Atacames!

After a long working week, the girls and I decided we need a break, a beach break. On Friday after class Anina, Emily and I took a bus down to Atacames, a beach town in Esmeraldas, which is the Afro-ecuadorian providence of Ecuador. The bus ride, of almost 7 hours, was actually the nicest we have taken here. It had super comfy seats that reclined all the way back, and we got snacks and Evan Almighty, a way better movie than the usual action, blood filled movies they usually play on bus rides. It was also a weird bus ride in that we actually got led off the bus when we reached Esmeraldas, the town, to catch a taxi to Atacames, appearantly because the bus drivers were tired and couldn't do the, oh 25 more minutes to Atacames. Weird, although fine with us considering they paid for the taxi and we got a ride straight to the hoppin' nightlife that Atacames had to offer. After checking out the scene and grabbing some late night pizza and the first of the many, and I mean many, jugos de piña that weekend, we crashed at a pretty crappy hostel.


The next morning we went out for a nice breakfast, then moved into Cabañas Bohios, the cutest little cabins ever! They were surrounded by all kinds of flowers and plants (including a chile plant), and they even had a pool and swingset to hang out in. Very cute, and very fun. The rest of the day we spent laying out on the beach (and even napping), swimming, eating tons of BonIce (like ice tickles) and coconut juice, delish! That night I had an Ecuadorian specialty for dinner, ceviche de camaron (shrimp with veggies in a lemony juice) and petacones (fried plantains), pretty much amazing. We then hung out at the various bars on the beaches watching people of all ages dance to all kinds of music each place had to offer.


The next morning we woke up, went to grab breakfast, then went back to the beach for a few hours. We then ate lunch (ginormous jugos de piña and tostadas -which are really grilled chease sandwiches) and headed back to Quito. Our way back however, was a bit more adventurous that we'd thought. We had to take a chiva to Esmeraldas, then a bus to Santo Domingo (we saw very cool palm and banana plantations on the way there), where we waited in line with like 50 others, to catch a bus back to Quito. It still took the same amount of time, and less money, to get back though, which was nice.

MANA and the Latest Happenings

I haven´t really posted in a while because there really hasn´t been anything too, too exciting, but in keeping my weekend happenings documented, I decided I will talk a little bit about what I´ve been up to.

Otavalo, Cotacachi, Ibarra

The Saturday after spring break I went with Anina to Otavalo again because last time we went (during our Runa Tupari experience) she was sick and did not get to do any looking around at the artisal market, much less buy anything. We did all kinds of souvenir and gift shopping, then met up with David (our tour guide from last time who I became friends with and had been keeping in touch with) and had lunch together. We then caught a bus to Cotacachi, the leather capital of Ecuador (where you can get nice leather jackets for as cheap as $45!), to do some more shopping. Anina bought a beautiful leather purse and I got myself a leather wallet. That night we stayed in Cotacachi and hung out with David some more. We got pizza and ate it at our hostel while we watched parts of El Crimen del Padre Amaro, with Gael Garcia Bernal (who I just found out is from Guadalajara ---man, Jalisco has so much talent to offer!). The next morning we caught a bus to Ibarra, which is famous for their helados de paila (amazing fruit ice cream). We ate breakfast there, walked around the town, and got to help some kids who after following us around for a while had to courage to ask us for an interview for their English class. Anina helped them out by answering some questions in English, and in turn they led us to the best helados the paila. Anina and I both got mora and coconut flavors, it was delicious!

Emily´s Cumpleaños

On the 8th was Emily´s 21st bday and we went out to lunch an ¨Italian¨ restaurant near school. It was a fun little lunch in that we got a lot of eating done since we got a huge free (and delicious) gelato sundae because the waiter was a bit inept and kept getting our orders wrong, as well as quite a bit of studying done, since all of us had tests that afternoon. That night we all got together at Jessica´s house, ate pizza and watched Emily´s favorite movie ¨Hedwig¨ about some transexual man/woman. Interesting, but don´t think I´ll ever watch it again.

