I will never forget...

Author: Ryan and Polly
Location: Rio Napo, Amazon
Today we began a day that has yet to end. I sit here writing the blog surrounded by friends that I've made over the past three weeks, that I will never forget. I built relationships between people that I believe have heavily impacted my life. We've grown together as a group and have accomplished many challenges set by our leaders as well as the environment. At the beginning of this trip it seemed impossible to imagine three weeks flying by as quickly as they have, but leaving the Amazon on our last day before traveling back home, we concluded our trip heading from the Amazon back to Quito.

Departing from the Amazon, we packed our bags full of our dirty clothes and boarded a dugout canoe that would take us from Hector's Island to Coca. Slowly traveling upstream was the first foreshadow of the approaching misfortune; the second was the complete and utter failure of the motor. With no motor pushing the boat against the current, we floated in the opposite direction of our destination. Polly eyed branches near the shore and grabbed onto one. That little branch held a boat of 27 people (including the drivers) in the same position for half an hour. Another boat finally rescued us and brought us to Coca, where we finished our tourist shopping and flew back to Quito.

After arriving at the Quito hostel, we prepared for our last group dinner. We all put on our best and cleanest clothes in celebration of our last night together and ate the best dinner we would have throughout the whole trip. Sam even told the live band it was Maddie's birthday so they then began a medley of birthday songs in her honor even though her birthday is in December. Finishing our dinners we took taxis back to the hostel for the closing ceremonies.

In our last meeting we did some extremely fun and meaningful activities. The ceremony highlights were the acapella-ish concert and Kelly's slideshow of pictures from the trip. Waiting for the meeting to begin, we all sat cramped in a little room in the hostel belting songs from the likes of the Jackson 5 and ABBA. That was a lot of fun. The slide show was also great as we got to laugh and remember everything we had experienced. We all laughed and remembered all of the great times we had together. The closing ceremony finally ended in tears as the reality of everyone's departure began to sink in. Leaving tomorrow will certainly be difficult for everyone but I know we will all stay in contact.
Flickr Photos from Today
Flickr Photos from this Voyage