Well it’s been quite awhile now since I've written again... but here I am! It’s gonna be an extremely very long post, and I am drinking a late-night energy drink so I can get this and lots of work done.. Also at the moment I am making chocolate chip cookies for my host dog’s birthday party tomorrow. Yes, it’s max’s birthday, and yes, I am baking for a dog’s birthday. More for my host sister Najabi though. A couple of days ago she informed me I had forgotten his made-up birthday, being September 1. After being accused of forgetting about my adorable max, I remembered vaguely talking to her about how they didn’t know when max’s real birthday was but we had decided to make it sometime in the next few months. Apparently we set a date, which I of course forgot because I didn’t write it my schedule. So I told her (and the dog) I was sorry for missing the birthday and explained it would be better to have the birthday party this weekend on Sunday, since everyone is so busy during the week. Sooo tomorrow (I’m writing this Saturday night) after lunch we will have cake in the form of a large chocolate chip cookie, I will have prepared some sort of meat-dish for max since he can’t have chocolate, I will give him his birthday gift (I started sewing a “supermax” cape for him when I was still living with my host family aka last October or something, but in the guilt for forgetting his birthday I came home and finished the cape. Not my best sewing but hey it’s for a dog...), and Najabi will have invited a few of her young friends over for the party. But it makes her happy so party on!

Speaking of birthdays, Sunday is also my dad’s birthday! I know you probably don’t like sharing your birthday, dad, but at least it’s with the cutest dog in South America – you know since you got to meet max! So anyway, I wish you a very happy birthday, and I’m sure by the time you’ve read this we will have talked on Skype =) Love you E&B!

Sunday is also our second to last Cuanto Sabes session (the HIV/AIDS training of trainers with colegio students). We’re in the final stages where we’re talking about how the students will do their replications with their peers, both in formal and informal situations. Tomorrow we’re practicing 3 basic points of the program: basic info about HIV/AIDS, self-esteem/values/decision making, and discrimination and how to reduce the stigma. We will also do the formal “post-test” where we measure what our kids have learned – I feel pretty confident in our kids! We started with a group of 25 from 5 colegios and 2 health promoters from the health center. We are going to finish with about 12 youth and 1 health promoter but I think we’ve really achieved quality of quantity. They surprised me when we played jeopardy last week, both with factual information and ability to control situations. What do I mean by control situations? Well, one of the big problems here is that IF people know what a condom is and how to use it, they still have trouble convincing their mate to actually use one. So we did some role-playing and the girl who picked “prevention for 300” totally surprised me. Not only did she have quick responses that we had provided them with, but she added her own flair and was really convincing. Hopefully the youth that aren’t to that point now will reach there when they’re doing the replications. My mind is spinning with ideas for this group of kids :) But anyway, with our training of trainers coming to an end I am finishing one of my big projects.

We’ve also come to the end of the second world map project with the colegio I work with. The actual drawing and painting was so fast, but then with my parents and Kevin visiting I took a couple weeks of leave from the colegio, so this week I’ve been tying up the rest of the project. This map is painted on a wall, but it the same size as the first one we did. The youth involved in the project also changed, as the Liceo de Lideres (the group of youth I was working with before) have dissolved as a youth group. So I took the project to my colegio and the director was excited. I decided to work with my English classes on it. But before I got them involved I used some of the youth that had helped with the first map to do the drawing – much easier than having new kids doing it… But I worked the map into our class time, with an hour of English class and an hour of painting for those who wanted to participate. Almost all of the students jumped at the chance to paint and kept asking when they would get to paint again. We finished all of the painting before my family got here, and then after they left I went back and did the outlining and labeling. This week in class we put the final touches on it (but will continue next week since only some of the kids came to class this week – 2 week break really threw them off). Each of the kids who helped on the map is putting his/her handprint around the map, and then we will be writing their name inside the hand, a creative form for signatures. I'm also starting to design an Ecuador map to do. It will be done with the same basic principles; I just have to develop it since there is no manual. This I’ll probably do in October since September will be cut short with our mid-service conference.