DISP-ing it all Weekend

The next weekend we pretty much just did work. Like nonstop. It was rediculous but it had to be done. We all had our 25 pg DISP (directed investigative study project) due on Wednesday and none of us had started, writing it that is. Emily and I went over to Anina´s house on Saturday and worked all day (11 a.m. to 11 p.m.) with only taking a break to go pick up the Mana tickets and grab some pizza for dinner. On Sunday Emily came to my house to work some more, although this time I worked on my huge marketing project, also due that Wed. It was a crazy work weekend but also a crazy sickness weekend. That day we found out that Jessica, who had had a headache and 104 temperature pretty much every single night for the past 3 nights, had Typhoid! Random, but true. (Although, now after getting medication, many tests, and not much improvement the doctors aren´t quite sure what she has). I, on the other hand, had major eye problems. They were super itchy and red, and I had a lot of trouble seeing. Luckily on Monday I was able to go to the doctor and get some eye drops. Now, after wearing my glasses everyday for the entire week and having the eye drops, I´m better.

MANA!!!!!!!!

Last night was the event that I´d been waiting for such a long time, the Mana concert! The concert was supposed to start at 8:30 p.m., but people started getting in line to go in at 11 a.m.! Despite my fanaticness, even I thought this was rediculous since the doors opened at 3 p.m. We decided that we would all get togther at Maureen´s house, who lives about a block away from el Estadio Nacional Atahualpa (where the Ecuadorian national soccer team plays) around 5, grab some shwarma near by, then head out to stand in line. After dinner we went to go stand in the line that went around for blocks. Luckily, we were able to find some of Maureen´s friends (who had been waiting in line for 2 hrs already) and cut them. Standing in line was rediculous because there was no order and people, like us, kept cutting --although I justify our cutting because we still had to wait for like 3 hours before finally getting in, we didn´t cut right before getting in, like tons of people did. It was tiring and kinda of frustrating because there were tons of police officers just standing around and not enforcing the line at all. In the end though, the wait was worth it.

We had tickets in cancha, which means that we got to stand in the field for the concert. This kind of sucked in the sense that we had already been standing for many hours, but the atmosphere during the concert was great. Everyone sang, danced, jumped, screamed, and did pretty much everything you do at rock concerts. I even heard a few people echandose un grito during ¨sigo siendo el rey,¨ although I do have to say, Ecuadorians don´t do it as well as Mexicans.


Although I had seen the Amar es Combatir World Tour concert twice already (in San Diego last April and in LA in October) and I already knew what to expect, there were a few spins to the concert that I really enjoyed, one of them being the great fire and firework spectacle that the concert ended with and the other being when Fher waived around the Mexican flag attached to the Ecuadorian flag, saying that Mana owed a lot to Ecuador, seeing as it was the first country (even before Mexico) who truly supported them. Like Emily said, it just represented me so well (although the American flag was still missing) since after being in Ecuador for almost 5 months, I do feel a very strong and special tie with this country. The Mana concert was, of course, AMAZING, and such a great treat after turning in the DISP and my marketing project the day before.

Side note: Jessica, despite being super sick still and having been in the hospital for some tests earlier that day, also went to the concert and fulfilled one of her top 10 things/dreams to do in life. It was really cool to share this love of Mana with her and see how excited she was.

La Costa!

After our trip to the Amazon, we did pretty much a 180 and caught an early morning 30 minute flight out of Quito to Manta (a major Ecuadorian fishing and commercial port), where we caught a bus ride to Puerto Lopez, our first destination on the Ruta del Sol (a string of beaches and villages that stretches on the southern coast).

