Did I mention I jumped off a bridge the other day?

We were biking outside of Baños when we came across a little rag tag operation of locals peddling something called swing jumping over the river Rio Blanco. I wasn't planning on it, didn't even know it was there, but when we got to the bridge we stopped to watch a kid jump while his family looked on nervously. I got sweaty palms just watching him but it looked like fun so I told Josh I'd do it if it was $10 or less. We asked how much: $10. Then they showed me photos of previous jumps and offered to watch our bikes; two minutes later I was harnessed and ready to go before I'd had much time to think about it.

After getting reassurance that no one had been hurt in their nine years of operating (at first I thought they said only 6-8 people had EVER done it - but thankfully they meant that DAY) I was crawling over the rail guard and standing on the edge of the bridge looking down at the river well below, heart pounding. The guy helping me told me to let go of the railing and hold the rope in front of me and as soon as I did that I could feel it pulling me forward and down. He said he would count to three and then I should just hop a bit feet first and away I would swing. Since I tend to jump the gun on most things and I didn't want to wuss out I think I went at about 2.5.

It was scarier, faster, and more fun than I anticipated. I screamed through my first couple swings but then the best part was the slower pendulum-like movement when I could just lay back and enjoy the smooth ride over the river. If we'd had more than $10 I might have done it again. They had bungee jumping too for only $15 but I wasn't quite ready to take that leap…

Including the swing jump, this last week in Baños and in the rainforest in Tena has been one big hodgepodge of adventure sports. We biked past waterfalls, hiked and kind of "canyoned" down rivers in the jungle, and had a great time white water rafting class 3 rapids. The waves were great and Josh and I took to yelling out the battle cry ADELANTE! (forward) as we rushed into the rapids.

Rafting in Ecuador was a lot different than rafting in the states. In the states the idea of staying in the boat while on the rapids is pretty paramount - except if you choose to jump out and swim during a mellow patch. Here the guide intentionally drove the raft up onto a rock, tumbling 3 out of 4 of us out of the boat in the middle of a sizeable rapid; pushed me off the boat for no reason about 3 times; and then proceeded to play "games" like balancing standing up on the sides of the raft and pulling the raft so it was just about vertically perpendicular to the water - all of which would end with us in the cold water, yet again. At the end of the day we had swallowed a solid glass of river water and were beaten and bruised but still smiling alongside our playfully deviant guides.

Our final extreme sport of the week was unexpected and not so fun. It doesn't have an official name, but I'll call it bus surfing. It all started when we found ourselves quickly awakened by our bus driver's assistant at midnight who told us that to catch the bus that would take us to our destination of Cuenca we had to get out before the bus station, cross the highway, and wait on the curb. We waited there for a half hour with an interesting cast of characters before the bus to Cuenca finally pulled up only to keep on going. Before we could start to panic another bus pulled over and told us they were full but that we would get seats once people got off at the next town an hour down the road. Facing a seven hour bus ride through the middle of the night standing up didn't appeal but we figured one hour was do-able.

Not too surprisingly the one hour quickly turned into 1.5 hours with the bus assistant seemingly unconcerned that we were still standing. In the end 2.5 hours passed before we both had seats. We tried to position ourselves in the aisle between seat cushion and arm rest like some of the locals who looked like they were feeling no pain, but both our knees almost gave out several times and at one point Josh fell asleep standing up. And that's how bus surfing from 1-3am on roads I wouldn't quite describe as straight or smooth became our final adventure sport of the week!