Blog Post #10 - Bella Vista

My favorite part of Bella Vista would definitely have to be our hike to the waterfall, specifically when we began climbing up the smaller cascades leading up to the grand, final location. My reason for this is really because I think it showed how strong we all are as a group and how much we support one another. Even with the first person to climb up the initial, smaller waterfall, everyone was cheering. Once you got to the top, there was a whole welcoming party there to congratulate you on your climb and compliment your courage and strength. At the bottom, people cheered you on and laughed as you stepped into the deep pool of freezing water (though after a while, it felt more refreshing and less chilly). During your climb, group members would give you a hand and help you up. Overall, although we’ve already bonded immensely as a class, I think that the experience climbing the waterfall in Bella Vista was an incredible teamwork exercise and brought us all even closer and forged even more trust among the members of our group.

The biggest challenge I encountered in the forest was most likely watching my own step because I am a clumsy fool near the equator, apparently. I put a lot of faith and trust in my footing when I maybe should be a little more practical and use not just my instinctive feet, but also my eyes. A few times I slipped because I was a little careless, but luckily my friends and classmates were there to stop my falling and keep me from going down in the thick mud. I overcame my clumsiness by laughing it off. What else can you do? People are clumsy and I just happen to be one of the more accident prone students on the trip. It happens!


My thinking about culture and communication has changed for the better over the course of this week. Studying Spanish a little more in-depth and refreshing my mind on the things I’d learned previously, I was better able to make simple conversation with others around me here in the country of Ecuador who speak Spanish only. This extends to my host family, to servers at restaurants, to taxi drivers, to the kids at Neque y mas Neque and much more. Communication has opened up a tad more, making it easier to learn and embrace the culture of Ecuador more intimately than I would had I not been studying Spanish, the language of the country we’re in. In the next week, as far as communication and culture go, I hope to continue practicing and expanding my knowledge/remembrance of the language in order to keep learning more and more and more about Ecuadorian culture. 

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