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!"

La Amazonia!

On the Wednesday before Easter we got out of school for a week and a half Spring Break. For the first part of the break our program had planned for us to go to Tiputini, a biodiversity research station in the middle of the Ecuadorian Amazon forest.

On Friday morning we took a 30 minute flight to Coca, the closest city to Tiputini. Then we took a 2 hour motor conoa ride through the Napo river until we reached a petroleum station, where we had to identify ourselves with our passports. It was so weird to see the station right smack the middle of the forest where the only people around where the oil workers, and the local indigenous children (who although probably don't realize it yet, are being affected very negatively by these oil companies -destroying their environment and little by little their culture). We then took a 2 hour Chiva (open bus with no windows) ride through the forest passing both the Quichua (largest Ecuadorian indigenous nation) and the Huaorani (who until just a few years ago discovered clothing -effects of the oil companies) territories. Finally, we hopped on another motor conoa for a not so pleasant, rainy 2 hour ride down the Tiputini River (on the Amazon basin).

Shortly after arriving at the station we were fed a great dinner (suprisingly enough they have pretty good food there) then we had a PowerPoint presentation on a night camera project that detects heat and movement, so we saw a lot of cool pictures of various Amazonian animals like giant armadillos, jaguars, and deer.

Saturday morning we walked around one of the trails, led by Ramiro who talked to us about the various plant and animal species. It was a hot, sweaty, and muddy walk (coming from AZ I'm not used to so much humidity, about 95% if I remember correctly), but luckily we had cool rainboots to help us our walking though all the mud. We saw all kinds of cool insects, including lemon ants, which were quite tasty. :) The highlight of our first trail was definitely the spider monkeys. We had to get off the trail and chase around the forest to watch them in their natural habitat (Bernie you would have loved it! They were so cute and ocol! I was so excited that all I kept thinking was "Mira! Mira!" kinda like we say with fireworks?? haha).

That afternoon we got an a motor conoa and rode down the Tiputini River to go swimming, or floating really. It looked kind of gross because the water is so brown, but really it was probably better so we couldn't see the many species that lived there (like the caimans we saw the following night, yikes!). When we got back we were pleasantly greeted by a family of wooly monkeys right outside our cabin, very cool! That night we had a presentation from a guy doing his PhD research there on adolescent monkeys and their social organizations. It was super interesting yet all I could think about was, this guy is actually going to live here for like 4 years, don't know if I could do that.

Sunday morning we climbed a super tall tower to try and see the birds and monkeys from high above. Unfortunately, it was bad timing because the only view we got was that of the rainforest from above. We then took a little canoe ride around a little lake where we saw birds and turtles. On our way back to the cabins we saw more wooly monkeys and pygmy monkeys, the cutesiest baby monkeys ever! Actually they aren't babies, they just look like it because they are the smallest species of monkeys in the world. It was really funny because Ramiro pointed out the tree where they live and after about 10 mins of several monkey calls we were disappointed to not see them, but just when we were about to leave, Jessica was able to spot a pygmy and show us all. Needless to say, Ramiro was proud.

That afternoon we climbed up high again, but this time on a canopy walk. It was scary to climb up but the sights were definitely rewarding. I saw the 3 most colorful mccaws ever while I was high above. They were bright blue, red, and green. After another great dinner, that night we got on the conoa again to see nighttime species. This is when we got to see the caimans, and various birds. It was very shocking to see how easily our guide was able to spot these tiny creatures in the night.

Early Monday morning, we made our boat/bus/boat/flight trip back to Quito, ready for our next Spring Break adventure: la costa!

Totally Random Totally Fun

Quilotoa - the town

Friday after class I took off with Maureen to Quilotoa, a volcanic crater with a lake about 4 hours south of Quito. Because we learned from our trip to Baños that to go from our houses in northern Quito to the terminal terrestre in south Quito, where we catch buses it cost about $10 by taxi, so we decided on taking the Trole, a 25 cent fare. We took a two hours bus to Latacunga where we called Jess, Anina and Emily because we were going the meet them in Chugchilan, (they had skipped class and left early that morning) but without luck/lack of cellphone service, we decided to catch a bus to Quilotoa, another 2 hour ride. On the buss to Quilotoa we had to stand up for about 1.5 hrs and unfortunately I lost my glasses during this time period, either someone stole them from my backpack, or the fell out, the latter being the least likely.

When we arrived to Quilotoa, a tiny town with seriously about a total of 15 houses, we went directly to the first hostel we saw (not that there was much to choose from). There we met a 25 year old med student named Emily, from none other than Glendale, AZ, who had come alone and wanted to know if we wanted to stay with her, and of course we said yes.

