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Once again I have been absent from steepster for a while… But this time I come back with quite a story to tell. I will warn everyone that this is more a brief summary of my eventful past 2 weeks more than a review… Though the vanilla tea I am sipping does play a major part! : )

Last weekend, I went to Cuyabeno with the boyfriend and my family. Cuyabeno  is an Eco-Lodge in the Ecuadorian Amazon Jungle. By Eco-Lodge, they really mean ECO. There were no doors or glass windows. No electricity. No internet. No cellphone service. And lots and LOTS of bugs, frogs, snakes, and lots of other animals that you really don’t want to wake up next to (or find taking a swim in your toilet… as I did multiple times during the trip…). Anyways,  I took a bit of this tea with me on my trip and would make it with boiled water that they would give us at the lodge with dinner. It was great to have a strong vanilla tea that tasted creamy without needing milk to accompany me in the dark while I listened to the noises of the jungle and shared stories with the guides and locals. It is one of my comfort teas, so having its company helped my courage before closing my eyes to sleep surrounded by creatures of the night…

Once I got back to my house, I only had one week left before the big non-for-profit race that I organize (Ruta de las Iglesias). I had a whole lot to do, and it was sorta crazy and hectic. Getting everything ready for 8000 people to receive their competition chip and package as well as make sure the 10km path is all ready is quite a job for 2 people (my aunt and I organize the whole thing…). Well, all was going well, when my tummy started feeling funny. Then I started feeling cold. Then I had a super high fever… and it turned out I had an intestinal infection!!! Argh… What horrible timing! I couldn’t stay home from work the week before the race, so off to work with fever and all… It was miserable. But worst of all, I couldn’t drink tea because everything I smelled or tasted made me feel sicker… I didn’t eat anything or drink anything but Gatorade for 5 days! It was terrible…

The race was this Saturday. It was great and everything went fine. We calculated a total of 12000 runners (including those that ran without having officially signed up for the race). It was a huge success… until we realized that the company that managed the race results had given us the report with a HUGE amount of errors… So I have had to spend the past two days in front of a computer looking through the results and correcting the ones that had errors… 

So finally, now after these insane days, I am finally sitting down with another cup of vanilla tea to try to relax for a change. This tea smells as delicious as it tastes. The vanilla plays in well with the astringent (only a tad bit too astringent, but oh well….) black tea base. My favorite part of this vanilla black is that the the texture that this particular vanilla flavor gives the tea makes it seem like you have added milk to it. It really has the mouthfeel of a latte! I wish it wasn’t this late and I could enjoy another cup of tea, but it is too late… and another cup of tea right now would not be a very bright idea considering I have to go back and deal with more crazy work tomorrow! 

Please forgive my rambling! :) I missed everyone! I am glad to be back.