Guayquil!

Waiting for the airplane

Diana and Emily in their little tree

Believe it or not the McDonalds here is AMAZING!!

The beautiful coast

Scary!!

Angel and the Iguana

Heather and her prince

Emily was to scared to touch it

Heather was to scared as well haha

Diana and Heather with our new little friend!

Guayaquil Temple!

Cassi and I at lunch

Diana, Cassi, Claire, Heather, Emily

Hey everyone!! Sorry it has been so long since we updated but we finally found sometime!haha Here are some pictures from the little fieldtrip we went on last week. We had the opportunity to go to the temple in Guayquil! It was beautiful!!! We also went to this really cool iguana park. You walk into the park and they are just EVERYWHERE!! They are on the grass the sidewalk, up in the trees. It was a little bit scary...espacially if you stand under a tree to long!! After the park we went to the boardwalk and walked a long the coast and took lots of fun pictures!! It was a really fun day!! Hope you enjoy the pics!!

Newest Mindo Fans!!

riding in the truck!



it was definatley a bumpy ride!! haha

Hiking to the waterfall....that rope was a lifesaver!!

smile em!!!

Here is the whole gang!!

Me doing the "superman"! it was sooo cool!!

Em doing the "Mariposa" You should have heard her screaming haha

The waterfall that we hiked too!

it was BEAUTIFUL!!!!

The waterfall!

we for sure need to work on our tan! :)

This bridge was awesome...but not so sturdy haha

We just couldn't get over how beautiful it is!!

A cute little hut at the begining of the zip line course

All suited up!!

Emiy and her roommate Diana

I still can´t believe I did that!



Getting off was quite the task haha





we all thought that our gear accentuated our behinds very nicely haha

from right to left: Nicole, Lisa, Diana, Cassie, Amber, Emily, Heather, Suzanne, Claire, Jamie and Angel

On the drive to mindo!

Bananas!!!!!!



At the beginning!

Em getting sutied up!

Jamie, Heather, Emily on our way to MINDO!

All ten of the girls plus our awesome substitue father of sorts, Angel (pronounced On-hel), went to The Mindo Adventure Canopy yesterday. We all got to go on a course of 13 different zip lines all soaring over the amazing view of the forest/jungle below!! Heather and I both got pretty daring and did some tricks while on some of the lines. I did what´s called the Mariposa or butterfly and Heather did the Superman. To do either of the tricks you had to be connected to one of the guides--for Mariposa you hang up side-down with your arms and legs spread out and scream your lungs out as you fly down the wire!! For Superman you have to cross your legs behind the guide (kind of like an inverted indian style) and spread your arms out so you look like Clark Kent!! After the zip lines we went on a pretty steep hike to an absolutely gorgeous waterfall and soaked our feet in the icy water. As we were hiking back out from the waterfall it started to rain and continued to do so until we got to our next adventure... even though we were drenched from the rain, it was nothing compared to how wet we were from the rafting down the river!! Our rafts were made out of 6 giant innertubes tide together with two river guides steering us through the waves!! We had such a blast!! But boy are we feeling it in our muscles now! If you ever have the opportunity to go to Mindo, or anything like it, we suggest jumping in with both feet and get ready for a the time of your life!!

WE FINALLY MADE IT!!!

We arrived yesterday at around 1 AM after three flights... one of them being especially long because of a 3 hour delay!! But, other than that we made it without any difficulties. We´ve had some orientation with our site director so we are getting to be a little more familiar with what we will be doing for the next couple of months. Heather and I are unfortunately not roomates but it´s okay because all of the other girls are really nice and welcoming. We had a delicious lunch today prepared by our cook, Angelita, complete with rice and a meat and bean sauce and some really yummy potatoes with spinach and peppers. The whole group went out to dinner tonight at the "Square burger"-- they were huge but totally to die for! It´s getting kind of late now and we both have an afternoon shift (but we have to go early for a little tour before) in the infant/toddler orphanage. Thanks for being so supportive!!! We love you and we´ll post again soon!!

ONE DAY LEFT!!!

Well the time is finally here!! We leave tomorrow!! We are soo excited we can't even stand it!! By this time tomorrow we will be on our way!! :) We will try and update this as much as possible!! Keep in touch!

Only 10 days left!!!!

We got all of our flight information/instructions a couple days ago and learned that we had to be at the airport by 5:10 AM! But that shouldn't be a problem since we won't be sleeping at all the night before anyway. We're scheduled to land in Quito, Ecuador by 8:40 PM that same day after a couple layovers--one in Chicago and then a second in Miami--so it'll be a long day but TOTALLY worth it!!

16 DAYS!!!!!

We are down to just over 2 weeks and can NOT wait to go!!! The packing frenzy is about to begin!! Wish us luck!!! :)