My English classes are going about the same. I’m still not thrilled to be teaching them, but I like the steadiness and I really like getting to know the kids. Plus the novelty of being a gringa still hasn’t worn off for them, so I’m still fun to be around apparently. We had our first movie day in August. Some may say it’s a waste of a class, and I agree somewhat, but just making sure they’re watching a movie in English (with Spanish subtitles) every once in a while seems like a good thing to me. Plus they love it. I made sugar and chocolate chip cookies last time – sharing our culture too! The next one is scheduled for the beginning of October right after I get back from midservice; that way I don’t have such a stressful week getting back.

So in other news. I found out about 6 weeks ago that I’m going to be a host aunt! My host brother’s girlfriend is a couple months pregnant now. Things with my host family have definitely changed a lot, but a month later things are starting to find a new rhythm and settle back into normalcy. I suppose she’ll be due sometime in April, so I’ll get to have a newborn to play with for a few months. Obviously it’s a pretty tough situation because they’re both very young, but apart from that – who doesn’t love a baby?!? I’m excited to have a baby to play with, and am crossing my finger to be a “madrina” aka godmother. I also promised Andy I’d “teach” English for its first few months. I’ll sing it some English lullabies and see if any of the language sticks haha. I’m also starting Monday (if I don’t forget like I did last week) to teach Najabi and Andy some English. Then they can teach the baby English – more sustainable haha

This is a good place to take a reading break – the next part will be very long…


So the part I’m sure some of you are more interested in: My parents and Kevin came to visit me in August! It was a great visit and flew by so quickly. My mom got here on the 11th, so in the evening I met up with my host brother Joao in Guayaquil to get her from the airport. Her flight came in at 10:25pm so we had some time to kill so we went to see a movie. I was so distracted throughout the movie I only vaguely remember the plot. But we went and got her from the airport after she finally made it through customs and everything. My heart leapt when I saw her walking out of the gate and was so great to hug her when she circled around to where we were waiting. Obviously she was very tired from traveling, but we got in the car and came back to my site. When we got to my house we stayed up for awhile talking and meanwhile I was pilfering all of the goodies she brought me from home :) but at some point we were both too tired so we went to bed. The next morning I had a community development/leadership workshop in one of the recintos and since she was awake and ready, she decided to go with me. It was so nice having her with me and seeing me work. Plus all of the women were stoked to meet her. After that we came back to my house and relaxed for about 2 minutes before going to my host family’s for lunch. My host mom is soo great – she prepared basically all of the lunches for when my family was here so they could try the best home-cooked typical foods! Then, after eating we had to run again – this time to the colegio, because I had English class. I had planned it so the movie days were that week so that we just got there and put on a movie. My mom talked to one of the English teachers some, and then after the movie was over we were finally free for the day. We went back to my house and relaxed a little, took a nap etc.

Over the next two days I took her around town, to the market, to the Tia (grocery store in my town!), etc. until the day arrived when we were to pick up Kevin and dad as well! My host mom made encembollado for my mom to try, so we filled up on that in the morning. Then instead of going straight to Guayaquil we hopped over to one of the touristy towns near here, called Nobol. Nobol is the site of the church “Narcisa de Jesus” which is based on the life of a girl that is held to esteem of a saint, due to her lifestyle and sacrifices for religion. Anyway, it’s a famous town that people from all over Ecuador come to be healed and to pray. We checked out the church and museum, then went and tried maduros con queso, which is the food the town is known for. We also had a humita which was also delicious. Afterwards we got on another bus and headed to Guayaquil. We went to one of the malls and did some shopping, buying pretty much every kind of exotic fruit available. Just like to note that we spent over an hour and a half in the SuperMaxi – I had to show off Ecuador’s huge grocery store! Then we went up to the food court and had some shrimp-stuffed patacones – mmm. Joao met up with us at that point and we hung out a little bit killing time until it was time to go to the airport. At the airport we waited for awhile until Kevin and dad came out! My dad texted me from customs to tell me they were in Ecuador :) We gathered them up and headed back to my site, another late arrival! Once back, I once again pilfered the luggage, and we sat around and chatted for awhile. Then once again when everyone’s eyes were closing we headed to bed.

