Carnaval--absolutely wonderful

The only thing I can remember of last week (I think I was just too darn excited to leave for the weekend for Carnaval) but was Valentine’s Day. My “mom” and I woke up, went for a walk/run at 6AM, and when we came home, she gave me two red roses. For lunch that day, my parents took me lunch at this really cute café where we had fruit salads and bolones. (they are these fried things made out of banana with a little bit of cheese in the middle. They are really, really good.) After lunch, we had a few more hours of school and Katie gave me a bracelet, earrings, a book and chocolates. She is soooo sweet. That night I went to a folk-ballet called Hachiwa (?), which was a series of different dances that demonstrated many of the different communities/pueblos of Ecuador.

Carnaval was absolutely amazing… Katie, Marco Emilio and I left last Friday at 4 am en route to Canoa. The drive honestly wasn’t that bad, and we arrived in Canoa around 10AM. Canoa is beautiful. It’s a pretty small town with a huge stretch of beach, very few cabinas and maybe only one place to check internet. I didn’t check internet for 5 days, and I think that having such little access with the outside world is what made it truly a paradise. When we arrived in Canoa, it was raining. I remember thinking to myself, I guess I can’t expect that ALL of my weekend trips are going to be absolutely perfect. But, besides a little rainfall one other night, the weather was beautiful. All of us were exhausted from getting up so early, but after we were able to find a hostal (we hadn’t reserved one which could have turned out badly,) but we found one for about $13 a night at the Shelmar Hostal. We ate breakfast (yes, ensalada de fruta!—Katie and my favorite…) and went to lay out on the beach. At this time (Friday morning) there wasn’t a ton of people there yet. We broke up the day by eating lunch and laying out some more, and then decided to go to Bahia de Caraquez, which is this peninsula near Canoa. We drove from Canoa to San Vicente (about 10 minutes away) and walked onto a “ferry,” which was a little boat that carried people between San Vicente and Bahia. It cost $0.30. Bahia is really, really pretty and architecturally beautiful. It’s very modern. There isn’t a lot of beach though to lay out, so I was glad we were staying in Canoa. Katie, Marco and I walked around Bahia and sat for about an hour as the sun set. We met this really cute family with adorable children, this little boy and this blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl, their parents and grandparents. They were all Ecuadorian and the grandmother actually invited us to her pool at some point during the weekend, which was so sweet. We said thank you, but didn’t end up going back to Bahia unfortunately. When we were walking back to try and catch the ferry, we were the targets of a drive-by water ballooning… Katie was the first victim and got pegged in the side of the face. They came back around, and somehow, we weren’t able to avoid them, and I was the next to get hit, and got hit in the rib cage at close range. Yikes. We ate shrimp that night, one of my favorite foods on the coast, returned back to our hostal, walked around a bit and experienced one of many power outages of the weekend. I’m not sure if it was because it was Carnaval or if this is a common occurrence, but, the power went out at LEAST once a day, always at night. A couple places had generators, but our hostal owners were reluctant to use theirs very much, if at all. ☺ These power outages lasted usually around thirty minutes, it actually was quite funny.

Saturday morning Katie and I woke up around 9AM and went for a run/walk along the beach. We came back and ate breakfast with Marco and then headed to the beach. Around noon or so, Marco’s friend Ricardo and his wife Suleka (Sue) came, so we all hungout a bit on the beach for the rest of the afternoon. Katie and I really wanted a batido (we are obsessed with batidos.. I can’t even count how many I had this past weekend), but when we went to get one, the power was out again, so no one could use their blenders. It was sad, haha. Saturday we met some other international students who were also staying at our hostal. They are studying in Guyaquil and are from Australia and the US. The Australians, Sill and Hannah were SO SO nice, we ended up hanging out with them/talking to them the most throughout the weekend. The other two guys, Connor and I am not sure the other guys’ name were from Pennsylvania. So, we ate dinner with them that night at Brisas del Mar and had fish, rice, water, and patacones (made from the platanos (bananas) verdes but were the BEST patacones I have had so far in Ecuador)—for $2.80. After that, we met up with Sue, Ricardo, Sue’s cousins and his friends and Marco at Coco Bar, and we ordered a batido de Coco. This is where we met Anita, Sue’s cousin’s girlfriend, a 20 yr old girl who is studying in Quito. She is just SO SO sweet and cute. Katie and I are hopefully going to hangout with her again in Quito before I head home. We left them for a bit and headed down to Coco Loco (where David and Kyle were staying) and hit up happy hour. At this hostal, it’s dormitory style, anyone can call happy hour when they want. (Not all throughout the day though of course). Anyway, so I got two Pina Coladas for $2. The funny thing is though, that they bring you both the drinks at the same time. Talk about looking like a lush! –The funny thing is, is that my drink of choice was definitely a batido. Katie and I decided that we would much rather have a batido than any alcoholic drink. We met a bunch of other people who are traveling at Coco Loco including Whitney, a 19 yr old who makes and sells Jewelry wherever she travels; Jared, the 18 yr old Canadian who talked about smoking weed all the time; Nick, the kid from Rhode Island; Carson, this hilarious tall skinny guy from CO and Chris. Anyway, so after hanging out with the guys for a bit, we headed back to Coco Bar with Marco and his friends, danced a bit, and headed to bed.

