Caves are AWESOME. The jungle is even MORE awesome.

This past weekend my friends Dani, Tyler and I went to a small town called Tena, on the outskirts of the Amazon rainforest. I had never been before, but we were all sold when we read about the 'extensive cave system' in which rubber boots, headlamps, and bathing suits were necessary. Tena is also only a 4ish hour drive away- not bad at all by our travel standards.

We arrived just after dark on Friday night, in time to check into a hostel, grab dinner, and take a stroll through the eight-block town. There wasn't too much adventure to be found in Tena at night besides hanging out in the street amongst the construction work and the townies with full bottles of Zhumir, so we caught some early shut-eye.

The next morning we made ourselves a delicious PB&J breakfast before setting out and after about two hours of wandering around the hot streets of Tena looking for a tour agency, we finally hopped on a bus to the Cuevas de Jumandy. The only time I have ever been in an 'extensive cave system' was on our eighth grade field trip- our awesome eighth grade field trip. (The one where Oliver tripped and almost fell over the cliff ledge- remember? Please, Oliver, be more careful. You're not a cat, you know.) My Ecuadorian cave trip was pretty incredible as well, involving bats and scorpion spiders and huge stalactites and little Ecuadorian girls who will grow up with an unnatural fear of dark wet places (really, who brings 3-year-old girls who can't swim into a pitch-black cave full of water, bats, and spiders?)

It's weird how in Ecuador, the best experiences have always kind of just fallen on us. In this situation, our guide forgot to give us our change for the cavern tour. We asked another guide if we could get the change, and during the conversation this guide, Luis, mentioned that he worked for a foundation and gave jungle tours.

And this is why, after a little more research on the situation and a 2 hour hike through the jungle, we found ourselves setting up a tent in a cave bordering a raging river. I'm going to keep it short here and just tell you that the whole experience was absolutely incredible! Definitely the best thing I've done in Ecuador so far- and as you know, I've done a lot. Luis is 33 and was a soldier in Peru for years; this is how he knows so much about the jungle (he's also half monkey and can scale a 20ft tree trunk in a matter of minutes, but that's another story.) That night he caught shrimp in the river with his bare hands and cooked them in a special leaf that is good for cooking/eating. The shrimp were delicious! Salty and fresh and wonderful. We ate many different plants and jungle fruits that night- I even ate wasp larvae. We hiked under the light of a gorgeous moon (unfortunately, thanks to said gorgeous moon all the animals remained in hiding) and we jumped off cliffs into pools of water 20 feet below. (I've jumped off higher cliffs here in Ecuador, but each time it is still scary. I may or may not have pulled a little of the frantic leg kicking before I hit the water *cough*Anne Sjo*cough.*) We climbed up waterfalls and rivers, carrying our bags on our heads to keep them dry, and squished through two feet of lovely rainforest clay-mud. (No matter how old you are you CANNOT tell me you don't like squishing your feet through mud. There can't be a more satisfying feeling- except maybe for popping a really gross white pimple. But that's probably too much information right there, so I'll stop now.) All-in-all, you probably couldn't think up a weekend that was more fun.

I should have some pictures up soon! Nos hablamos pronto!