Waterfalls and Sloths

I tried to post on Sunday but something went wrong.. Surprise, there aren´t classes today! I asked my host mom why there are so many teacher´s meetings. She told me that all the teachers had to take a test and did horribly, the government realized that the education system here is terrible, and now they are canceling classes with great frecuency to try and improve the system. Hmm. Something doesn´t seem quite right.

Highlights from Tena:

RAFTING! It was amazing- we did class 4 rapids which was great... There were waterfalls every kilometer or so- just gorgeous. The river we were on has very limited access by foot and road, so we were really in a pretty isolated place. The raft almost flipped a couple of times, and I almost fell out once.. I would have if my foot hadn´t been caught in the foot strap. It reminded me of my first time waterskiing when I didn´t let go of the rope. Although, the feeling of being dragged underwater while in a set of rapids on a jungle river may be a bit more intense. Not to worry, I got pulled back in quickly!

At one point we jumped out of the raft to swim up to a waterfall. We all climbed up and stood underneath this huge, very powerful waterfall-- looking out at the river through a wall of water was absolutely incredible.

I also got to go through a set of rapids outside of the raft on my back! It was a ton of fun, although I ingested a fair amount of water...which may be the reason I was sick the next day, who knows.

Saturday night Becca, Sara and I went to a restaurant in Tena. It was probably one of the most entertaining eating experiences of my life. There are a lot of reasons... one was the insistence of the waiter to speak English in a very formal, slightly French accent. Another is that there were SLOTHS crawling around the walls of the restaurant. It was SO bizarre. That´s all I can say about that... it was weird. I think you had to be there.

Hope everything is going well at home!!!

Lots of love!