Sunday morning we got up and ate breakfast and met Tandrey, this guy from Portoviejo. He was drunk (yep, at 10AM… well, I’m not sure if he was drunk still from the night before, or had already started drinking) and really, really funny. We spent the rest of the day on the beach, alternating between lying out (for minimal amounts of time because it was so bloody hot) and walking along the beach. One of the big parts of Carnaval is being sprayed with crap all the time. This includes water, foam, water balloons, EGGS, etc. I got hit with all of these at some point during the weekend. Other people got hit with beer and flour. So interesting…it was just funny because I kept picturing people doing this in the US and imaging the reactions of some people. I highly doubt people would take it as well as people do here. (Usually, just laughing it off). We met this really cute older man who walked along the beach all day trying to sell natural coconut oil. He was a bigger man with a little bit of a waddle saying, “acete de coco lleve…” He ended up talking to us almost every day. We’d tease him and say, “Donde esta tu traje de bano?” (Where’s your bathing suit) and he would just laugh… Pretty soon, he’d walk by and we’d say to him “Acete de coco lleve…” not mocking him, just teasing him…he would just start cracking up and keep walking. He was adorable. Around sunset, Katie and I rented horses and rode along the beach. It was so much fun. It cost $2 for thirty minutes, but it was definitely worth it. It’s the first time I can remember riding a horse, so it was a great experience. For dinner, we tried Concha, which I’m glad I tried, but probably will never order it again. It’s just a shellfish which you scoop out the meat and eat with onions/cilantro/lime. A ton of people here really like ceviche de concha, but I’ve had my fair share of Concha with just this one portion. ☺ Later we went down to Coco Loco again, and had a Banana Colada. It was fabulous, although I think that I liked the Pina Coladas there a little bit more. At any rate, the Banana was a great change and delicious! Katie and I were both really, really tired, so we went back, ordered canguil (popcorn) and went to bed around 11.

Monday morning we woke up and headed to the Bambu hostal (probably the most popular hostal in Canoa) where we ordered coffee and juice and tried to do some of our Public Health readings. Tandrey ended up finding us again (he sings and plays the guitar, and we tried looking for him the other day but couldn’t find him). Anyway, he and his friend ended up eating breakfast with us and teaching us some bad words. It was funny… he was telling us how much he likes practicing English. So anyway, his shorts were wet from the ocean and he was trying to tell us that they were wet, so he couldn’t put a piece of paper in his pocket. He asked us the word for “mojado” and we told him it means wet so he says, “ok, ya, I wet my pants!” Katie and I were dying laughing. Then he says “No, no, no, I didn’t mean that” (when we explained in Spanish what he just said to us in English) and he says, “My pants are underwater.” I love languages—they make conversations extremely interesting. I’m sure though I’ve said things in Spanish that are incorrect and that people are secretly laughing at me. After we finished a little bit of reading, we headed back to our hostal to eat breakfast. We ended up eating with Sill and Hannah, the two Australians, who are SO incredibly sweet. We went and headed down to the beach, going away from all the people (there were somewhere between probably 12,000 and 18,000 people on the beach, it was INSANE. So, we layed out a bit, walked around, stopped by Coco Loco and hungout with David and Kyle, etc. The thermometer at Coco Loco said 38-40 degrees Celcius which is almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit. HOOOOOOOT. We were walking back to our hostal in the afternoon when I was the target of a run-by egging. A boy ran by us, broke an egg on my head, and ran off. Happy Carnaval, I guess?! It actually was pretty funny. For some reason, every day, I was the target of many of the Carnaval happenings this weekend. After that, Katie and I bought a dress and a tank top from this Argentinean woman who crocheted them by hand. We each paid $45 for the two things, and they are BEAUTIFUL. I can’t wait to wear them. I know I will never find something like this (unless of course I go to Argentina, haha) Katie wore hers out Monday night, and we took a picture with the lady who made them. She told us that Katie was her model ☺, it was so cute. We ended the night fairly early with a coconut batido…

Tuesday morning we woke up, ate breakfast and packed up. Ricardo’s car had a flat tire, so we had to wait for Marco and Ricardo to drive to San Vicente and fill it up. We headed out around 10:15 after saying goodbye to two other girls we had met Monday who were also studying in Quito. Holly and Julia (they go to Creighton and Cornell), and were both really nice. I talked to Julia a bit about Rochester, since it’s about an hour from Cornell, and she actually has a best friend who goes to Rochester and really, really likes it. David and Kyle rode home with us, so we all split the gas cost. One the way home we stopped in Carmen, this city for batidos because Marco had told me that they were really, really good because their milk they use isn’t processed. It was by far the best, most amazing drink I’ve ever had in my entire life. Katie and I split a ham and cheese sandwich which also had oregano in it and then each had a batido. It cost us each $1.30 (for the drink AND sandwich) and was the best $1.30 I’ve ever spent in my life. The batido (coco of course) was made with real coconut, but truly was a piece of art. On top of the drink (which was made of coconut, ice, milk and a tiny bit of sugar) was a huge handful of shredded coconut, a cut strawberry, peach and grape, a tiny scoop of sherbet, a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk, and two different types of cookies. Katie and I were in batido heaven. ☺ The drive back ended up being just about 6 hours. It’s funny how I think 6 hours is actually a short drive, seeing as when we went to Montanita, it was about 13 hours one way in the bus.

