21st birthday and jungle adventures

on my birthday, i woke up to ten dozen flowers in my room with a note that said "happy birthday. love, blake" im not totally sure who helped him sneak that one, but it was so incredible. i couldnt even see my desk because it was entirely covered in flowers.

also, blake bought us two tickets to go see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this summer.

Anyway, the whole gang jumped in the van and we headed off to the jungle. I spent about four hours of my birthday in the car, but the scenery in ecuador makes all car rides a privilege, so i didnt mind.

we arrived at the jungle sometime before dusk. we are staying in Shell, Ecuador, which is famous because it is where the American missionary Jim Elliott and his other missionary friends lived (and got speared to death). in fact, we are staying next door to the house they lived in.

at night, we all went out for dinner, and i had a cake and whatnot. the day was not super eventful, but i enjoyed myself and i did a lot of reflecting on the past year. Being 20 years old was so much fun. it was without a doubt the best year of my life. here are some reasons:

-i had michelle, annie, and jami as roommates
-i started dating blake, who changed my life and whom i love so much.
-i was able to travel to scotland to be in my best friend's wedding.
-i also had the opportunity to go to ireland, england, germany, france, italy, and the czech republic.
-i started my junior year
-i came to ecaudor, where i've been able to experience incredible things. standing on top of one of the worlds tallest mountains, riding a boat on a lake inside a volcano crater, seeing some of the most impressive waterfalls in south america, meeting tiny quichua villages hidden up in the andes mountains, swimming with sharks in the galapagos islands, football games, building deep friendships, finally making my bed, dancing and throwing spears with the huaroni tribe, canoing and rafting in the amazon, flying little planes over the amazonian rainforest, learning a ton of spanish and latin american politics, and learning a lot more about myself.

so. being 20 was pretty incredible. im excited about this next year of my life. so far, its looking pretty good.

the day after my birthday was the best day of my life. i mean that really honestly. it is no exaggeration. it really was the single greatest day of my life.

we flew five-passenger cessna airplanes over the amazonian rain forest. sarah, alex, ben, and tommy flew in the plane with me. it was one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen. i can't even explain how vast it was. it was just the thickest, greenest, most beautiful, vibrant part of the earth i could ever imagine. we landed on a small clearing of land at a huaorani village. you may have heard of the huaorani tribe. they are famous for being featured in the movie "End of the Spear", which is a true story about five missionaries who were speared to death by the huaorani in the 1950's. obviously, they don't spear people to death anymore.

the huaorani people were the most beautiful people i've ever met. most of them couldnt speak spanish, so we communicated with smiles and dances and laughter. we hiked through the jungle to get to their hut. we were greeted by the women who gave us all a grass headband and painted our faces with the inside of a really strange bright orange fruit. we had a spear throwing competition, which was nearly impossible for us. then we did blow darts. sarah and i actually hit the target, which was awesome. we then went inside the hut and the women started to dance for us. they invited me and sarah to dance. then the men joined, including tommy, alex, and ben. when we were all singing and dancing in their hut, i felt so much joy filling up my whole entire body. i was close to tears. it was just the single most incredible experience of my life.

after the singing and dancing, everyone pushed ben and this huaorani girl together. apparently, they got married. we didnt know he was getting married, but afterwards, our pilot explained what had just happened. then, they proceeded to wed sarah and a 12 year old boy. alex even got married. fortunately, tommy and i weasled our ways out of that.

anyway, the huaorani are the most beautiful people in the world to me and the only reason they were ever called "savages" is because they refuse to let their culture and their land be taken advantage of. i commend them. as we were flying back over the rainforest and i was sickened by the bits of deforestation and oil refineries, i knew that if it weren't for the huaorani, the entire region would be deforested.

so that was the best day of my life.

tomorrow looks pretty promising as well. we are hiking and then canoing and then trekking through the jungle to get to a Shuar tribe. I don't know much about the Shuar tribe, but they are probably as cool as the Huaorani.

the day after that, we are doing some "extreme rafting". i dont know what the "extreme" part entails, but it sounds life-threatening, which i classify as fun.

the day after that, we are biking around Mount Tungurahua, a huge active volcano. that should be fun, considering active volcanoes are equally as threatening as "extreme rafting.

then, we head home to quito to pack up and say goodbye to Ecuador. i will be home on saturday wow.