11 de Octubre 2009
Ok well here’s a decent update since I have some time to write today:

I went to Guayaquil last Thursday to get my phone that had finally been repaired, and when we entered the city they had closed off a part of the big highway and it was full of military. I mean it looked like full out war. They had tanks and heavy artillery jeeps; soldiers with machine guns, grenade launchers, bayonets, etc; helicopters flying overhead. It was surreal. I saw weapons I had only seen on TV of images of Iraq or other hostile territories and they were within 50 feet from our passing bus. And this was a huge line military – I read in the paper that lines on that road there were about 5,000 soldiers and over 100 tanks/jeeps, all armed to the teeth. At first when I saw the troops I thought of the protests and civil unrest that’s been going on here in Ecuador and panicked thinking the military was moving into Guayaquil for some reason. But then I remembered that the following day there were going to be massive parades and celebrations for the independence day, so I felt much better. It was definitely a sight to see though. I wish I’d had my camera so I could show you the enormous number of military – something you would never see back in the states!

To explain the part about the protests briefly if you haven’t seen it on the news, there have been a lot of issues between the national government and various groups recently. As such, three groups were protesting over the last few weeks, the indigenous peoples, teachers, and labor groups. Because of the possibility of violence and road closures during these protests (which did occur in some regions), Peace Corps placed us under travel restrictions, so we were not able to leave our sites for just under 2 weeks. But the issues have been resolved/are in the discussion phase and we are free to travel again as security has been restored. In my town there weren’t any problems with any of these groups. The day before teachers started protesting throughout the country and refused to work I asked my host mom whether she was going to work the next day. She looked at me and laughed and said, of course, that’s her job and they don’t get into the protesting here. However the travel restrictions prevented me from getting my phone fixed in a more timely manner which was a bummer.

So this last Friday (Oct 9) was the Independence day of Guayaquil, which is a national holiday because it was a huge movement for democracy and standing up to the Spanish control back in 1890. Because of that the schools/universities were closed on Friday and Saturday, so my family decided to go to the beach to visit relatives for a short vacation. Of course then they asked if I wanted to go I had to say yes :) So we left Friday morning early and drove to Guayaquil to pick up the nephew of my host parents, then passed through on to Santa Elena.

Only the 10 yr old girl, the 6 yr old nephew, and my host parents went – the host brothers all stayed here at the house for whatever reason. It was so cute how excited the kids were – it reminded me how cool it was to get to go to the beach when we were young and how excited we were to jump into those waves. I was excited to not only get to spend time at the beautiful beach but just to get a vacation from my site. Unfortunately the weather didn’t really cooperate with us and it was quite cold for the beach. This is the cold season so it wasn’t unexpected but I was still a little disappointed. The high temperature was 77ish during the day, which sounds warm for you people back in KY, but I’m not adapted to having temperatures up in the 90s every day, so it seemed really cold. Also, it was completely cloudy and windy – very much like Florida in the cold season. I didn’t think to bring any long sleeve shirts because hey, we were going to the beach right?



In La Libertad we ate breakfast in a restaurant next to the fish market where they cook different kinds of fish and yellow plantains on a grill and serve them to you at these big communal tables with a salad for $2.25 (see photo). It was a very “local” experience, very Ecuadorian and not at all touristy. The fish was good, but in the traditional style it was served whole, eyes and fin and all, which I’ve actually gotten pretty accustomed to. Not my favorite but what can ya do? It was a huge fish so I ate about half then passed the rest on to my host family to eat. They devoured it, offering me the head which my host mom says is the best part, but I graciously refused and said I would try the head another time. My host dad ordered something that was fish eggs and he said it was from a really large fish. It was about 7 inches long, roundish (kinda looked like a sausage) and filled with thousands of small fish eggs. I tried it but it didn’t seem to have much flavor, just a texture like quinoa but it was eggs instead. The kids really liked it but to me it just seemed bland and dry. After we ate the fish breakfast we walked around the market and my family told me about the different kinds of fish they were selling. I took a couple pictures, including a swordfish head that was sticking up into the air. It smelled very fishy which I'm not a huge fan of, but was interesting to see all the different seafood. After that experience we walked to the centro comercial (shopping center) and looked around. I bought a bunch of jewelry for cheap, which is my favorite part of the coast culture (I got 5 pairs of earrings, a surfboard “Ecuador” necklace, and a bracelet with “Amor y Paz” in ecuadors colors where the “y” is a peace sign – all for $4.75). I’m trying to put a picture on here of them if I can get it uploaded, so look for that.

