us they have a car that is following them that can take her to the hospital in Baños. So her and matt went with the couple and the rest of us continued. We finally saw the sign for the Pailon del Diablo (the largest waterfall on our route) so we hopped off our bikes and were about to chain them up until we realized that we chained Julie and Matt`s bikes to a sign about 2 miles back. Crap. Luckily we met these Isralies (I called them Israelites) who were just traveling through the country on bikes as well and they let us chain our bikes with theirs. So we all begin walking down this sketchy path and suddenly we see a hut with a guy who comes out to greet us. He was probably in his 40s and told us since we were students we only needed to pay 50 cents to see this waterfall. Ok sweet. But while we were talking to him he was being really weird and just told us to take this path and we would find it. We were literally in the jungle. And after walking around in circles for ten minutes we decided that this was not legit. So we walked out and went down the road like a half mile and finally saw the legit entrance to the waterfall. We were like Oh well at least it was only 50 cents but the Israelites were ticked and said, "That`s an hour we could have had at the internet cafe!"So funny. The hike to the waterfall was worth it. It was amazing and we climbed all the way to the top where we could put our hands underneath it and bathe in it. After, we relaxed at the resturaunt at the bottom and then road about another mile and finally decided to call it quits. Luckily we did not have to ride back uphill because a truck took us with our bikes back to Baños. The whole day was exhausting but exhilarating.

Warning: The following activities are not parental/granparental/aunt and uncle friendly
When we got back to Baños a few of us decided to go soak in las aguas calientes (the hot springs). It felt absolutely amazing on my muscles and we were right under a waterfall! After about a half hour we went back to our hostal, showered and ate dinner at an amazing dinner at a pizzaria. We ate with this guy we met at our hostal who was traveling to Colombia after Ecaudor. I asked him if he thought that was safe and I got a whole culture lesson about the country. Apparently his cousin was there last month on a bus and the FARC (the terrorist group) stopped the bus, told everyone to get off so they could take it. Well his cousin had taken sleeping pills so she was really out of it and began puking immediately after getting of the bus. Well of the FARC members was rubbing her back!! Crazy. Anway I learned a lot about Colombia in an hour. Afterwards our entire group of 15 students reserved a CHIVEA BUS. It`s like a party bus but way better. Words can not do it justice so I will have to show you all picture. So my friend Jay and I went to the store to get some drinks. I got a bottle of wine for Katie and I to split and Jay got beer for the guys. We were not five minutes into the Chivea and we had to ask the driver to stop and get us more alcohol. He then took us up to the mountains so we could see the volcano at night, Alisa bought a fried banana and Katie and I took a nature walk, in la selva...of which Jay wanted to come along. We then danced to Shakira about ten times on the way back down and then we got dropped off at a discoteca. The driver said our first drink was free so Katie and I ordered a piña colada. We got a flaming shot instead. I`m not kidding the shot was on fire and of course we took it. Our friend Jesil asked us if we should wait until it went out and we were like, "Eh we dont know. We just waited til it turned blue." All in all, a very successful night :)

Mom, stop freaking out because I know you are right now.

Sunday morning Katie, Alisa and I woke up at 5 to watch the sunrise with our hippie friends in las aguas calientes. It was the coolest thing! We then came back, took a nap, and then went horse back riding. It was fun except everyone`s body was sore from mountain biking the previous day. We watched the final World Cup game at a local resturaunt called Ponchos, which was a blast, and then caught the 5:00 bus home. Once again, pretty sure we listened to Shakira about 10 times on the way home. Needless to say, we were all exhausted Monday morning.

I am actually doing stuff besides having fun and I will try to write about my intense clinical experiences tomorrow.
Things I have learned about Latin Americans:
1) They do not give good directions...EVER they just point and say, "Over There"
2) Even when you speak Spanish they sometimes choose not to listen to you
3) If something goes wrong its always YOUR fault, never theirs

Alright I am off to go out to eat with some friends!! I love and miss you all and hope you don`t disown me after reading this post.

-HILARY