In the morning I got up and did my Cuanto Sabes workshop, then came home from that to gather my family for lunch at the host family’s house. We had a ceviche FEAST. My host mom made sooo much ceviche we couldn’t finish it, and ended up eating ceviche for breakfast for the next two days haha. We also introduced my family to Club Verde with the ceviche – they approved but acknowledged that with lack of options here in Ecuador the beer situation was a little grim… educated at last haha. For the next two days we pretty much ate lunch and dinner with the host family and stayed until late in the evening playing Uno and the new game, Jenga. I also took them to the store, to the market, and to the colegio I work at so they could see it and check out the world map that was almost completed. The time in my site passed rapidly and suddenly it was time to go to Guayaquil to leave for Tena, in the Amazon region. Joao drove us to Guayaquil and we hung out there for the afternoon. To fill time, we decided to go bowling! It was my first time in Ecuador (and first time playing in over 2 years), and it was Joao’s actual first time playing. It was a lot of fun and a better use of time than a movie, as we all agreed in the end. After killing enough time, we went back to the terminal, ate dinner, and prepared for the 10 hour night bus ride. I tried to prepare my parents for the sharp curves after you enter the mountains, excessively loud bad movies playing, and possibility of theft. Turns out the bus company we selected was not so great, so we were on the exact opposite of “executive”. It was worse quality than the buses that I take from Guayaquil to my site, but with chairs that lay back more. But oh well, live and learn. We got on the bus and got settled, everyone with their neck pillows and earplugs. I took a trusty diphen, my constant night-bus companion, and passed out pretty quickly. After a couple of hours (around 10pm, that’s what happens when you leave at 7:30pm…) I woke and realized we were stopped and on a dirt road. Then I remember my friend saying that the road to Riobamba is pretty bad and under construction, but to be safe I stayed awake until we reached a paved, normal looking road. Then I slept intermittently until we got to Tena.

We were all very happy to reach solid ground.. There we went to the company’s office and after a couple hours hanging out there, we taken to the lodge outside of Tena. It was beautiful – perched on a cliff about 500 feet about a river, hammocks everywhere, and to top it off, a parrot named Manuko that talked! The first day we thought we would have a pretty easy start but alas that was not the case. We had just enough time to settle in then the guide came to get us for our first hike – to scale canyons. The hike was really interesting. The guides pointed out tons of plants and animals, everything from natural medicinal plants to the huge and dangerous conga ants. And we all even tasted the lemon ants which taste very strongly of lemons when you eat them. I had two servings of the ants haha! Once we reached the stream the guides gave us all natural clay facemasks from the riverbed – talk about spa treatment haha! Then we got to some caves and smelled putrid bat poop. At which point we were informed we would be climbing up into the caverns, wedging ourselves between the crevices and climbing up slowly that way. At this point one of the guides left and took my mom on a different route just walking since with her arm problem she wasn’t so sure about doing the climbing. I went up first and had a bit of a panic attack once I got up about 15 feet and reached a harder part. Fear of heights, exhaustion from having not slept much on the night bus, and having to trust these two guides that had minutes before thrown spiky balls at us that left stinging silicon in our hands – not for me. But alas I somehow kept going and reached the top, shaking like crazy. But the canyons didn’t end… we went through a series of canyons that were just plain disgusting, with bats flying overhead and us leaning and putting our hands in wet bat poop. Not my favorite part of the trip for sure… Buuut we finally made it, totally disgusting and tired. After a hike back to the cabins, we showered (they even had hot water!) and had lunch. Then we had a little time before the afternoon activity so we laid down in the hammocks. Needless to say, I’m a pretty serious napper. So when they came to get us to walk to the river for a swim, I along with the rest of the fam, was passed out so we passed on the afternoon activity and stayed in the hammocks. Then we had dinner, played some Phase 10, and went to bed.

Early the next morning we got up and loaded into a pickup truck (it wouldn’t be Ecuador without a ride in the back of a truck!) to go to an Amazonian Kichwa (or Quichua) village. They took us around and showed us more plants, including the hallucinogenic trumpet vine, yucca, cinnamon, and plantains. They dug me up a plantain tree sprout so I could bring it back to my site and plant it in my yard to have a plantain tree someday, then put it in a beautiful wrapping made from the plantain leaves – very professional looking! They also demonstrated achiote, which is a seed pod that Ecuadorians use the red powder out of for anything from painting faces (which is what they demonstrated) to food coloring. My face painting apparently meant something like “chieftress of the village”. Lastly, they made us crowns from palm and gave me the chieftress’s crown. Then we went into one of the houses and they showed us how to make chicha (a yucca based, fermented alcoholic drink that is extremely typical of Ecuador, from the coast to the mountains to the Amazon) and explained how the house was made etc. Then we bought jewelry that the village women had made, jumped back into the truck, and went back to the lodge.

