Letter from Ecuador 1

Dear Parents,

Today we woke up at 7:30 feeling like P-Diddy.  My friends wished me a happy 15th birthday.  We washed up and went to breakfast.  It was delicious; nice Ecuadorian rolls with Ecuadorian strawberry jam, delicious Ecuadorian pancakes, and Ecuadorian hot chocolate.  After a refreshing breaking of the fast, the other 14 boys (Group A) departed to the Cloud Forest (with Messrs. Joost and Egan) while my group (Group B) had about an hour and a half to play ping-pong, billiards, and Foosball.  At 10:30 we hopped on the bus driven by Sofia and were on our way to Cochasqui to see llamas, alpacas, and pre-Incan underground pyramids.  There was a gorgeous view of the entire Andean range from the peak of the pyramids.  The evil spirits and our bad pasts were beaten out of us (literally) by Virgilio, a Shaman, in a spiritual (and physical) Indian Ritual involving prickly branches and guinea pigs.  We will never forget this experience.  We stopped in the town of Cayambe to buy the famous bizcochos (cookies), soccer jerseys, and a ball.  We straddled the Equator line.  We then found a local field and were obliterated by the locals in a game of futbol (soccer).  We then drove back to the Hacienda around 6 PM, had some free time, and now we are eating a nice dinner to celebrate my birthday.  We are going to bed early (kind of) because tomorrow is a challenging day.  We’re hiking up Fuya Fuya.  We hope that Group A in the Cloud Forest is not being eaten up alive by bugs, mosquitoes, spiders, and all other Joost creatures of the night.  We are all well and can’t wait to show you our new permanent indigenous tattoos and piercings.

Love,

Ben the Birthday Boy and Group B