Banana Farms and Waterfalls

Our last couple of days in Guabo were more relaxed. On Wed afternoon, we had an event in the park with the church, but other than that, we were learning about the country and visiting some really cool sites. Below are my notes to Kristin about what we did.

So many things to tell you that have happened! Yesterday we went to the banana farm and saw the whole process... but that was not as cool as going out into the rows and rows of banana trees on the tiny cement sidewalks to see how they are harvested. We got to cut on bunch down (which really takes the whole tree down) and carry it to the wire system that carries 40 bunches of bananas at a time! Then we got to try to pull one of these 2800 pound trains and it was awesome. We brought it all the way back to the factory where the workers unloaded it.

In the afternoon, we did the church event in the park thing. It was pretty crazy, We walked through half of Guabo behind a fire truck with its sirens blaring, inviting people to come. Then the program consisted mainly of Joao shouting ridiculous things for kids to do and the Guabo youth group dancing to music while we did our skits and songs. It went pretty well... but in comparison to the music the Guabo kids danced to, our songs were pretty quiet. In the evening we played soccer with our friends in the church and it was a lot of good bonding and fun.

This nest day (Thursday) was my favorite so far! We went to the waterfalls (Los Cascadas De Manuel) and it was awesome! There were eight different waterfalls and we swam and at least three of them. It was some crazy hiking too, on narrow trails and through tiny caves. We were so sad that you weren't there with us. But we had some great chicken (or hen as they persisted in tell us it was) and watermelon.  This little day trip reminded me very much of my visit to Charlotte Falls in Sierra Leone.

Then that night, we had our farewell dinner with our hosts. Each night, I've had a student tell me that the night before had been the best, but this one was shaping up to be even better. This one was no exception. We had some heartfelt farewells with our host families after an excellent meal and then in classic Ecuadorian fashion, we danced our hearts out for hours.

Tomorrow (Friday) we leave for Cuenca and will be meeting our host families!