Day Numero Ocho:

This morning we awoke and made another hike into Las Tangaras to help the two bird biologists, Luke and Katie, with cleaning up the sanctuary. Along with three other students, I made wooden steps to be placed along the trail entering the sanctuary. Who would have thought I would find so much enjoyment in sawing wood planks? It was very satisfying to say the least. One minor side note, never trust me with a hammer. Seeing how my hand-eye coordination is ZERO, I successfully hit my hand more than the nail. Oops now I see I will never be very good in construction. I guess that's a good reason to stay in school right? Mom and Dad you should proud of my epiphany! After a few hours of helping Luke and Katie we made the trek back to the trail head. However we didn't just hike. We spent a little too much time at Las Tangaras and were late getting back to the trail head so we had sprint to the top. When I said we literally sprinted up the mountain to make it back to the trail head, we really did. We were all exhausted and more than happy to be in a truck headed down into town. We had a delicious lunch and headed back to Hotel Bambu where we had a final session with Massimo before we said adios to him. After spending this week with Massimo we all became rather attached to him and seeing him go was sad. He headed back to his home in Italy while we made our way into town for our last meal in Mindo. We came home and played Mafia with the whole crew before we had lights out. Tomorrow we head back to Quito and then on to the Amazon!