Mud Colors

I feel like today was Get Back Day up at trail. We went on a long hike into the jungle and did not have any amenities like showers or beds and then today we did a long hike back out. I could seriously taste the lunch chocolate chip cookies during the whole hike. It was a lot longer than our get back hikes usually are. Definitely took a triumphant mud splattered photo once we returned.

These people live literally a 5 hour HARD hike into the jungle. The trail isn't exactly maintained (there were a couple bridges) so it is just a giant mud slide basically. I learned a lot about mud this week. There are many many different kinds. First, there are different colors: white, orange, brown then more interesting like green, purple and pink. There is mud that supports your weight even when you step down hard. There is mud that sucks in your boot and doesn't let you out. (I often felt like the poor horse in the beginning of The Neverending Story...ATREYU!!!) There is mud that clings to your boot so that you have a cement block to drag behind you. Also a note about the jungle boots (they are knee high black rubber boots= do not breathe and smelly feet) but they are pretty much the national shoe of Ecuador everyone in the jungle has them.

So, the cool stuff I did in the jungle. Learned about medicinal plants. One flower numbed your tongue if you nibbled on it a little bit! Then others are poisonous and are used to kill fish for food or worms under the skin. Another poisonous one that is to be used only for emergencies is for like huge machete cuts or bites to stop bleeding but its leaves are very irritating to the skin. Then another if for snake bites and inside that one lives these lemon ants. And they taste just like little bits of lemon. They were really good. You kind of lick them out of this little pod you crack open on the plant. We also hiked to a waterfall. The kids there LOVED the bouncy balls I brought with me and I got to play Equavolley. Like volleyball but...better. Pictures will come eventually. I am packing to head back to Quito and then home. I will miss my host family very much here but I am excited for some food that does not involve rice or plantains/bananas.