Enamored with Intag!

I've written about Intag a few times before, specifically in my posts dated 6/17/18 and 9/9/18.  It's a breathtakingly beautiful, tropical, high-elevation cloud forest about two hours from my home.  I've traveled there several times on my own, but for this weekend's adventure, I planned an outing for my favorite Peace Corps Volunteer friends.  They came from all over Ecuador to spend the weekend here and to find out why I can't stop talking about it!  We were 13 in all, and we had a great adventure together.... especially getting our little rented school bus and driver lost in the dark on a washed out gravel road during a major storm event where we had to drive through creeks and past a waterfall 

that could have carried the bus away.  

Like I said, it was an adventure!  

But when we finally made it to our destination and the morning revealed the view,
we all agreed it was worth it!

So, we took a guided hike up into a private reserve of virgin forest and explored
the plants and animals of this biologically diverse cloud forest. 

Investigating the sap of the Sangre del Dragon tree... 
which lathers into a cream that heals just like Neosporin!  

In the evenings, we played lots of games and had some sing-alongs, too.  So much laughter...

I'm lucky to have these adventure-mates and Peace Corps friends.

Back Row: Laura (CA), Berto (friend from the States), David (NY), Lawrence (NC), Josh (VA)
Middle and Front Rows: Austin (GA), Ashley (IL), Ava (CT), Hannah (NH), Melissa (FL),
Chris (NY), Martha (IL), and Me.