I just got back from another class field trip, this time to Cotacachi (known for their leather products) and Pedro Moncayo. We were studying the health effects of the flower plantations as well as the participatory process in these local communities. It was really interesting. The two coolest things we did were 1) going to the home of a midwife and seeing her do a check-up on a 19 year old pregnant woman (this is old for this community of Indigenous population), and they did a mock vertical birth. It was pretty amazing. The CRAZIEST thing I learned at this woman’s house is that if the mother is having trouble giving birth, sometimes they dip a feather or onion in egg, stick it in the woman’s throat to make her vomit—the force of her vomiting helps the baby to come out. I’m REALLY sorry if this grosses you out, I just thought it was really interesting. 2) Today we went and met with this group of young kids (ages 8-18) who are in different groups and work on different projects with other young children. We just sat and talked with them for over an hour, talking about anything and everything you could think of. It was awesome.

Now I am back to Quito, and it’s really nice to be “home.” Tomorrow, I am going to a maternity clinic (the same one I once visited), but with the hopes to actually see some patients tomorrow. My friend went last weekend and saw a c-section. I doubt I’ll get so lucky, but that sure would be amazing. I found out on Wednesday that I got accepted to Northeastern University in Boston!! Decision time… If anyone has any information about either Rochester of Boston and want to give me advice, I’d be very thankful. ☺

I cannot believe the 7th week of school is already over… I leave 3 weeks from tomorrow to fly to Costa Rica to meet up with Conor and my parents. I will be sad to leave Ecuador, but REALLY, really excited to see my family. I’ll be home March 25th and can’t wait to see you all. What a fast quarter it’s been. Hope all is well with you all. Take care!!

Carnaval--absolutely wonderful

The only thing I can remember of last week (I think I was just too darn excited to leave for the weekend for Carnaval) but was Valentine’s Day. My “mom” and I woke up, went for a walk/run at 6AM, and when we came home, she gave me two red roses. For lunch that day, my parents took me lunch at this really cute café where we had fruit salads and bolones. (they are these fried things made out of banana with a little bit of cheese in the middle. They are really, really good.) After lunch, we had a few more hours of school and Katie gave me a bracelet, earrings, a book and chocolates. She is soooo sweet. That night I went to a folk-ballet called Hachiwa (?), which was a series of different dances that demonstrated many of the different communities/pueblos of Ecuador.

Carnaval was absolutely amazing… Katie, Marco Emilio and I left last Friday at 4 am en route to Canoa. The drive honestly wasn’t that bad, and we arrived in Canoa around 10AM. Canoa is beautiful. It’s a pretty small town with a huge stretch of beach, very few cabinas and maybe only one place to check internet. I didn’t check internet for 5 days, and I think that having such little access with the outside world is what made it truly a paradise. When we arrived in Canoa, it was raining. I remember thinking to myself, I guess I can’t expect that ALL of my weekend trips are going to be absolutely perfect. But, besides a little rainfall one other night, the weather was beautiful. All of us were exhausted from getting up so early, but after we were able to find a hostal (we hadn’t reserved one which could have turned out badly,) but we found one for about $13 a night at the Shelmar Hostal. We ate breakfast (yes, ensalada de fruta!—Katie and my favorite…) and went to lay out on the beach. At this time (Friday morning) there wasn’t a ton of people there yet. We broke up the day by eating lunch and laying out some more, and then decided to go to Bahia de Caraquez, which is this peninsula near Canoa. We drove from Canoa to San Vicente (about 10 minutes away) and walked onto a “ferry,” which was a little boat that carried people between San Vicente and Bahia. It cost $0.30. Bahia is really, really pretty and architecturally beautiful. It’s very modern. There isn’t a lot of beach though to lay out, so I was glad we were staying in Canoa. Katie, Marco and I walked around Bahia and sat for about an hour as the sun set. We met this really cute family with adorable children, this little boy and this blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl, their parents and grandparents. They were all Ecuadorian and the grandmother actually invited us to her pool at some point during the weekend, which was so sweet. We said thank you, but didn’t end up going back to Bahia unfortunately. When we were walking back to try and catch the ferry, we were the targets of a drive-by water ballooning… Katie was the first victim and got pegged in the side of the face. They came back around, and somehow, we weren’t able to avoid them, and I was the next to get hit, and got hit in the rib cage at close range. Yikes. We ate shrimp that night, one of my favorite foods on the coast, returned back to our hostal, walked around a bit and experienced one of many power outages of the weekend. I’m not sure if it was because it was Carnaval or if this is a common occurrence, but, the power went out at LEAST once a day, always at night. A couple places had generators, but our hostal owners were reluctant to use theirs very much, if at all. ☺ These power outages lasted usually around thirty minutes, it actually was quite funny.