After lunch and a short nap, we changed into swimming clothes and went down to the river where we went for a river tubing trip down the river. Towards the end of the trip, the river joins with another river, which comes from Cotopaxi in the mountains, aka it was very cold water. The guides tricked me, Kevin, and dad into jumping into the river at the joining point, which was extremely cold and had a decent current. But we all managed to get back into the rafts and finished the trip, where we were picked up in a truck and taken back to the lodge. After dinner we went to the bar and had a few beers. We played Phase 10 and taught our guide how to play. He decided it was too complicated so he taught us an Ecuadorian game, cuarenta. It was a lot of fun, but after a while we decided to go to bed to get ready for our big third day.

The third day we were picked up in a truck and taken to the other lodge that is owned by the same company. The lodge is more isolated and doesn’t even have electricity. But we were just there for a day excursion with another guide – we were going to the waterfalls! After a 3-4 hour hike with the company of a beautiful black dog, we reached the falls.

At this point, we had to decide if we were going to go up them or not, because once started you couldn’t turn around. We initially didn’t think my mom would go because of her arm but after seeing how it was set up she decided to go for it. We thought before that we would be basically pulling ourselves up a rope through the falls with sheer force, but the guide showed that we were climbing with mostly feet and just using the rope for safety and for a little help. So we all decided to do it, including the guide’s dog. It was so amusing when after we had all gotten up each step, he would go back down and carry/push the dog up the cliffs. There were a total of three waterfalls, with the first one the easiest. The first one we just went around, climbing small slanted rock faces and a small portion in the water. Too easy. Then we got to the second waterfall. (enter dramatic music). This one was going up through the water, and it had a pretty tough looking current. We got a little nervous, but the guide ran up and secured the rope for us then my mom went first. It was divided into 2 parts, a 15 ft climb through a little water then a 35ish foot climb through a heavy fall of water. We all got up to the first step and waited then once everyone was up the guide showed us exactly how to go up the next part. For example we should basically just walk using the rope as a safety if we started to fall, not leaning out or squatting and supporting ourselves on the rope. Again, mom went first. She looked nervous but made it to the top! Then I went, and found it wasn’t as hard as it looked. But it definitely got my heart pumping from the excitement! One everyone made it to the top of that we had a little piece left to go, then we waited while the guide went to bring the dog up :) At this point we were all soaked and our rubber boots were totally filled with water, so we didn’t bother trying to keep dry anymore. We reached the last waterfall, and it turned out we weren’t going up it, we just hung out in the pool below. We got a great photo with me, Kevin, mom, and dad under the falling water then had a snack to get our strength back up – it would be a long hike back. Then we climbed uphill to the top of the mountain ridge and walked along that until we reached the edge and we came down. He kept saying, it’s flat from here but alas it was generally never flat. And at the end of the ridge when we had to go down the mountain we were going down some very steep slopes, which seemed extra hard after the emotional and exhausting hike to/through the falls. But finally we made it to the lodge, a bit behind schedule.

