Beth and I are done with our "trips" now, and have only been more and more disappointed each day with this volunteer agency. The first day was spent at a big market, which was nice other than the fact that we had to ride 2.5 hrs there in a truck cab with the agency family which consisted of two adults, a 9 year old, and a 1 year old baby crammed into the cab while the sick baby coughed, snotted and cried the entire time. All I could think of was how badly I wanted to hold the child down and suction him, then give him a dose of Tylenol and let him cry himself to sleep. Instead the mom thought it was a better idea to take him out of his car seat and let him climb all around the truck and snot all over everyone. After arriving at Otavalo (the market) we had only 2 hours to shop the enormous market and were rushed the whole time. The trip was over by 1pm or so and we weren't sure why we had to rush so much. Afterwards they took us to Fredy's (the husband of the family) sister's house to spend the next three nights. We were happy to see that we were put in the guest apartment-type structure behind the family's extremely nice house and thought the accommodation would be great. Then we attempted to sleep and realized that the beds were by far the most uncomfortable beds we had ever tried to sleep on, and I'm not exaggerating. The next day when we attempted to shower, we realized that there was no hot water, so we have not showered in several days. So much for nice accommodation.

The next day was Beth's birthday and we were scheduled to go to some hot springs, which we thought sounded nice. Fredy picked us up at 7am and took us to the springs. When we got there we found that the entry fee to the park was $7 each, and given that we had paid a lot for these trips we decided to tell Fredy that we weren't expecting to have to pay and had no money. He covered the cost and waited in the car. The springs were large cement public swimming pools filled with hot water, overlooking beautiful mountains that you could glimpse at every now and then when it wasn't raining and the clouds cleared for a moment or two. Not to sound unappreciative, but I was unimpressed. After two hours we were told to meet Fredy at the car. We drove back to his sister's house and were back before noon. We couldn't help but wonder why we had to start so early but later realized it was because they had a family gathering to attend. We were invited to eat with the family and were finally able to try coy, or guinea pig, which Fredy's parents raised in the backyard alongside chickens. I thought it was quite enjoyable though Beth didn't like it so much. I can't really describe the taste, but it was dark and oily like turkey meat, salty like pork, and stringy like chicken. The skin tasted a bit like summer sausage. I was a bit turned off by the clinched little claw, but not enough not to eat it. I'd eat it again. After lunch we took a cab to the mall and saw Rambo, one of the only English movies showing. It was surprisingly better than we expected. Afterwards we went to Pizza Hut and ate some delicious pizza before going back and calling it a night.

Monday was by far the worst day! First, we both woke up with head colds (probably from the snotty baby). We were picked up by Fredy and Maria at 8am. We were told we had to sit in the truck bed, which was covered and had very uncomfortable seats, because they were picking up three people in the city (where they had just come from) and they would be sitting in the cab. After stopping by their office to drop off their baby, then picking up the three people, we finally set off on our trip to Mindo, where we were supposed to go to a butterfly farm and go tubing on a freezing cold river, at about 9:30am. At about 10:30 we stopped at a museum where the three people riding in the cab had apparently wanted to stop. Not wanting to pay the entry fee for a museum of which we had no interest, we waited for them for an hour in the truck. At about 12:30 we finally stopped for lunch and found out that the three people were on their way to the same place we had volunteered in the Cloud Forest, not to volunteer but to stay for three nights. After lunch we were taken to the butterfly farm and were once again expected to pay the entry fee of $3 a person. Not that $6 is a whole lot of money, but we had already paid over $500 each for 10 days of volunteering (which was more or less a disaster) and four days of trips, so we expected the entry fees to be paid. We paid it anyway, and enjoyed the gardens. The butterflies were beautiful, but the small greenhouse of 15 or so species of butterflies only made for about 30 or 40 minutes of entertainment, and even that was a stretch. After leaving the butterfly farm we walked across the street to the wildly rushing, rapid river, where we were told we would be tubing. Between the frigid water (maybe 60 degrees or so), the rain, the large rocks populating the river, creating large rapids, and Beth and I feeling more or less physically terrible, we decided not to go tubing. We waited while one of the group of three went down the river with Maria and two guides, and were a bit relieved to see that the tubes were tied together, making it a bit safer than we originally anticipated. After they were done tubing we rode another few hours to the Cloud Forest to drop off the group and some groceries. Although we had to take the bus when we went there, they got door to door service. Although we were volunteering and they were only staying there, the food that was brought for them to eat included eggs and fruit and other wonderful varieties, while we were fed nothing of the sort. We waited at the Eco-Lodge for over an hour for them to get settled before starting the drive back to the city at 5:30pm. At about 7:30 we stopped by the agency office to pick up their kids and did not return to our accommodation until after 8:30. Never once did anyone appologize to us or explain anything. We spent most of 12 hours riding in the back of a cold bumpy truck for 40 minutes at a butterfly farm and felt like we were only an inconvenience to everyone involved.

Today we were picked up at 8:30 to go see a volcano. We were happy to see that no one else was in the car when Fredy picked us up and thought that anything would be better than yesterday. We were taken to one of the many mountains in the area and told that we were each to pay $10. We had been told the night before that it would be $7 each, and though we were quite unhappy to be expected to pay another $14, we were not prepared to pay $20. The man taking our money told us that the entry fees had just gone up this week. Right. Finally Fredy agreed to pay the extra $6 and we set off hiking. We hiked, sick and out of breath, in the mud around what looked exactly like the rain forest that we had just spent a great deal of time hiking, and never saw anything that resembled anything other than a mountain, exactly like all the other mountains that are everywhere in Ecuador. Apparently the "mountain" along which we were hiking was supposed to be the volcano. Nice. We were done by 11am after which Fredy dropped us off back in Quito. We're trying not to be too bummed about getting scammed and were shocked to read the online descriptions of the trips, which were nothing like what we experienced. We will certainly be writing a very detailed letter about our experience that we will present to Maria and Fredy and threaten to post on every online traveler message board we can find unless they refund some of our money. We'll see what happens.

Tomorrow we fly to the coast to relax on the beach of Montanita, which is described as a "chill hippy town." We're hoping to finally see the sun and get some color. Things can only get better from here - at least I hope so.