Saturday morning Katie and I woke up around 9AM and went for a run/walk along the beach. We came back and ate breakfast with Marco and then headed to the beach. Around noon or so, Marco’s friend Ricardo and his wife Suleka (Sue) came, so we all hungout a bit on the beach for the rest of the afternoon. Katie and I really wanted a batido (we are obsessed with batidos.. I can’t even count how many I had this past weekend), but when we went to get one, the power was out again, so no one could use their blenders. It was sad, haha. Saturday we met some other international students who were also staying at our hostal. They are studying in Guyaquil and are from Australia and the US. The Australians, Sill and Hannah were SO SO nice, we ended up hanging out with them/talking to them the most throughout the weekend. The other two guys, Connor and I am not sure the other guys’ name were from Pennsylvania. So, we ate dinner with them that night at Brisas del Mar and had fish, rice, water, and patacones (made from the platanos (bananas) verdes but were the BEST patacones I have had so far in Ecuador)—for $2.80. After that, we met up with Sue, Ricardo, Sue’s cousins and his friends and Marco at Coco Bar, and we ordered a batido de Coco. This is where we met Anita, Sue’s cousin’s girlfriend, a 20 yr old girl who is studying in Quito. She is just SO SO sweet and cute. Katie and I are hopefully going to hangout with her again in Quito before I head home. We left them for a bit and headed down to Coco Loco (where David and Kyle were staying) and hit up happy hour. At this hostal, it’s dormitory style, anyone can call happy hour when they want. (Not all throughout the day though of course). Anyway, so I got two Pina Coladas for $2. The funny thing is though, that they bring you both the drinks at the same time. Talk about looking like a lush! –The funny thing is, is that my drink of choice was definitely a batido. Katie and I decided that we would much rather have a batido than any alcoholic drink. We met a bunch of other people who are traveling at Coco Loco including Whitney, a 19 yr old who makes and sells Jewelry wherever she travels; Jared, the 18 yr old Canadian who talked about smoking weed all the time; Nick, the kid from Rhode Island; Carson, this hilarious tall skinny guy from CO and Chris. Anyway, so after hanging out with the guys for a bit, we headed back to Coco Bar with Marco and his friends, danced a bit, and headed to bed.

Sunday morning we got up and ate breakfast and met Tandrey, this guy from Portoviejo. He was drunk (yep, at 10AM… well, I’m not sure if he was drunk still from the night before, or had already started drinking) and really, really funny. We spent the rest of the day on the beach, alternating between lying out (for minimal amounts of time because it was so bloody hot) and walking along the beach. One of the big parts of Carnaval is being sprayed with crap all the time. This includes water, foam, water balloons, EGGS, etc. I got hit with all of these at some point during the weekend. Other people got hit with beer and flour. So interesting…it was just funny because I kept picturing people doing this in the US and imaging the reactions of some people. I highly doubt people would take it as well as people do here. (Usually, just laughing it off). We met this really cute older man who walked along the beach all day trying to sell natural coconut oil. He was a bigger man with a little bit of a waddle saying, “acete de coco lleve…” He ended up talking to us almost every day. We’d tease him and say, “Donde esta tu traje de bano?” (Where’s your bathing suit) and he would just laugh… Pretty soon, he’d walk by and we’d say to him “Acete de coco lleve…” not mocking him, just teasing him…he would just start cracking up and keep walking. He was adorable. Around sunset, Katie and I rented horses and rode along the beach. It was so much fun. It cost $2 for thirty minutes, but it was definitely worth it. It’s the first time I can remember riding a horse, so it was a great experience. For dinner, we tried Concha, which I’m glad I tried, but probably will never order it again. It’s just a shellfish which you scoop out the meat and eat with onions/cilantro/lime. A ton of people here really like ceviche de concha, but I’ve had my fair share of Concha with just this one portion. ☺ Later we went down to Coco Loco again, and had a Banana Colada. It was fabulous, although I think that I liked the Pina Coladas there a little bit more. At any rate, the Banana was a great change and delicious! Katie and I were both really, really tired, so we went back, ordered canguil (popcorn) and went to bed around 11.

Monday morning we woke up and headed to the Bambu hostal (probably the most popular hostal in Canoa) where we ordered coffee and juice and tried to do some of our Public Health readings. Tandrey ended up finding us again (he sings and plays the guitar, and we tried looking for him the other day but couldn’t find him). Anyway, he and his friend ended up eating breakfast with us and teaching us some bad words. It was funny… he was telling us how much he likes practicing English. So anyway, his shorts were wet from the ocean and he was trying to tell us that they were wet, so he couldn’t put a piece of paper in his pocket. He asked us the word for “mojado” and we told him it means wet so he says, “ok, ya, I wet my pants!” Katie and I were dying laughing. Then he says “No, no, no, I didn’t mean that” (when we explained in Spanish what he just said to us in English) and he says, “My pants are underwater.” I love languages—they make conversations extremely interesting. I’m sure though I’ve said things in Spanish that are incorrect and that people are secretly laughing at me. After we finished a little bit of reading, we headed back to our hostal to eat breakfast. We ended up eating with Sill and Hannah, the two Australians, who are SO incredibly sweet. We went and headed down to the beach, going away from all the people (there were somewhere between probably 12,000 and 18,000 people on the beach, it was INSANE. So, we layed out a bit, walked around, stopped by Coco Loco and hungout with David and Kyle, etc. The thermometer at Coco Loco said 38-40 degrees Celcius which is almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit. HOOOOOOOT. We were walking back to our hostal in the afternoon when I was the target of a run-by egging. A boy ran by us, broke an egg on my head, and ran off. Happy Carnaval, I guess?! It actually was pretty funny. For some reason, every day, I was the target of many of the Carnaval happenings this weekend. After that, Katie and I bought a dress and a tank top from this Argentinean woman who crocheted them by hand. We each paid $45 for the two things, and they are BEAUTIFUL. I can’t wait to wear them. I know I will never find something like this (unless of course I go to Argentina, haha) Katie wore hers out Monday night, and we took a picture with the lady who made them. She told us that Katie was her model ☺, it was so cute. We ended the night fairly early with a coconut batido…