It was about 8:30 p.m. and neither Maureen or I had eaten since lunch so we were starving. We asked where we could get food but the hostel worker told us everything was closed and we wouldn't be able to get anything at this time of the night. Luckily, we spotted a little house with a light on where an indigenous man was painting masks. We knocked on his door and asked him if he knew where we could get food. He told us everything was closed but that he would wake up his wife and she would cook for us. He called his kids who gave us tea then his wife who made us delicious rice and potato soup with a main dish of more potatoes and avocado. Soo many potatoes but soo good.

Zumbahua Mercado

The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast and caught a truck going to a little town called Zumbahua (or refered to as Zimbabwe by Emily, who's Spanish wasn't great)where they were having a market that morning. It had been a very cold night (the only thing that made me survive was the 2 pairs of sweats I was wearing, the four blankets I had on top of me, and the fact that I slept with Maureen) and it was a very cold ride to Zumbahua. On our way there we picked up many local people from the little towns we passed who were also going to the market.

En el mercado they had all kinds of traditional clothes and shoes for the local people as well as many kinds of meats, veggies, and fruits, but the most interesting thing we saw was a lamb being skinned. We didn't get to see when they killed it, but we saw it's head being chopped up then a man taking off all of its skin, as well as all of its insides out. Gross, but cool! After quite the spectacle, we decided to walk back through some of the little towns we had driven through to take pictures of the amazing countryside. Then after having walked quite a bit we hitched a ride back to Quilotoa.

Quilotoa - the crater

In Quilotoa we ate a light lunch because neither Emily or I wanted to eat meat after what we had just witnessed. We then went to see the crater, which was beautiful. We decided to hike all the way to the bottom to take a closer look. After about an hours walk down the ashy volcano, we got to see the laguna from down below. The view was magnificent. After sitting down and contemplating such beauty, and seeing how far and steep we had come down, we decided to ride mules back up to the top. It was a nonstop cursing trip since the guide kept telling the mules to go faster "caramba macho, chingado, carajo"...it was hilarious, and even more hilarious was Emily's attempt to try and repeat the words to get her mule going.



Latacunga

When we got back to our hostel we decided we did not want to stay in Quilotoa for the night again because there really was not much else we could do. We caught a truck back to Zumbahua with these two funny Dutch girls who ended paying 4 times as much for the trip than we did. (In Ecuador you really have to make sure to establish prices of taxis/trucks/buses before you get on or else they will charge you so much more in the end.) After being distracted by these three hilarious men getting drunk off of liquor in a Sprite bottle, we ran to catch a bus that was leaving for Latacunga. It was a bit of a tough ride at the beginning because I kept being hit on by a random old drunken men who kept poking me and asking/telling me the same things over an over, and over again. It wasn't until I pretended to fall asleep that he left me alone.

In Latacunga we got a $4 hostel room at the very top of a building, penthouse baby! Haha, only with hard beds and barely any hot water. We went out to eat dinner at a pizzeria but not before crashing a wedding with a really pretty bride and groom, and very attractive men in Ecuadorian army suits. We then went out to La Ciguarra, the best bar ever! Well a cool bar with the best bartender ever. He gave us wine with coke to start off with, aparrantly it's a popular Spanish drink, then candil (popcorn) then brought us the drinks we wanted. Then, when sketchy, and mostly drunken, guys came over to hit on us, he would come and take them away, ever so kindly. Rodrigo was so awesome! He even told us that the whole situation was TORTUGA! I couldn't believe he knew about tortuga situations! (Tortuga is what we call awkward situations because the word for awkward, "torpe," just doesn't do it, and totuga obv simbolizes the awkward tutle). All of us had crushes on him because he was just so cool.

Here I was also hit on by some Ecuadorian guy who after realizing I was singing to Mana bought me some beer "en el nombre de Mana, porque son los mejores." He said he had studied ecology and was a professor at various tecnologicos around Latacunga, thus why he loved Mana. (The entire time all I could think of was how cool Emily would think this was, right? haha). He also was the first to tell me that Mana is coming to Quito next month!! It was a completely random and cool night.

Domingo de Ramos

On Sunday we met up with John, one of Maureen's friends in the Peace Corps for breakfast. After having talked to him about his experience, it only makes me want to be in the Peace Corps after college even more than before. As we walked out of the restaurant to go to Mass we saw a huge crowd of people carrying all kinds of palm ornaments to Mass. We had forgotten, it was Palm Sunday. Mass was really nice. There was a sort of vocal performance put on telling the story of Jesus going to meet his death and there was also great music.

As us' another great weekend in Ecuador.

Jess's 21st Bday Celebrations!

