Carter Slocum, Plus3 Ecuador Summer 2025
On Friday (Day 7), I started the day early once again with breakfast at 8am. At this point, you should know what I had for breakfast – scrambled eggs and rolls! Ecuadorians must really enjoy this meal for breakfast LOL. I slept pretty well, and I was excited to explore the area that we were staying in since it was too dark the night before. I was amazed by how beautiful the property was that we are staying in, especially with it being in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. Following breakfast, Todd, the owner of the property, gave us a briefing on the history of this place, the indigenous communities in the area, and his overall mission. One thing I learned that I found interesting was that the reason why mission trips started across the United States and the world is because people thought the world was going to end during World War II, and when it didn’t, people had read a scripture saying that Christ wouldn’t return until everyone knew the word of God. This belief led missionaries to come to Ecuador and try and convert the Indigenous.
We then moved on to ceramic making with Ecuadorian women who are one of the most famous ceramics makers and who helped popularize it in the country. We started with rolling out natural clay found in a local river, and we had to make sure it was the shape of a long cylinder. We then got other pieces of clay and formed a base that we could use our long cylinder to attach to the bottom and form a pot. I wasn’t very good at it, and I had to get one of the women to help me. By the end of this activity, I had “made” 3 different bowls and next week we will be painting them after they are put into a fire.
We had lunch around 1 and then after our professor Skip gave a lecture on the different types of cacao beans and gave us more insight into the process of making chocolate. We then got to travel into the rainforest and search for cacao beans ourselves with some of the people who work on the property that we are staying at. As we got deeper in the forest, we came across all different types of cacao beans and our guide opened them up with a machete for us to try. I thought about trying it, but I ultimately decided that I was going to pass. We ended the night having some sort of cheese sandwich for dinner, and we went to a restaurant close by to play pool and get a snack.
On Saturday (Day 8), I struggled getting up for breakfast as I didn’t fall asleep until around 1:30am the night before. I took a shower, and it ended up being cold, so it woke me right up! I went to breakfast at 8am, and this time we were finally having something different – oatmeal and rolls. Right after, we attended a chocolate making session where chocolatiers showed us start to finish how they turn the cacao bean into edible chocolate. It was interesting, and it honestly was a quick process that wasn’t too complicated.
We then got news to change and get ready for a 2-mile water hike in the Amazon Rainforest. They told us to wear boots and pants as we were going to be entering water that would go all the way up to our hips. I was excited to go deeper into the rainforest, but also nervous at the same time because I didn’t know what to expect. We got to our drop off destination, and as we started to get in, we immediately saw a snake in the water! It ended up lasting over two hours and we got to swim and jump off a small rock into the water. It was really fun, and now I can say that I swam in a river in the Amazon Rainforest! My feet were killing, and we ended up having to walk halfway back to the property which added to my already low energy.
When we got back, we had lunch which consisted of rice and some sort of vegetable stew with chicken. We didn’t have a lot of time to change and recover from our adventures because a chocolate company named Kallari was visiting to give us more information on the chocolate industry, specifically the cacao bean, and we got to taste test a variety of their chocolates alongside another brand. Throughout the tasting, they had us vote on which chocolate we liked better. Although their chocolate was good, the majority of the time my mouth gravitated towards the other brand it was paired up with.
After that, we finally had some downtime, and I decided to spend the time decompressing in my room for a couple of hours. At 8 we were supposed to have dinner, but the lights to the building weren’t working properly, so dinner was delayed. We ended up having to eat with candles as our lighting and we couldn’t eat much because the Lodge was now housing 3 groups – Pitt, BYU, and ASU. To end the night, I am starting to pack my things because tomorrow we are doing a 2-hour bus ride and a 6-hour canoe ride into the Amazon Rainforest to stay with an indigenous community for a couple of days. We won’t have any service during this time, and the travel is going to be draining, but I am excited to see what tomorrow brings.
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