Lord of the Flies...
Today we went on another hike. Well, before we went on a hike we were supposed to attend a Shaman medicine ritual but it turned out that the Shaman didn't show up. Shaman-less in South America, we decided to go onward.
We went for a hike to see a waterfall and a cave. The hike today was much harder (steeper) than the hike yesterday but it was only about 20 minutes instead of 2 hours. When we got to the waterfalls, we were all pretty fatigued. Some brave souls -- Ryan, Billy, Sean, and Nick (from left to right) -- ventured up a practically vertical stone wall to get to the waterfall. The wall that they climbed was about 15 feet in height and I must admit that I was a little concerned about their safety when the climbed up and down the wall. I decided that I would sit out on climbing the wall and just take pictures instead. Apparently the water was pretty cold. But the experience was fantastic. We went up to the caves and learned more about its significance in the Incan culture. The cave was a place for spiritual ceremonies and was considered sacred to the Incans. We saw a dead bat in the cave and many of us regarded that as sacred too.
Today, also, was the day that I have eaten guinea pig (cuy) for the first time. I knew that today was going to be the guinea pig eating day and I was feeling a little uneasy about it. I ended up eating just a little piece of meat and, all in all, it wasn't too bad. It was definitely better than my cascaritas (eating charred pig skin) experience at Ingapirca but it is something that I do not desire to try again.
We had about a three hour bus ride back to Cuenca today and it was actually pretty comfortable. When we arrived back to Cuenca, I was starting to feel the excitement of just having one more week of classes.