Tuesday morning we woke up, ate breakfast and packed up. Ricardo’s car had a flat tire, so we had to wait for Marco and Ricardo to drive to San Vicente and fill it up. We headed out around 10:15 after saying goodbye to two other girls we had met Monday who were also studying in Quito. Holly and Julia (they go to Creighton and Cornell), and were both really nice. I talked to Julia a bit about Rochester, since it’s about an hour from Cornell, and she actually has a best friend who goes to Rochester and really, really likes it. David and Kyle rode home with us, so we all split the gas cost. One the way home we stopped in Carmen, this city for batidos because Marco had told me that they were really, really good because their milk they use isn’t processed. It was by far the best, most amazing drink I’ve ever had in my entire life. Katie and I split a ham and cheese sandwich which also had oregano in it and then each had a batido. It cost us each $1.30 (for the drink AND sandwich) and was the best $1.30 I’ve ever spent in my life. The batido (coco of course) was made with real coconut, but truly was a piece of art. On top of the drink (which was made of coconut, ice, milk and a tiny bit of sugar) was a huge handful of shredded coconut, a cut strawberry, peach and grape, a tiny scoop of sherbet, a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk, and two different types of cookies. Katie and I were in batido heaven. ☺ The drive back ended up being just about 6 hours. It’s funny how I think 6 hours is actually a short drive, seeing as when we went to Montanita, it was about 13 hours one way in the bus.

I just got back from another class field trip, this time to Cotacachi (known for their leather products) and Pedro Moncayo. We were studying the health effects of the flower plantations as well as the participatory process in these local communities. It was really interesting. The two coolest things we did were 1) going to the home of a midwife and seeing her do a check-up on a 19 year old pregnant woman (this is old for this community of Indigenous population), and they did a mock vertical birth. It was pretty amazing. The CRAZIEST thing I learned at this woman’s house is that if the mother is having trouble giving birth, sometimes they dip a feather or onion in egg, stick it in the woman’s throat to make her vomit—the force of her vomiting helps the baby to come out. I’m REALLY sorry if this grosses you out, I just thought it was really interesting. 2) Today we went and met with this group of young kids (ages 8-18) who are in different groups and work on different projects with other young children. We just sat and talked with them for over an hour, talking about anything and everything you could think of. It was awesome.

Now I am back to Quito, and it’s really nice to be “home.” Tomorrow, I am going to a maternity clinic (the same one I once visited), but with the hopes to actually see some patients tomorrow. My friend went last weekend and saw a c-section. I doubt I’ll get so lucky, but that sure would be amazing. I found out on Wednesday that I got accepted to Northeastern University in Boston!! Decision time… If anyone has any information about either Rochester of Boston and want to give me advice, I’d be very thankful. ☺

I cannot believe the 7th week of school is already over… I leave 3 weeks from tomorrow to fly to Costa Rica to meet up with Conor and my parents. I will be sad to leave Ecuador, but REALLY, really excited to see my family. I’ll be home March 25th and can’t wait to see you all. What a fast quarter it’s been. Hope all is well with you all. Take care!!

Watch out for agua mala/mala agua

Last Sunday, the 4th, I came home from Church so that Katie, her parents, Jim and Bliss and I could head to Baños. We left around 2:45, so we got there around 6:30pm. Anyway, I started Kite Runner on the way there, SUCH a good book. When we got there, we checked into the hotel (Katie and I stayed with her parents) and we went and found a bar to watch the Superbowl. The only thing that sucked was that they didn’t have the commercials which are the best parts! ☺ Oh well. I got a drink called the Grasshopper, NOT very good. Katie and I played a little pool with some of the locals, and after the game when Jim, Bliss, Ann and Stan went back to the hotel, we stayed out. We danced with this guy named Paulo and his brother, I’m not sure what his name is, but they taught us to Salsa.. So the next morning we woke up at had breakfast at the hotel and rented bikes for $4. Since Katie had already ridden the path, she was our tour guide. I think it was about a 7-9 km bike ride. Along the way we passed 5 waterfalls. We stopped at one point to ride in a cable car between these canyon like things. It was SO beautiful… Once we got across, there was this woman there who had this pet monkey. It JUMPED on me, I was only scared b/c one girl got bit by a monkey and supposedly got rabies. Don’t worry mom and dad, no rabies… yet ;) haha, just joking! Anyway, so then we made it down to Rio Verde, this small town, where we then hiked down to Rincon del Diablo (I think I spelled that wrong) but the English name for it is Devil’s Cauldron. It’s this HUGE waterfall, that was SO SO goreous. It was about a 20 minute hike to it, and then once we got back, we ate lunch at this cute little café. We got a ride back in the truck, and then afterward, Katie and I had to head home to work on our stupid Public Health paper. Jim and Bliss and Katie’s parents are so, so nice. Oh, and Jim brought with him granola, candy hearts and cherry sour balls that my mom sent. She also sent a Valentine’s Day card. I honestly have the greatest parents in the world. So, on the way back from Baños, Katie and I worked on our paper and I finished Kite Runner!!! We were up till about 11 that night working on the paper. (We missed Spanish Monday in order to go to Banos)