We were so exhausted and were looking forward to a break after lunch, but surprise! After lunch he looked at us and asked “do you want 5 or 10 minutes before we head out for the next hike?”. We seriously considered calling off the afternoon activity to nap in the hammocks and give our blistering feet a break, but after about 15 minutes he came to find us and we decided to go for it. We packed up everything and hiked to the road entrance where we left all of the bags to go to the lagoon, the afternoon activity. The black dog came along again and had made best friends with Kevin, who had given into playing fetch/tug-of-war/attack every stick in site. We made pretty good time getting there, so we had awhile to hang out at the lagoon. It was beautiful! Buuuut it was very very cold. Like, when you get in, you can’t breathe cold. It was water coming down from the snow-capped mountains… And with the sun low in the sky it wasn’t looking good for us to take part in this activity. But our guide jumped in, and not much later Kevin decided to go for it as well. Mom and I sat on the rocks down at the water’s edge for quite awhile, with the intention of “easing in” (feet in, then legs in, etc). Meanwhile dad was just focusing on taking pictures… during this time Kevin got out of the water, so it wasn’t looking good for him getting back in. But then I decided to go for it, so I told Kevin if he got back in I would get in too. So I did. And I stopped breathing. It was so cold it hurt. It was literally like jumping into ice water. After a few minutes my body adjusted. And by that I mean I couldn’t feel my feet anymore, so Kevin and I headed to the source of the water to get a better look at the waterfall. Then we heard a shriek as dad and mom jumped in and came to join us. There was a little space in the rocks that looked like a baby pool. Not much warmer but we sat there for a minute before the guide told us it was time to go. So we did the logical thing and used the little current as a slide, slipping from the rock down into the big pool. When we got out we instantly warmed up some. I remember my dad saying that as cold as the water was, hypothermia is a serious possibility if you stay in the water too long. Tell that to the jovenes who were just having the time of their lives haha. One thing I actually liked about the lagoon is that I really think the coldness kept me from being sore from our morning hike. Because after everything we did that morning, I didn’t hurt the next day. In a way it also relaxed us once we were out of the water… We started the walk back and the guy who was picking us up to take us to the other lodge came to find us along the road since he was early (imagine that, in Ecuador!!).

When we got back to the lodge we showered and had dinner, then headed to the bar to chat, have a few beers, and play cuarenta with our guide. A huuuge group of Germans had arrived the night before, so we were joined by lots of beer drinking tourists. The lodge actually ran out of beer the night before by the way. We knew it would happen, but the guides seemed to think 4 habas was enough. Clearly don’t understand Germans haha. The last night was a lot of fun and Kevin and I hung out at the bar after mom and dad went to bed, playing cards with the guides. But it was clear our time was almost up, which meant their time in Ecuador was almost up… So when the guides went out for the night we headed to bed so we could enjoy the last day in Tena.

That morning we were to go to a cultural museum and wildlife refuge down the river, transported in motorized canoes. We were given a different guide as our guide started his vacation that day, so we headed out with a family of 3 Germans who had just arrived. The son is volunteering in a town in the mountains and like me, his family came to visit him. When we got to the place to get in the canoe, we got in and headed downriver. First stop: the culture museum. There we saw plant life, learned how to shoot a blow gun (which convinced me to buy one, albeit smaller than the one we tried that day. Yes, I have an Amazonian blow gun. its awesome.), and saw a museum on the history of the Amazonian Indians. Then we hopped back in the canoe and went further down to the wildlife reserve. It was pretty neat and we were able to see a lot of animals that we didn’t see in real life, as they have moved more into the forest away from humans for safety and tranquility. For example, we saw monkeys, all sorts of birds, rodents, cats, etc. (for a complete listing ask my mom, I’m sure she has a list of animals and everything). Then after buying my aforementioned blowgun, we got back into the canoe and headed upstream to the place we started. There we had lunch and headed back to the lodge in the pickup. I fell asleep in the back of the pickup – first time ever. Don’t ask how, I don’t know… so we got back, showered, packed up, and had a quick dinner before being taken in our very last pickup truck back to Tena, where we were scheduled to leave at 7:30pm.

This bus was much nicer that the other, and once we got in Guayaquil the general consensus was that everyone slept better. Once in Guayaquil we took a taxi to the hotel where Kevin and I slept for a few hours and my parents did all of our dirty laundry (yah!). When we all woke up, showered, and put on clean clothes we headed out to see the city! First stop: the Bahia for bootleg movies :) We spent awhile browsing there then Kevin and I bought some movies. Then we headed north where we passed by the iguana park, checked out the cathedral, and I showed them the post office before we headed to the Sweet ‘n Coffee for an afternoon perk-up. After some coffee, I showed them the Metro via (basically above-ground subway, and the public transportation I prefer when in the city) . It was a fairly full car, so they really got the experience haha. But we just rode it up 2 stops where we got off and walked until we found the artisanal market. There we bought all sorts of stuff and I got to practice my haggling skills :) I got some jewelry and a change purse. Kevin got a dominos set, earrings for a friend, and maybe something else? Mom and dad bought 2 hammocks. And dad got a panama hat. Then we continued north to the area called Las Peñas. It’s at the north end of the riverfront boardwalk and consists of 400+ stairs that go up to a lighthouse and a church on one of the only hills in Guayaquil. There you can see the expanse of the city and it’s just a pretty view. We went up, looked around, and then walked back down, totally sweaty and thirsty. So we walked down and headed to a restaurant for dinner. One of the other volunteers met up with us and we had a dinner at a restaurant with a nice view over the river. It was a nice relaxing dinner, but not the best food and myself and my mom were paying later…

