Mac's Rainy Day Mountain Biking and Bridge Swinging Blog

When I woke up on the third day of our mountain biking adventure it was raining.  I thought we wouldn't go biking in the rain but our guide said the rain would stop.  And it did for a second...but then it started raining more so we biked for three hours in the rain and then at lunch we all decided to stop riding.  So we got in the car and drove the rest of the day.  But we had fun riding in the rain.

The next day it started to rain again so we decided not to ride bikes and instead do something crazy.  My brothers went zip lining and I went bridge swinging!  It was very scary and fun at the same time!

Chimborazo...the start of our rainy biking journey.

This is what my brothers zip lined over!

My brothers zip lining.

My big bridge swing!

Our friend Nate also jumped off the bridge

After our jump!

Wiley's Amazon Jungle Blog

In Ecuador we went to the Amazon jungle.  On our first day going down the river we saw an anaconda, a three toed sloth and six species of monkey (wooly monkey, yellow-handed titi monkey, red howler monkey, capuchin monkey, squirrel monkey and black saki monkey).

Then we got to the lodge, had dinner and went to bed.  We woke up the next morning to go on a boat trip and we saw a bird called a stinky turkey or a hoatzin.  We also saw a two-toed sloth, pink river dolphins and a pygmy marmoset which is the smallest monkey in the world.

We went to a local village where we got our faces painted with war paint that came from a fruit.  We then went to a garden full of yucca plants.  We chopped down the tree, pulled out the roots, washed them off, grated them, squeezed the juice out and made powder.  The powder was used to make bread that we ate for lunch.

We also went for hikes in the jungle during the day and night.  We saw tarantulas, a bullet ant, and ate some lemon ants that taste sour like lemons.  On the last night we caught an amazon tree boa.  We got to hold it for a little bit and then let it go.

Mountain biking on Cotopaxi by Levi

While staying in Quito we wanted to go mountain biking down the highest active volcano in the world.  It's called Cotopaxi.

First we drove for about an hour up to the point where we started to bike down the volcano.  The wind was so strong up there that when we got on our bikes it would blow you over!  When we got to where it wasn't so windy and it was flatter on the right and left sides, we saw wild horses everywhere.

Windy and cold but really fun!

Wild horses!

Cotopaxi 

Mac's Galapagos Blog

In the Galapagos we were on a three story boat called Coral 1.  Every day we would get up at 7:00 in the morning and have breakfast then begin our activities which were hiking, sightseeing and snorkeling.

My favorite is snorkeling because there are seals in the water that play with you sometimes and also you can see penguins and turtles.  We also saw gigantic Galapagos tortoises, blue footed boobies, albatrosses, Galapagos hawks and many different finches.

On the tour we went to 7 different islands.  Espanola is my favorite because we went to a very long white sand beach with lots of seals that you could swim with.  On our trip I think this was one of my top three favorite places and if I ever get the chance I will surely go back again!