Tena

Hello from Tena! After we finished our 5-day trek around Quilotoa, we headed back to Angie´s hostel near El Chaupi, where we were well-rested for our one-day volcano summit of Rumiñaui, which is in Cotopaxi national park and faces the Cotopaxi mountain (oh, and the name of the province is also Cotopaxi). The next day (yesterday) was a travel day, and we took a one-hour bus ride back to Quito and from there a six-hour bus ride into Tena, the capital of the Napo province and essentially the entrance to the Amazon. We went exploring the city in small groups to find dinner last night, and we all found some pretty decent restaurants and street food, but nothing extremely eccentric as far as I know. (No one besides Mr. Sansoni has yet had the opportunity to eat cuy, which is guinea pig, though Ben and I and I think a few others are on a quest to find some. Thing is, you can´t find that here in the Oriente region so easily. It´s more of a highlands dish. In fact, though they do have it here in Ecuador, I´m pretty sure it´s actually Peruvian. ... Close enough. Though I recall that here in the Amazon we may find lemon ants and cooked pihranna. YES.) Anyway, today we went whitewater rafting on the Napo River and it was fantastic! I think everyone had a blast and was also really happy to have a shower afterwards back at out our hostel. Anyway, tomorrow we are starting our 3-day Amazon trek, and after that our service project (which i believe is five days) in Puma Rumi!

-Marielle