Afterwards we called a cab and headed back to the hotel, stopping at a store to buy peanuts (they brought back like 6 bags of raw peanuts as gifts since fresh-toasted peanuts were one of their favorite things about Ecuador). While at said store, I got very sick and spent awhile in the mall bathroom before we checked out and headed back to the hotel. There I made use of the free internet while they packed, then we sat around and talked before going to bed. No one wanted to sleep as my mom and Kevin were leaving in the morning, but sheer exhaustion took away the option and we all slept like babies in the plush beds of the hotel. The next morning we all woke up and got ready, then took a cab to the airport. We hung around as much as we could until it was time for them to go through security :’(

After they had left, dad and I headed to the bus terminal where we bought tickets to Puerto Lopez, a beach town in Manabí. We boarded and headed out, arriving about 3.5 hours later in the little beach town. The first priority was lunch, as it was around 2 and we hadn’t eaten since 7am. So we walked along the beach and found a restaurant where I had shrimp in a yummy peanut sauce. We called around to the hotels and everyone was booked, but there was a hostel next to the restaurant so we checked it out and decided to stay there. After dropping our stuff off we headed out to find a whale-watching tour company. Everyone was basically saying the same thing, with the same cost, etc. but we found a place that seemed a lot more professional so we signed up with them to go whale-watching the next morning.

We walked along the beach for awhile, watching the fishing boats coming in and the ensuing attack of seagulls, fragatas, and other marine birds hoping to steal a fish or at least part of a fish. After the excitement of that wore off we walked to one of the beach-side cabanas and ordered a drink and hung out for awhile. Since we just had the Lonely Planet travel guide to go off of, we decided to check out a highly rated Colombian restaurant we had seen. When we got there we decided on the cazuela (fish, shrimp, other seafood, onions, peppers, tomato, garlic cooked in a sauce and served boiling in a cast iron bowl). Normally cazuela is made in a tomato based sauce, but apparently Colombia wins at cazuela. It was made in a super rich, creamy, cheesy sauce. Possibly one of the best foods I have ever tasted, and definitely one of the best I’ve found in Ecuador. We were stuffed and tired, so we took a stroll along the street and did some window shopping, making mental notes of things we might want to buy (a tagua necklace for me haha). We turned in pretty early and dreamt of whales, which we would hopefully see the next day.

The next morning we got up and grabbed a generic bread and egg breakfast then hung out at the shop until we had our group and got on the boat to go whale watching. We sat up in the very front with a young couple from Europe (she was from Germany, he was from Portugal, they met in Holland. Speak 7 languages between them. Typical Europeans haha). We headed toward the island, called Isla de la Plata, where we would land to see a variety of marine birds. When we were pretty close we came up on a group of humpback whales. See, the whales are from Antarctica and come north during June-September with the north-bound cold current to mate and give birth. Then after the season is over, they head back south until next year. We were one of 5 boats watching the whale that was jumping up some, and it was very exciting for me especially since it was my first time seeing a whale not in the zoo. After awhile we headed toward the island again. There we ran into another group, but we didn’t watch for as long as we did the first time. Once we got to the island we had muffins and bananas for a snack. One of the guides brought the sea turtles surrounding us to our attention by tossing some banana peel, which the turtles loved and swam up to us for.

