Welcome to the Jungle

This weekend, I went on an adventure to Tena. Tena is located about 6 hours (by bus) to the East of Quito.  It's a small town in the Amazon jungle. On Saturday morning, at 6 am, a group of us took a bus there. We arrived around noon, where it was extremely humid. After finding a nice hostel and eating lunch, our hostel owner took us to las cavernas jumandy.

Of course, on the way there, we had no idea what was going on. We thought he was taking us to see some waterfalls. When we got there, we saw a pool with water slides. We were told we weren't allowed to wear our flip flops, but had to wear boots (like rain boots). We were also only allowed to wear our swimsuits, and not our clothes. At this point, everyone was extremely confused, but decided to go along with it. Finally, after everyone had stored their stuff, put on their puts, paid their $1, we found out. We were going to explore a series of caves in the dark. We were given some headlamps and a flashlight. Our guide took us through the caves - complete with bats, lots of water, and a mud bath. It was pretty exciting; definitely a good decision to just trust our hostel owner.

On Saturday, while five people went white water rafting, I went on a jungle tour with two other girls. Our guide took us climbing up waterfalls and swimming in our clothes. It wasn't the heart of the jungle or anything, but it was still pretty exciting. I did get some bug bites - because the water from the waterfalls washed off my bug spray - but none of them itch. :-)

Finally, we took a bus back to Quito at 5 pm, and I got home around 10 pm. Unfortunately, the next day, I was really tired from traveling, but it was still a ton of fun. :-)