Next we rode our truck back down to go "tubing" as my sisters here had called it before we left for Mindo. I picture tubing is one tire or tube per person and you float down the river. Wrong. It was a bunch of tires tied together with ropes and we rafted down the craziest river with the most rocks ever. Our guide had to keep getting in the water to turn/push our raft so we didn't hit huge rocks, and when we hit them then our raft dropped suddenly into the water and we all flew around all over the place. Jessica fell into the middle of one of the tires, and our guide was like a spider monkey and in .05 seconds he was there to save her. Basically, a lot of screaming and laughing for the whole ride. 
Next we decided to let the four people who weren't staying the night choose what do to since their bus was leaving soon and we had the whole next day for activities. It was between the chocolate tour or riding quads, well of course we were going to ride quads. Only problem, not many people had drivers licenses (who knew one place would actually ask for documentation in Ecuador) and the quads were semi-automatic. The guide spoke English very well and was explaining to me that it was just like driving a car (no cars are automatic here) so he didn't realize I only knew how to drive automatic cars, so this was no help. After our crash test course around the block, I sort of figured out after he kept repeating in a Spanish accent, "Neutral, one, two, tree." Oh yea I'm good to go, ha! So us 8 got on 4 quads and were off, in the pouring rain all of a sudden. We were covered head to toe in mud, probably Sarah and I were worse because I just tried to stay in a straight line and not mess up so we hit every mud puddle. Good news is I didn't tip the quad or break it, I think. A couple times the guide rode his motorcycle up by me and told me to switch to a different gear, but this is expected of girl gringo drivers. Overall, learned that I should probably stick to automatic cars, and not too bad getting muddy since its bound to happen on any excursion here. After the other four left to go back to Quito, us four girls (Leslie, Ashely, Sarah & I) decided it was a great idea to take a nice hot shower! Group shower style of course since we had our bathing suits on already from rafting, and no one wanted to wait to shower fourth after being all muddy and wet and cold. Next on the agenda was the frog concert (concierto de ranas). We had no idea what to expect but it was 3 bucks and sounded pretty cool. 
So we got lost on the way there of course because directions here consist of "oh yea its right over there" (point finger) but when we were walking down one of the wrong roads a cute little black lab puppy ran out towards us so I began to pet it of course, and it started rolling around on my feet. I was very tempted to bring it with us! Finally when we found the frog concert we were greeted with a shot glass size glass of wine. Complementary. Very nice. We learned about the different frogs and toads we would be seeing and other cool insects (I guess spiders are cool to some people) and then we all took off for the walk. We saw different species of really tiny cool looking frogs and the place where the frog concert was at had different cabins and a lake in the middle, and was really cool all lit up at night. Probably the coolest thing was seeing dead logs that had micro bacteria inside so when all the lights were off it glowed in the dark! After the frog concert we were hungry for some pizza (best pineapple pizza is in Ecuador) and a couple of us got some beer (Pilsner the best of course!) Then it was time to hit the hay, in our mosquito net covered beds since our hostel walls didn't go all the way up to the ceiling. 
The next day we went to the waterfalls for a couple hours since there is a really nice hike out to them and then about 5 or 6 pretty close to each other. The gondola style thing that went out to the waterfalls was super long, high, and fast. All ingredients for something scary. We were all worried hiking out to the falls since it was all downhill that we would be tired on the uphill way back. We were right, I even took my shoes off and waded out into one of them to cool off, which was really refreshing! Also since we are out in nature and all some of the waterfalls lead right over paths. I was really nervous getting around one of them because the rocks were very uneven and the water was flowing right over the path. But we survived of course, we are getting used to the rugged terrain here.After the waterfalls we decided to go on the chocolate tour that we heard about to learn how to make chocolate and to sample of course! It actually was pretty cool learning about how to make chocolate and the fermentation process, they even make chocolate beer there! We also got to tour outside and see the different plants they use to help sweeten the chocolate, the sugar leaves (or grass maybe?) and the lemon grass that they learned could help in the process. Tasting was the best part. Cocoa is actually disgusting by itself. He gave us each a little sample without sugar and it was so bitter. Then we got to mix the sugar in and it actually tasted like chocolate. They even make barbeque sauce from some of the chocolate (super good!!) After lunch and of course some icecream we walked around a bit more then needed to pack up and get ready to go. Overall, really cool weekend and I forgot we even saw a wild Toucan when we were walking back from the waterfalls so we could get cell service to call a taxi. Also there were humming birds everywhere and a ton by our hostel! On the bus ride back it was neat to see the clouds under us and live stock on the super steep hills. Not sure how they do it, it seems like if they took one step they would fall. Also, a man on the bus had a rooster and I'm pretty sure someone had a box/bag full of chicks because they were chirping the whole ride back. Oh the things you will see in Ecuador! :)
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