Tuesday we had our presentations and we were the only group to present in Spanish. Our presentation went really well. During lunch we walked to El Jardin and el Centro Commercial (two malls). I bought 3 DVDs for $4.50. (The Holiday, The devil wears Parada and Brokeback mountain). After school, we went down to the Mariscal to a bookstore and I bought two books. Then we bought our tickets for Puerto Lopez. Marco Emilio (my Ecuadorian brother) invited us to a soccer game Tuesday night, and I thought it was going to be some small league game. It was HUGe, with tons of people, drinking, swearing, etc. I tried an empanada borocho which was good, but really greasy. Liga, the team was playing Paraguay and ended up winning 3-0. The atmosphere there is incredible. This one section, I think it’s called White Death is CRAZY, jumping up and down and yelling the entire time. The third goal scored as a bicycle kick, it was INCREDIBLE. I found out Tuesday that I have a phone interview Friday with Northeastern University. That would be awesome if I have to make a choice between schools. We didn’t get back from the soccer game till 11:30. I was so exhausted because I had woke up that morning at 5:35 to walk/run with my mom.

Wednesday morning Katie, my mom and I went to el parque Carolina and we ran and stuff. It feels so good to run, I miss exercising. After school Wednesday, I treated my mom to a pedicure and manicure. It cost $11 (well $10 plus a little tip) for BOTH of us to get both things done. CRAZINESS.

Well, this past weekend was ABSOLUTELY fabulous. Thursday we just had two seminars and then everyone brought in an Ecuadorian dish. I brought pineapple juice and ahí. Ahí is made with tomate de arbol, onions, green onions, chochos, and I’m not sure what else. It’s a typical Ecuadorian salsa, people put it on anything! Anyway, katie’s banana bread deal was REALLY, really good, and so was Jeannie’s avocado salad. Britt made this chocolate stuff that tasted like brownie mix. It was delicious. After school, Katie and I packed up, went for a little walk and then flew to Manta. It was about a 30 minute flight. We then took a bus to Jipijapa and then from there to Puerto Lopez. In Jipijapa, we bought this banana that was on the grill, it was SO delicious! When we arrived in Puerto Lopez, this guy in a blue car with dark tinted windows offered us a ride in his “taxi.” I think he actually was a taxi driver, but we took a little moped deal that’s like a “Tuck-tuck,” at least that’s what Bliss called it all weekend. So, we checked into Hostel Mandala, ordered some popcorn and went to bed early. They were little cabanas, each named after a different animal, so we were the Tortuga, haha. The beds had mosquito nets around them… eek. The next morning we woke up fairly early on our own, and ran for about 20 minutes, walked another 20 and then we went and ate at the Whale Café. We each had fruit, granola and yogurt with a fresh juice. We met some guys who were from Ohio who had been climbing all the mountains, they seemed nice, but were heading to Montañita. After that, I had my interview with Northeastern University. The woman was really, really nice. She actually graduated from UW and got her Master’s there. She asked me why I wanted to do Nurse Practitioner and what experience I had. I asked her questions about the program… There was over 200 applicatants. They cut it down for interviews, but only have spots for 35 people. I’ll find out this coming week if I get in or not. Scary! I hope I have to choose between schools, but U of Rochester is a great school as well. I’m getting excited for nursing school, very excited. After my interview, Katie and I layed on the beach for an hour, and then by a pool at Hotel Oceanic, waiting for her parents, Jim and Bliss. I don’t think they ended up arriving until around 2, so we got some good sun time in. ☺ We then ate a late lunch at the hotel, went into town to set up a tour for Saturday. We came back, swam and all went to bed early.
Saturday was soooo much fun. We woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel, and then headed to Wiston Churchill (HILARIOUS name, no?) his business, because he was going to be his tour guide. His 9 year old daughter Alena came along, and she was so incredibly beautiful, sweet, adorable, etc. There were two other guys on the boat, I can’t remember one of their names, but the other they called “Africano” because he is so dark. Anyway, so the tour included seeing blue-footed boobies, some beach called the beach of love, snorkeling, La Isla Salango, more snorkeling and some swimming to this deserted beach. The first spot we snorkled at though, we all got stung by what they called “mala agua,” which apparently is either a small man-of-war, or a jellyfish. It hurt like HELL. We all had little welts and/or red lines all over our body. It stung for a good thirty minutes, haha. After the first snorkeling, we then fished, which was so much fun!! The “fishing poles” were blocks of wood with the fishing line attached. The fish we were trying to catch though were really, really intelligent. There were many times that they got the bait off the hook without getting caught. But, I ended up catching 4 fish which was really fun for me. Between the 6 of us, I think we caught 17 fish which Wiston and his two men used for Ceviche for lunch. They soaked the fish in limes, which caused it to no longer be raw(?), sort of (?) and then put in tomatos, green peppers and onions with a little bit of ketchup, mustard and peanut butter. It was really, really good. We snorkled at two other places, one of which had coral, so that was pretty cool. The prettiest fish I saw was this really small, floruescent blue one. I saw a lot of cool ones though, including starfish, so that was fun. We also saw a dead tortise ☹ apparently, it probably got hit by a boat. Sad! We also swam to a really pretty, deserted beach. Wiston invited us over for dinner Saturday night with his family, to cook up the rest of the fish we had caught. So, once we got back around 3 (we were out for about 6 hours,) we all napped. It was SO hot that day… I was exhausted. Katie and I got “Coco Loco’s” on the way to Wiston’s house… I think it’s basically the same thing as a Piña Colada without the pineapple. Anyway, it was SUPER strong, would have been better without alcohol lol but it was really good, with coconut chunks in it. Dinner at Wiston’s house was fun. The fish was AMAZING. We had fish, rice, some veggie salsa type thing and patacones. It’s crazy though. He has six kids and they live in this tiny place, with a loft area where they all sleep. No one in the town has running water. They gave me a shark tale necklace made out of a clam shell. They did an eenie meanie miney mo thing with Katie and I. His family was really sweet…

