Monday, November 16, 2009:

Oh my god it has been a weekend…

We left Thrusday night after school for Montanita, which is a little surf town on the southern coast. The bus ride was ten hours, and to get to the bus station we needed to leave from, it was an hour and a half on the city bus. From Puerto Viejo, which is where our ten hour bus brought us, it was another hour and a half of bus ride on a different bus. That bus though infuriated me because the guy saw all the white people get on and charged the whole bus (locals and all) a dollar more than the normal fee. And despite the fact that I would have argued with him and refused to pay the extra dollar, the rest of my group are sheep and just decided to take it rather than tell the guy no. Ridiculous.

Once we got there, we checked into a hostel, or so I thought. We usually end up splitting into two groups, the one that goes to bed decently early and likes to read before bed, and the one that likes to party until 6AM every night. After I had paid for the room, I was informed that my usual group left and didn’t pay for another room because they wanted to go to a different hostel. Which left me in the room with the drunkies. Awesome.

After we were all checked in, we put on our suits and went to the beach. It was a little cloudy, but it didn’t feel cold so we went in the water and dodged the huge waves coming at us…they were really close to shore, but definitely big enough for advanced surfers. Afterwards, everyone went to take a nap and I sat in a hammock and read my book (Eat, Pray, Love). For the rest of the day, no one really did anything, and we got dinner and then went out at night. Montanita is not really that cool of a place but at nihgt all these little street bars and food vendors open up and they all play music, so people eat and dance in the street, which is pretty cool. Of course, as expected, my roommates all got trashed, and so I decided to talk to the owner of our hostel to see if I could have a different room for the night. He basically told me absolutely not, and that I couldn’t have a refund. But since I didn’t nap like everyone else that morning and we didn’t sleep on the bus the night before, I was exhausted and didn’t want to be woken up a million times by all the drunk people who would inevitably be coming in and out of the room all night. So I packed up my stuff and went to the hostel next door where the other half of our group was and asked the owner if I could have a single for that night and the next…and he was really nice, got me checked in, gave me the weekday price for the second night (even though it was Saturday), got me an extra towel and blanket and showed me the room…and so it came to be that I stayed in the nicest hostel ever (queen bed, private bath, constant hot water, a porch, a hammock, you get the gist). I paid more than I would have liked for accommodations, seeing as I paid for two rooms in one night, but it was ABSOLUTELY worth it to have peace and quiet. The only downside was that since the window didn’t have a screen (just wooden shutters that locked inside) I had to sleep in my mosquito net. I am pleased to report that I do not have even one bug bite and that it works like a charm.

Saturday when we got up it was REALLY nice…sunny and hot and not a cloud in the sky. At my new hostel with the half of the group that went to bed early enough to be up at a decent time, we decided to instead of buying breakfast, to go to the market and then utilize the hostel’s kitchen facilities and cook for ourselves. So we bought bread and eggs and fruit and made French toast, scrambled eggs with veggies and a fruit salad for $1.80 a person…and let me tell you we had a lot of food left over. It was SO good, and less than half of what we would have paid for a restaurant breakfast (food in Montanita is expensive because it is mainly a touristy area). After the dishes were washed, we packed it up and headed to the beach.

It was the most perfect beach day ever. We rented chairs and umbrellas and made a little circle with the stuff so that we had a little base, and then everyone did what they wanted to…some people rented surf boards, a lot of us just read and tanned the whole day; we swam, had ice cream, played in the sand, it was so fun. Definitely the most contented I’ve been since I got here. And as an added bonus, I am the only one who did not burn (thank you SPF 50).

