Becuador: April, May, and the Gringos' Last Hurrah at the Beach

April

In April, I had some personal things to deal with, so that month was kind of a wash. As is mentioned in my previous post, my friend Eric visited and we took a weekend trip to Baños de Ambato. Other than our trip, I was basically a bum but I did start a painting which, with 10 days left in this country, I have yet to finish. I also did a lot of baking with my dear friends Alex and Ellie.

May

May was a better month for me. All my classes were reading novels, so I was knee-deep in Scooby-Doo, The Adventures of Captain Underpants, Goosebumps, and Holes. I was also offered and accepted a part-time tutoring job for a student of mine, her younger sister who attends the school but is not my student, and her older sister who goes to a different school. I work with them every Monday and Wednesday for two hours after school, and though it makes for a long day, working with them gives me a different kind of energy than teaching does. It reminds me how much I miss having stronger connections with fewer students, and that relationships with my youth basically drive my desire to be a good fill-in-the-blank (teacher, social worker, etc.). Their family has kind of adopted me, and has enhanced my Cuenca experience.

The last weekend in May, all my extranjero friends and I went to Montanita and Puerto Lopez, two beach cities, for a long weekend. We had to take a private taxi from Guayaquil to Montanita (which is supposed to be about two and a half hours from Guayaquil) because the buses stopped running at 6:00 and we got there at 7:00, but due to a low tire and various other stops which we didn't understand, our trip was almost four hours. We managed to make friends with the British-Australian couple sharing a taxi with our group, and we all decided to stay at the same hostel. According to Ecuadorians, "what happens in Montanita stays in Montanita." However, I am not Ecuadorian, so will say that while our night there was fun, it was nothing worth writing about. I did eat a street hamburger with a fried egg and avocado, which was both the highlight of my night and a contender for my favorite aspect of Montanita.

Puerto Lopez

The next day we went to Puerto Lopez, which is a much calmer beach town. We stayed in a room with little ventilation, an incredibly strong air conditioner which could only be controlled by stepping on one of the beds, and shower that leaked, and a toilet that had such little water pressure it could only be used to pee. That being said, there was a beautiful outdoor area complete with hammocks and patio furniture, and the hostel was one block off the beach. Surprisingly, though there was a lot that could be improved upon in our room, I really liked the over all environment of the hostel and would probably stay there again if I had the opportunity to go to Puerto Lopez again. I think this might be a mark of how my standards have changed and how my values have been impacted during my year here.

Me at one end of the beach

The weather was pretty bad during our trip, but we napped on the beach, walked around, shopped, ate our weight in sea-food, drank juice and later fruity beachy drinks from cabanas along the board walk, played Frisbee, and enjoyed each other's company. I had the opportunity to go to Isla de la Plata, an island about two hours off the coast which is also known as "the poor man's Galapagos." My friends either didn't want to go, or had already been, and so I went alone. At first I was kind of afraid to do an all day excursion by myself, but then I remembered I moved to a foreign country by myself, and so decided going on a tiny island excursion would probably be ok. I was really excited to have the opportunity to see Blue Footed Boobies, Fragatas, and Sea Turtles, all of which my sister saw both when she want to Isla de la Plata and later when she lived in the Galapagos as a college student.