Sunday morning we slept in and then went to eat breakfast at the Whale Café again. Katie and I split a banana pancake and we also ordered the fruit, yogurt and granola. The pancakes were AMAZING. We then spent about an hour or so talking to the owner of the restaurant. He’s from California, has been in Ecuador about 24 years, and Puerto Lopez about 11yrs. He came to Ecuador because he was a shrimp biologist… Now he and his wife just own the restaurant. It was pretty interesting all the things he was telling us about the complications in getting land property, just the ways of Ecaudor, etc. After that, we shopped around a tiny bit, and Ann (Katie’s mom) but each of us a tie-dye dress, which is SUPER cute. It was so nice of her. Katie’s parents and Jim and Bliss are so amazing. We then came back and Katie and I layed in the sun for a last few 30 minutes, and we took the bus to Jipjapa. On the way there, I was sitting next to a guy who was like 40, and just kept talking and talking. I was so exhausted and all I wanted to do was read, but that wasn’t possible. He was asking questions about like if I had a boyfriend, and he wanted me to meet his friend, etc. Thankfully, he got off about 25 minutes later. But THEN, this guy behind me, with like missing, crooked, grayish teeth wanted to take my picture with his camera phone, asking when I’m coming back to Puerto Lopez and his friend would take me to some national park. I was like NO, I’m not coming back here… and he’s like “why, it’s not pretty?” I was like it’s very pretty, but I don’t have time, etc. He asked if I had a boyfriend, and I said yes, in the US. Then he asks about here? And I was like “of course not, because I have on in the US.” So he’s like “infiel?” (Unfaithful) I was like NO. I don’t know what he was getting at. Gotta love public transportation, huh? Anyway, he finally got off as well, which I was very, very thankful for. Then a really sweet girl got on and talked to me for awhile. She said she had gotten on the bus with her “enormorado,” which means the person she’s in love with. It was really cute. Anyway, we then took a bus to Manta, waited for two hours or so and flew home. Now I’m home and SO ready for bed. I’m exhausted and going walking with my mom at 6am. I feel sort of chubby. My arms are definitely losing their muscle which is sad, they are kind of floppy! ICK. I’m going to Canoa EARLY Friday morning for Carnavalwith my brother and Katie. David and Kyle (both from CIMAS) are going as well. It should be really fun!
Love you all and miss you. I can't believe I'm halfway finished here... hope all is well

Finally... I made it to the beach

Well, it has been quite some time since I last updated. I can't even remember what I did really the week before I went to the beach, because well, the beach was THAT fabulous. Before we left for the beach though, school was pretty fun. We learned a lot about tropical diseases because that is what we spent this past week studying. Anyway, so we left Thursday night on an overnight bus to Guyaquil. It was supposed to be 8.5 hours, and ended up being 10, I think? Well, it wasn't so bad, until the bus driver and her friend decided they would play music, sing, and talk at 12:30 AM! I fell asleep with my fingers in my ear, and a TOWEL over my head, because it was freezing. What a night's sleep, huh? Well, we arrived in Guyaquil (Ecuador's largest city), and needed to catch another bus to Montanita (our destination.) Well, there was no direct bus, so we took a bus first to Salinas, which was about an hour away. We walked through the Guyaquil terminal with some lady and her kid. She told us she would walk us, otherwise "We'd be robbed." We followed her immediately. :)

So we took a bus to Salinas, jumped on another bus. And 13 hours after leaving Quito, we were finally in Montanita at 10am. It is THE CUTEST town ever. It's really small, with a bunch of surfers, hippies, etc. People just come there, and decide to stay. They make a living by making jewelry, clothes, purses, etc. It was heaven. We found a hostel for $10/night with a view of the ocean, a hammock in front of our door and I fell asleep every night to the sound of waves. There are crabs everywhere on the beach. The first day we spent on the beach, of course, and I was constantly applying sunscreen as it was really, really warm, and we are, remember, on the equator. :) I think by far my favorite thing in Montanita was the batidos. They are smoothies essentially, with whatever fruit you want, milk, ice and sugar for $1. They are heaven in a glass. I had at LEAST one every day. My favorite combination was peach, banana and pineapple. No one had coconut, but apparently that is even better! :) I went on this trip with three other people from my program, Britt, David and Katie. That night we went to this seafood restaurant and we shared 3 dishes. Lobster, shrimp and ceviche with fish. All of them were really good, and for all three dishes, it cost $25. :) Night life in Montanita is pretty crazy. People are up until 6 am, drinking and dancing. I definitely did not stay up that late, but we met two guys from England that night, had a few drinks, and called it a night fairly early, as Katie and I had decided to go surfing the next day.