After the shopping we headed to the beach because the kids really wanted to get into the ocean. I just stayed on the sand and read because it was soo cold, but they hopped around in the ocean collecting shell treasures and playing in the sand. For the rest of the day we pretty much hopped beach to beach from La Libertad up to Barcelona, about an hour drive straight through. I did end up swimming in a cove because I couldn’t stand the thought of not getting in the ocean at all on my vacation. It was cold. Very very cold. My host dad decided not to get in, but my host mom got in with me, which was nice. We got to chit chat a little about the beaches in the U.S. and stuff like that. We could only manage to stay in for about 15 minutes then we were shivering too hard so we got out and ran to the showers. Now, here not only do you pay to use the public bathrooms (anywhere from $0.10 to $0.30), but you also pay to use the showers ($0.50) because people don’t just rinse the sand off, they take real showers. It was an interesting experience for me – very “Peace Corps”. I hung my clothes and towel on a nail and showered a foot away from them, the whole time trying to keep from soaking my clothes. To be honest, I felt like I was doing something a bum might do in the states, but here it is normal to take a real shower at the beach. It was strange, but at the least the water was warm and we were clean when we got into the car! Then we drove to my host dad’s cousin’s house in Barcelona (in the campo about 15 mins from the beach) where we were going to stay the night.

After my beach shower I was clean but hadn’t really cleaned up much, like I hadn’t put on makeup of earrings or anything, which I was okay with. But after a few minutes at the relative’s house, they rushed me into the car and we headed out to the town center because apparently there was a fiesta for the patron saint of the town. Not only was a poorly dressed for such an event, I also didn’t realize we were leaving for more than a couple minutes so I had to pee. So at the center I used some random woman’s bathroom, then we piled back into the car and drove to the next town to pick up people for this fiesta. We drove behind 2 trucks that were full of people – there was a band, people with bottle rockets, etc. – typical EcuaFiesta fashion. So we drove to this next town, and I was thinking “ok the fiesta is here” but we went to a church, they ceremoniously carried out the Virgin Mary and loaded her into the truck, then we drove around the town playing music and shooting fireworks off, apparently informing people in this town that we were having a fiesta in Barcelona. After about 15 minutes of driving, our caravan (now of about 10 cars and 15 motorcycles and 3 more trucks of people) left to return to Barcelona. But instead of stopping, we passed through to go to the town on the other side, collecting more people. Finally we returned to the house of the uncle while the caravan went to the neighborhood of the fiesta. I wanted to go to the fiesta and when I asked I was given the normal Ecuadorian response – “Ya mismo” which translates roughly to “yah yah soon soon” and can imply anything from 5 minutes to 5 hours to never. Well we ended up just sitting and talking with the aunt and uncle, which was alright because we were all exhausted from traveling. It was nice to get to talk to them as well, and I realized my Spanish has either improved or I have just gotten used to the costal accent. I actually carried on a normal conversation without a whole lot of miscommunication – yay! Then we went to bed early and boy did I sleep like a baby!

The next morning we got up and had breakfast (really good fresh bread and cheese with hand squeezed orange juice) then went to see the artesian coop store in the town. I bought a really neat purse made of a reed/grass and leather with a zipper closure (I didn’t plan to buy anything but I just fell in love with it) and a little container made of the reed/grass (I’ll look up the name) for $10. The purse was $8 (would cost $20 or more in the states) and the container was $2.50 but I got her to sell both to me for $10. I could have probably gotten the price lower but this stuff was so beautiful and I don’t mind supporting the local artisans. Afterwards we drove to some nearby towns looking for bakeries to buy bags of bread to take to family back in my site. The bread in the coast is much better than here in my town, so we ended up buying 3 large grocery bags full to give to family here. We also stopped at a lot of artesian shops to see the crafts (there were so many beautiful things!). We returned to the house and my host mom and the aunt made a shrimp ceviche (mmm delicious) then we headed out to go to the beach in Salinas. Oh and the uncle gave me a yummy looking watermelon because he remembered I really like watermelon – so nice of him! The people here are so friendly! In Salinas we hung out on the beach for awhile, the kids played in the ocean while I sat and talked with the parents, then we went into Santa Elena to another relative’s house to visit. There we watched a little of the Ecuador-Uruguay game and visited. They had baby ducks and chickens which were really cute. We decided to change our plans and drive back in the night instead of getting up early and driving back this morning, so we stopped quickly in the center of Santa Elena to see a church there that the colonial Spaniards constructed, then we headed back. I couldn’t sleep in the car and everyone else was so it was kinda boring, but I had brought my MP3 player so at least I could listen to music. While we spent a lot of our beach vaca in the car driving between beaches and houses, it was still really nice to get out of my town. I feel so much more relaxed and less frustrated after just a few days enjoying myself with my family

This morning I woke up and the mango tree behind out house is starting to ripen! I ate 3 mangoes for breakfast (this type of mango is about the size of an apple with a huge pit) and they are so sweet and delicious. This kind isn’t cultivated for export – it only is available in Ecuador (or other countries where it’s grown). I’m really excited for the rest of the fruit to ripen! The cherry tree is also ripening, but the cherries I tried that were supposed to be ripe didn’t seem to have any flavor to me, so I don’t know if it’s a different variety or if they’re just not in their prime yet. I also tried an under ripe plum today from another tree in our backyard, which is a delicacy here. It was sour and tasted very green, but everyone here loves them. I think maybe they like the green flavor, but that’s something I’m not very accustomed to.

Well this entry is long enough, so I’m gonna sign off! I couldn't wait to get the pictures uploaded so i'll do that another time!