That night, we had pizza and sangria for dinner and then went down to the dancing/food street. I didn’t stay long though because I was tired from all the sun. The following morning, we cooked again and had fruit, yogurt and granola parfaits (or in my case, granola and milk with fruit on the side because the yogurt here has about 50 added teaspoons of sugar per serving and is disgustingly sweet, like those tube yogurts for kids with an additional half cup of processed sugar). But either way, it was delicious and filling and only ended up costing us $1 per person. Again on Sunday it was really cold and rainy so we just spent out time looking at all the street vendors stuff (the majority of which had pot leaves in or on the design in some way, if that gives you any idea what kind of town and what kind of people Montanita has). I ended up buying some earrings that are cute, and found a bracelet that I would have liked but not in the color I wanted and therefore didn’t buy it.

**The people you meet in Montanita (and while traveling in general): We met a guy who was from Vancouver BC who worked for the Olympics as the “hire-er” for all the trainers for the next Olympics in Canada. We met a bunch of students from Boston University who were studying abroad just like we were and were in Montanita for the weekend. And to take the cake: we met a girl who was selling jewelry on the street like a local, but didn’t look at all like a local. We started talking to her. She is from Washington. And graduated from UW. And knew Rianne’s older sister because they went to high school together. And THEN, when I said that I was from southern Washington, she said, “Oh, yeah, I lived in Camas for a while. On Prune Hill. Cascade Street.” Really?!?! What a crazy coincidence that this random girl has so many connections to all of us, and of all places to meet her, in Montanita.

We again took a night bus back home, but our planning on this one was a little poor. We thought that we would be able to get a nonstop bus at 8PM and therefore get back to Quito at 7AM or so, therefore being able to go home, shower, get ready and then go to school (because we had school on Monday). Turns out that the nonstop leaves at 9:30PM, and basically we didn’t get back to Quito (South Quito, that is) until 7AM, and it’s still an hour and a half to where we live. Long story short, I didn’t get home until 8:45, and school is 20 minutes away (once you catch a bus, that is) and begins at 9. Not to mention that we had a police check the night before on the bus (which is routine, they just want to make sure that no one is trafficking drugs) and for whatever stupid reason made us put ALL of our stuff below the bus. So no one had any food or warmer clothes or anything. So I hadn’t slept at all, and then to top it all off, the bottle of rum in my bag that I offered to carry for Kelsey because I had room broke while under the bus and soaked my only backpack and ALL my belongings in rum. I also didn’t feel well (and ended up throwing up later in the day) and made the executive decision to not go to CIMAS that day and stay home and clean up the mess that was my belongings and also to take it easy because tomorrow, we have a four day trip to Tena.

** A few notes about Tena: the ecology program went there a week ago and had some crazy stories. For one, they had no electricity or running water the whole week, and therefore had to bathe in the river. They also complained of millions of bugs (and have millions of swollen red bug bites to prove it). There were ants in their beds and the climate is so humid that they were soaking wet the whole time. Sound fun to you? I know, I cannot wait either.

So today, my intestines have again decided that they hate me and are going crazy, and I have to ride the bus to Tena tomorrow at 6AM (and how convenient that it’s only a five hour ride so they don’t stop to go to the bathroom). Nevertheless, I am working on packing and got everything cleaned, so now all I need to do tonight is to write a two page “journal” to submit tomorrow and to shower and clean the remaining sand off of me. We don’t have lights again today, but hopefully they will come on again soon. Also, since there were no lights, there is no internet anywhere, so this blog will be posted about a week after it was written.

And a few last bits of good news: I called Marlow Jensen, the missionary that I met on the plane from Portland and we are going out to dinner on Saturday night. Also, I ran out of deodorant today and went to the little pharmacy down the street from my house. The lady that owns the shop started talking to me, and I stood and chatted with her and answered all of her questions in mostly correct Spanish! Yay! It’s one thing when you talk to people you know and who know your level of language, but this lady was a stranger, and we had a conversation that both of us understood! I am outrageously pleased. I am now so familiar with my area in Quito that not only do I know the streets by name, I have favorite places. And then in closing: there is a natural foods store on Rio Coca (the closest main street to me) and they sell the most AMAZING peanut butter that I have ever had. So I feel like there will be some PB&J’s coming my way, and any chance at normal food is a great day-brightener.