Puerto Lopez

The bus ride was gorgeous! I would compare it to the Pacific Coast Hwy drive in California because of the beautiful beach scenery, but it was a bumpy and loud ride down. Also, instead of passing by huge mansions we saw tiny wood and straw houses, amazing sights nontheless. We arrived in Puerto Lopez at around lunch time. We took a taximoto (motorcylce taxi) that charged us way to much for the two blocks it took us to a hostel. After lunch, we decided that we wanted to take a bus ride to Los Frailes, about 7 miles north of Puerto Lopez because Puerto Lopez is mainly a fishing port that is very slowly developing for tourism (we had a pretty hard time finding good food here).

Los Frailes is a crescent of open beach that is secluded and breathtaking. We layed out in the white sand then went swimming in the almost too warm water for awhile. We then headed back to Puerto Lopez to catch the sunset on the beach while drinking ice cold Pilseners.

Isla de la Plata

The next morning we woke up early for our boat tour to Isla de la Plata (or "Silver Island" because of rumors that pirates buried treasures there during colonial times). It is also known as Poor Man's Galapagos, because of large nesting birds that can be found there. After about an hour boat ride to the island we put on tons of sunblock (it was a super hot day) and headed out to hike the island. Isla de la Plata was gorgeous. There were tons of towering cliffs with birds like blue-footed and masked boobies, as well as frigate birds.

After our hike, we went back on the boat where we had watermelon, tuna sandwiches and coke. Then the tour guide took us snorkling off one of the island's shores. We jumped in the warm water but couldn't really see any fish because the water was a bit murky from the rain the previous night. However, the guide was quick to fix the problem. He threw some bread into the water and the fish were quick to gather up and eat it all.

Afterwards we headed back to Puerto Lopez and caught the sunset on the beach again while we watched locals play volleyball and soccer on the beach. One of the things that we noticed, and I really liked, was that all the locals would take out their chairs and go outside in the late afternoon/early night to chat with their family and friends. Nice tight communities are cool.

Montañita

The next morning after breakfast we took a bus to Montañita, the bohemian surfing capital of Ecuador. We arrived at Montañita looking for a hostel and found a cool looking one for a descent price facing the ocean. We pretty much hung out at the beach all day and enjoyed tons fruit juices and batidos (juice with milk, like a milkshake/smoothie). It was a very relaxing day laying out in the sun and once again enjoying the beautiful costal sunset. Despite its reputation for being a super chill town with a pretty happening nightlife, Thursday night was a bit of a disappointment.

Sleeping that night was horrible as the room that Alex, Anina and I shared was right next to a communal bathroom and the terrible smells penetrated to our room. Furthermore, there was a lot of noice until very early in the morning, and the fact that there were mosquitoes buzzing around didn't help. Friday morning, our mission was to find a further hostel from the center of the town that was nicer.

After finding a better hostel, which was absolutely legit, we went in search for surf lessons! We paid for two instructors to teach us how to surf for an hour then let us play around (I say play around bc I was unsuccessful of actually standing up on the board, I only ever made it to my knees) for another hour, all for the price of twelve bucks! It was a great experience that I actually hope to repeat at some point and actually get to stand up. (I also now have a lot more respect for surfers, seeing how tough it was for me - so tough I'm embarrassed to say I was still pretty sore yesterday, 3 days later.)

Friday, nightlife picked up a bit as more tourists (both Ecuadorian and international) came and we stayed out pretty late despite our tiredness from the surf lessons. There were various happening bars but not as many dancing clubs, which tend to be our fav.

Our plan was to leave for Salinas, another beachtown on Saturday morning, but after having such a good time in Montañita we decided to stay there for our final full day of Spring Break. We pretty much hung out all day at the beach and witnessed a super colorful sunsent, as well as took more jumping pictures with the sunset as our background, and drank some more jugos and batidos.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast and headed out to catch a 3 hr bus to Guayaquil, where we caught a flight back to Quito. It was a legit Spring Break and I got tan! I'm so tan that the first thing out of every single one of my host relatives was "ay que morena!" or "estas negra!"