On Friday night, after the Pilsener stalking, we all went to Jessica's house for her first birthday dinner. We had dinner with all of Jess's family, including her hot host brother, Gustavo, and her host sister's fiance from New Zealand. They made tacos, or what to me, and to everyone not Ecuadorian at the table, were bean burritos. Although not my mom's Mexican food, which the best, of course, they were still good. We also had legit Sangria with fruit and bday cake.

After dinner we went to Plaza Foch and bar/club hopped all night. We went to a place called No Bar, which is the most tourist filled bar I've seen here, and danced to some great music, offset by horrible techno. We also went to Macondo's, which was more of a bougie lounge with even better music, and met Jess's US Embassy friends and then Huainas, our usual dancing place.

On Saturday, we went to get our nails done and read trashy magazines, for about 3 hours. It was cool, only ocho dolares for both a mani and a pedi, and I'm pretty sure they did a better job than anyone else I've ever been to. At the salon we met a lady that told us she used to be a host mom to international students. She asked us if we liked to go out, and we said yes, that we usually went to el Mariscal and la Plaza Foch. She told us to be careful there, because there were a lot of homosexuals in that part of town and they were super dangerous. She also proceeded to tell us that Americans fall in love with ugly Ecuadorians, and that we shouldn't do that. She told us that she once had a host daughter who fell in love with an ugly Otavaleño, and that she just didn't know how anyone could do that, afterall, he was Indigenous, and all indegenous people are soooo "horribles"...Hmm, she was definitely the most blunt racist/homophobic person I've heard here, I wonder why she's not a host mom anymore.

Afterwards, we went to El Bosque and bought lots of food at SuperMaxi to cook for Jess's second bday dinner. Emily and Jess cooked chicken parmesan, spaghetti, vegetables, garlic bread, and salad. I made the birthday cake. Out of a box, I might add, haha. We also had wine, and later on, for Jess, Pilseners and Piña Coladas. It was all so yummy! That night we went out again, this time to Pipas, where I tried hookah for the very first time, then back to Huainas, to dance all night. Good times!!!

Sunday, the girls went to Quicentro, what we think is the best mall here, and I stayed home, all day long, studying for my Econ and Marketing tests --I hadn't read for marketing since my last test, oops. It sucked, but luckily, they are both over and I think I did really well!

Pilsener Stalkers...

Jessica's 21st birthday was yesterday and on Friday after class Anina and I went to south Quito to look for a present for her. Specifically, we were looking for a Pilsener t-shirt, which Jess has been wanting for a while. After walking around the artisinal market for a while, and not finding anything, we asked around to see if anyone knew where we could find it. We were eventually told to try El Espiral. At El Espiral we found a t-shirt store that we knew was $ when the guy told us he did actually have a Pilsener t-shirt. Anina and I waited anxiously only to find out that it was a knock off PilsHener shirt. Disappointed we walked up the spiral, the mall literally goes around in spirals, and found a place where they made t-shirts. We were able to find a Pilsener logo online and had them make a sweet shirt for Jess. Somehow though, we weren't satisfied and decided that we wanted a Pilsener poster to go along with her shirt. (Note: Jess is kinda obsessed with Pilsener, la cerveza orgullosamente Ecuatoriana. Actually she's obsessed with all beer, but she's not an alcoholic, haha.)

The guy at the t-shirt shop told us that there was a Pilsener distribution place near by where they might be able to give us posters. Anina and I walked out of in search of the general direction that the guy had been pointing at only to be confused seeing as we had just walked down about 4 flights of spirals. We asked some waiters at Coffee Tree and after thinking we were weird for wanting to go to the distribution center, we were led down Amazonas, a major street in Quito, toward la Plaza Foch, en donde farreamos (where we party) all the time. After not finding anything, we went into a little boutique where a lady told us that the Pilsener truck was near by so we should ask those guys. Anina quickly found the truck, but when we got there, the Pilsner guys were not there. We asked a random guy just standing around and he told us that they were eating lunch at a place near by.

Anina and I decided that we were going to wait for them, at the restaurant across the street from where they were eating (creepy, I know). After getting some food, we realized that the guys were done eating. I pretty much ran after them, getting weird glances back at me from the guys as I approached them, ever so awkwardly. I told them that I was looking for Pilsener posters and asked them if they knew where I could get some. One of the guys was like "yeah, here," and handed me a bent poster. I must have looked disappointed because he asked me if it was fine then asked me if I wanted more. I said yes, of course, and he handed me about 6 others (that weren't bent), and told me that if anyone asked where I got them, it wasn't him. I laughed, thanked him, and walked back towards Anina who was waiting for me at the G-Spot Restaurant, needless to say, cracking up at me.

It was probably the best present hunting (and only stalking) I've ever done and I'm glad that Jess loved her present!