Before I enumerate the despressingness of my last day, allow me to fill in a few gaps: I think it was on the second day, we were walking along the trail when Jose bends down to pick up a gum wrapper. He starts to joke around, “This is a leaf from a special tree here, called Trident…” and it was funny, but it made me realize how impeccably clean the forest was. Litter doesn’t exist because there are no humans to drop in anywhere. I knew right away that the gum wrapper was from one of the kids the day before because we had gotten the same gum in our lunch bags. Also, when I was wandering around wondering what to do during our free times, I heard this weird noise. I looked around and didn’t see anything, but when I looked again I saw this huge rat-thing gnawing on something. It was pretty cool and I watched it for probably over five minutes; it was bizarre-looking. I was also walking around the library (in broad daylight) when this really confused bat kept flying around my head. It was a little alarming, but I felt kind of bad because this bat was totally confused. Anyway, Friday: I got up and felt around in the dark, trying to make sure I had everything with me. That’s the thing about the forest; it gets darker earlier and stays darker longer because there are so many trees blocking the sun. I had shoved all my damp clothes in a bag the night before… did I mention that I would put my clothes out before I went to bed, and when I’d wake up, they’d be damp? From the humidity. Anyway, I gathered everything together and trekked on over to the dining hall (even though I was on time if not a little late, I was the first one there). Breakfast: Granola, watermelon and peaches, and PANCAKES! I was so happy. There are some things I just kind of forgot to miss. Once everyone finally was ready I took a picture with Jose and we got back on the boat for two hours. We saw a red snake and some more monkeys, this time with super-fluffy tails. Some kids fell asleep, but again I couldn’t. I looked at trees and stuff, but I also just kind of let my mind wander, which is actually really interesting because I start thinking about movies, etc. that I haven’t seen in ages. Fun. I sat between Jacob and Milan, and I always have to do the work in a conversation with either one of them, so I didn’t bother. We stopped and got out by a bridge, and most of us went to cross it to go to the bathroom. There wasn’t really a bathroom. While we were waiting for our truck, some women came and tried to sell us bracelets and bags made out of the same palm branches and method that Jose had used for our bracelets. Most of us didn’t have money, but Germán, ever the linguistics student, recorded them talking their native huorani (the only language they knew) and bought a bracelet to make up for it. The truck came and we watched the guides switch out the trash and empty gas cans for new ones and more food. At first I was squished next to Andrew in the truck, and I watched the natives in their open house; the kids climbing trees and running around. Space opened up in the front, and I sat next to Jose and Felicia. Jose tried to point out a pig to me but I missed it, but I did catch sight of a deer. He asked me about Ohio and I asked him about Uturi, but I got kind of tired and he and Germán got to talking. Felicia was reading a Cosmopolitan magazine (in Spanish) and needed help with some of the words. They gave us another bagged lunch (PB&J, ham and cheese, three types of cookies, a clementine, and two juice boxes) and we stopped at the military-base-looking place. We had to wait a while for our other boat, but we did get to see a couple other gringos. We make jokes about the gringos all the time, especially at the university because there are other American students there. Of course, WE aren’t gringos because we speak Spanish all the time. We got on our second boat and I watched Felicia flirt with one of her favorite guides, but then I fell asleep. I just kind of chilled when I woke up, although a lot of kids had brought out homework. I ate my clementine and felt all cool and North Ridgevillian because I spit the seeds into the river as if they were watermelon seeds. Brenden gave me an apple, too. We got off at Coca and I said my final good-bye to Jose. We waited in this really touristy looking area and a couple of kids took pictures of this toucan, but then most of us went inside a restaurant to “eat lunch.” Some kids ordered food, but I just got hot chocolate and joked around. We had to go back to the airport at Coca and we waited for our plane; I became everyone’s best friend when I whipped out the purell (I don’t expect soap in the bathrooms anymore, and if there’s toilet paper, it’s a good day…). I had to sit next to Germán on the plane, which wasn’t too bad because I love to bother him with questions about nuances in the Spanish language… like “warm” versus “hot” and other stuff I can’t find in a dictionary. I liked to look out the window at all the “broccoli,” plus they gave us peach juice. After we landed and Germán told us that our bus would come for us at 7:15 instead of 7 on Monday (YES) I caught a cab with Maddy and Jacob. It was a Friday night, but there was no way I was going out. I opened up Skype, ate, and pretty much started blogging, stopping only to shower and going to bed at 11.
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