I think my favorite part of Bellavista was the wildlife that we saw. Millipedes, frogs, and hummingbirds drove the point home that this area was alive with a rich profusion of life. If I had only seen interesting flowers, trees, and ferns then I would still have been impressed, but it would have felt too much like a walk through a botanical garden, or some guy's backyard. The animals showed that this was truly an active forest that was home to an incredible amount of life.

     I thought that my biggest challenge would be my injured wrist, but I was determined to see this hike through to the end, regardless of the difficulty. In reality, the rope and ladder portions of the hike were not as difficult as I feared they would be. It hurt my wrist a little, but not enough that I was unable to climb the ropes and continue. The pain was easy to ignore when I was surrounded by the beautiful details of the cloud forest. In the end, my biggest challenge in the cloud forest was staying warm. As soon as my pants and shirt started getting wet, I realized that I would get very cold, very soon. of course, jumping in to the waterfall did not help me stay warm in the least. Thankfully I kept my jacket mostly dry and was able to wear that for the latter part of the hike, at the end of which I had warm, dry clothes waiting for me.

     I think the thing that I have continually realized throughout the week is that I do actually know enough Spanish to communicate with my host family and many of the people that I encounter. Although I know I cannot have deep or long conversations, I have realized that I do have the vocabulary and grammar to ask for whatever I need and order things in restaurants or direct taxi drivers. In the next week I want to be confident enough to start actually talking to people and not hesitate to speak because I am afraid I do not know the words.

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