So, Saturday, Katie and I went surfing at 9am. It cost $12 for 2 hours, which included a lesson, a rash guard, and the board. One of our instructors is a professional surfer. Pretty crazy. Afterward, Katie said to me, "I think it's really cool. We just took surfing lessons in Spanish." It was funny, because I had been thinking the same thing during the lesson. It was a blast. I can't wait to go back to the beach (next weekend and the weekend after to other beaches... Katie and I are really excited to surf again!) So, we spent the day on the beach again, laying around, walking etc. AT one point, Katie and I walked along the beach to find a group of Ecuadorian guys playing beach soccer. We joined them for about 20 minutes. I realized how much I miss soccer already. :) It was so much fun... I think they were surprised to see girls who could play soccer, haha. All day long on the beach people come up to you trying to sell you jewelry, coconuts to drink (it's just water basically, and NOT very tasteful!), popsicles, etc. There are groups of people playing the guitar, singing and dancing, and much more. It's really a fun/entertaining atmosphere. The sunset at Montanita is SO SO gorgeous. It was incredible. We spent Saturday night sitting on the beach as the sun went down, just in shock that we were in such a beautiful place. That night we went to this really small restaurant called the Happy Donkey. This guy cooked on a grill that was right in the middle of the dining room (if you can call it a dining room) and cooked us swordfish. When I read in Lonely Planet that the seafood on the coast is delicious, I didn't know how right they would be. I'm REALLY glad I found a recently liking for seafood, because it was to die for. That night we went out, I had my drink of choice, Pina Colada, and we danced at a club. WE met a guy there named Javier, who taught us some Salsa dancing. IT was really fun. Girls don't have to do much work... Just let the guy spin you. We have it so easy sometimes, don't we. :) The next day we woke up again, and spent the day on the beach. Unfortunately, we had to head back to Guyaquil at 5pm, because the next day (Monday) we had to meet our class in Santo Domingo for our field study on Tropical Diseases. We stayed in a REALLY ghetto hostel ($6/night) and it reminded us of a jail cell. Ha. Luckily, we got in late, and woke up early, so we weren't there for long. So, although I spent 3 full days in Montanita, it wasn't nearly long enough. I HIGHLY recommend this place. It's so relaxed, really safe, and has a really, really fun night life. I'm planning on going back the first weekend in march!

This past week we spent in Santo Domingo studying tropical diseases. We went to a few plantations, one of which we got to try many different fruits, including pineapple (YUM)--the guy cut it up for us with a machete, it was pretty hilarious. In Santo Domingo we stayed in a nice hotel with a pool, and the food was FABULOUS. It was the first place that we didn't have chicken, potatoes and rice for every dinner. They served us dessert after lunch AND dinner. :) Ahh, the life. Unfortunately, I was pretty sick Mon-Wed with a really upset stomach. Luckily it didn't go beyond being upset though, and now I'm all better! The next day, we went to a small town which has a high Malaria transmission rate, and we watched them do a chemical treatment on the walls of homes. This is the most effective treatment, but a lot of people don't cooperate, because it means that people have to move aside all of their furniture and wait outside for 30 minutes. Anyway, it was really interesting to see. This program, SNEM (National Service for Malaria Eradication) does this service for free which is pretty incredible. It was really interesting for me to find out all of the different breeding grounds mosquitos find their way into. We definitely saw some larva of mosquitoes that are able to carry the malaria parasite. SICK. There is also a problem with Chagas in these areas, which is another vector-borne disease, but carried in little beetle like things. Trust me, you don't want to see these little buggers. This past week, we went to another town that has a high transmission rate of Malaria. This town was extremely, extremely poor. One of the saddest things we saw there was these plastics that were in the town, and being used on the homes. They are plastics that are brought into town from greenhouses, so therefore, are completely covered in pesticides. They are "rinsed" in the river, and then sold to the people in the town, who use them in their homes. This is HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE for health, yet these people don't even know. It was really, really sad. The next day we went to the local hospital, which is a well known hospital. The most frequent illness here is anemia. The most disturbing thing to me in all of this, is that so many of these diseases, are EXTREMELY preventable. You wouldn't believe the poverty that I've seen. We then went to the Malaria Eradication center for a seminar, and we also talked with the entomologist. This guy was nuts. They capture mosquitos to study them, obviously, in order to see which types of mosquitoes are plauging which areas. Anyway, to keep the mosquitoes alive, they need food right? So, sometimes, when they can't find the right animals for the mosquitos, the entomologists (two of them), let the mosquitos get their fair share of blood from their HANDS. He said not to worry, these mosquitos don't have the parasites, although the other entomologist got dengue last week. He ensured he got it at his house, not in the lab... Hmm?

Anyway, so I learned a ton this past week. Montanita though, was by far my favorite trip so far. Katie (my neighbor/classmate/really good friend here), her parents and aunt/uncle arrive tonight) and tomorrow we're headed to Otavalo, supposedly the best market in Ecuador. I'm really excited. Tonight we made Katie's dad a cheesecake with a recipe off a box. (Yes, in spanish with Ecuadorian fruit...) for his bday. I'm excited to try it! Well, I miss you all and love you very much. Keep up posted with life, email me!!!

Oh ya, I got accepted to University of Rochester last week!!! So, that's exciting. I'm still waiting to hear on three more schools. Rochester starts in May, which would be a pretty quick turn around after I get back to the states. Anyway, take care!