I was only in Baños, the small-town-outdoor-adventure-capital of Ecuador for about 30 hours, but I stayed completely busy and came back exhausted. Yes, the class 3+ whitewater rafting was fun (despite the irritable Scotsman sitting behind me), as were the thermal baths, but there's something about jumping off a 140 meter bridge that dominates your mind for a little while after.
Puenting (or "bridging", for you non-hispanohablantes), is sort of like bungee jumping, but instead of a single elastic line down, the rope is attached to both sides of the bridge, so you fall into a pendulum swing, rather than bounding in place. Basically, they hooked me up to two harnesses and four carabiners, then had me step onto a tiiiiiny little platform off the edge of the bridge. If I wasn't freaking out before (and I was), I started to then. But I had an incredible view of the mountains around me, and there was a very pretty river 300 feet directly below me. The guy said "listo?" ("ready?") and I said "ahhhhhh!" ("ahhhhhh!"), and then, betraying every survival instinct in my body, I let myself be pushed off the bridge. I wasn't planning on yelling anything, but as soon as I started to fall I found myself screaming "HOLY SHIT!!!!". And then it was over. And they slowly, gently lowered me down to the ground. Easily the scariest thing I've done in my life, and I can't wait to do it again!
In other news, I came back to Quito in time to go to the Sunday get-together at the synagogue, where I played futbol, had a ton of pizza and chocolate cake, and hung out with Ignacio and Nir, the only two guys my age. It was really cool just to spend to some talking and fighting for bounce-house supremacy. Although it sounds like people my age aren't terribly engaged in the community, there's a decent chance I'll end up seeing these guys again, either at the synagogue or we made tentative plans to meet up for an evening to hang out again. Success!
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