Puerto Lopez, Agua Blanco and the Drive to the Coast

Thursday night, after Spanish class we quickly ate dinner and were off to our first Salsa lesson. It was fun, but a bit more challenging than I expected. I'll need to practice for sure! Hahaha. After our class, we tried "Ecuadorian Tequila" at a local bar for 25 cents a shot. It was different, but good. After quickly packing we met our guide, Celso, out at a bar. It was a good time but after an hour we had to leave to catch our bus to Puerto Lopez. We left Banos at eleven thirty and arrived at our hostel on the beach at ten in the morning the next day. IT WAS BRUTAL... I only slept about two hours. Once arriving at the beach we ate breakfast and were off to see some ancient ruins at Agua Blanco. It was crazy hot out, but we hiked around for two hours learning about the ancient culture, the flora and fauna of the area, and ended up at a naturally spring known for it's healing powers. We swam in it and put some of the natural clay on our skin. It smelled like rotten eggs and made me feel slimy all over. Don't know if I would do it again, but it was an interesting experience. After the ruins we went to a BEAUTIFUL beach. We hiked up to an outlook and the view was breathtaking! After the short hike we swam in the ocean. The waves were the strongest I have ever swam in! We tried body surfing on some of them but after Jen, Susan and I got annihilated by one (Jen lost her contact and I got stung by a jellyfish) we were done playing. So we got back on the bus and had seafood practically on the beach. The sunset was fantastic and after dinner we sat on the beach and drank a few cocktails. We had an early day planned on Saturday so we were in bed pretty early.