Once we got on land the guides split us into 2 groups – the big group of Germans, and the mismatched group that included us, the European couple, and a couple from Spain. We decided to do the longer but flatter hike with the promise of seeing blue footed boobies, red footed boobies, fragatas, and some other marine bird. The first few feet we saw blue footed boobies off in the distance so we all stopped and took pictures. We had no idea how close we would actually get to them! The hike was interesting overall. There wasn’t a lot of plant life to see but we saw sooo many blue footed boobies. We literally were feet away from some of them, as they were walking and mating in the foot-path. We also saw them in every stage of the mating process from single to doing the ritual call callback procedure, to the mutual dancing, to tail up ready to mate, to nesting. We saw so many that after awhile it was like “oh just another blue footed boobie”… syke! It was pretty cool. We also got to see fragatas, which are the immense black birds with huge red pouches under their necks that inflate during the mating process. And finally, we saw three nesting red footed boobies at a distance. The trip was interesting to see the boobies and fragatas, as these do not live on the mainland of Ecuador. After the hike we were all pretty tired, but the guide seemed annoyed by our slowness hehe.

When we got back to the boat we were given box lunches and we went to the snorkeling location. It was pretty cool so only about 5 of us decided to snorkel. And the water took my breath away when I jumped in – chilly! We only snorkeled for around 15 minutes but we saw some big pretty fish, some trumpet fish, and white coral. I enjoyed getting back in the water with the mask and fins – reminded me of scuba diving! I spent plenty of time diving under the water and swimming through the schools of fish :) after the snorkeling we got back on the boat and headed back to the mainland.

The water had gotten really rough during the day and on the way back we were thrashed around by 6ft swells. The boat kept leaving the water completely and then slamming down really hard on the water. At first it was fun and we were laughing but after 45 minutes our butts hurt and it had lost its thrill. But once we were near shore we came right up on a group of 3 active whales. That is, all three of them were jumping out of the water! They were jumping one after another and spraying water like crazy. And we were soo close! I got a great video of them and some photos too. It seemed like the perfect end to the day, the whales telling us goodbye just as we reached land! We watched of awhile but it was almost dark and the whales stopped showing off so much, so we continued on.

We were all happy to get to land after the rough trip back. Dad and I showered and decided to go to dinner at the Colombian place again. Why settle for trying mediocre food when you know where the best food is? So we went back and once again got the cazuela. We once again left there stuffed, so we walked along the street again. This time we stopped at the tagua place and dad bought me a tagua whale necklace to remember our trip by :) Instead of going straight to bed, we decided to go to the cabanas on the beach and relax a bit. I had a pina colada and dad got a coconut batido (basically like a milkshake made with coconut). Once we had called it a night we headed to bed.

The next morning we decided to just head back to Guayaquil in the morning instead of hanging out there anymore, so we grabbed breakfast and hopped on a bus. I wanted to stop in my site for a few things, so we stopped here, unloaded photos from the cameras and I packed up all of my dirty laundry to take advantage of free laundry at the hotel! Once everything was done we hopped another bus and headed to Guayaquil, where we checked into the hotel and relaxed a bit. For dinner we went to a buffet restaurant that had been highly recommended, but it was eh okay. In fact, dad was pretty sick from it. Good thing my stomach is used to ecuafood… After packing and everything, we headed to bed, once again dreading morning when we would take another trip to the airport… in the morning we got ready and headed to the airport, where we waited as long as we could until it was time for him to go through security. I was suddenly alone again after 2 weeks of translating, constant accompaniment, and love. So I worked on getting everything I needed to do in the city done and head back to my site. I got my mail and did some shopping, then packed all of my clean clothes in my bag and went back to site.

Thankfully I had a short trip with some of my friends that weekend to help transition me from family & America to alone & Ecuador. Now, things are more of less back to normal. I’m getting back into work and trying to keep myself busy. I have enjoyed having alone time again, as that is what I’m used to, but it was so great to have Kevin and my parents here visiting me. I also was very happy that we had planned the trip as we did, so that I got to spend some time alone with both of my parents. And I am soo happy Kevin was able to come visit too. He got to see my site AND the Amazon – what a trip =) Now that I’m 13 months into my 24 months of service, Christmas doesn’t seem so far away. I will be happy to be reunited with America for sure! But until then, my Ecuador it is =)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051278&id=46900557&l=18347f5895
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051284&id=46900557&l=3783ef2076

Here are links to the two photo albums I have on facebook, which I have set to public so that you should be able to follow this link to see them. Lots of pictures but we did lots of stuff! Well, wrote for over 3 hours this time… Long post! Until another day…

“Anything to get more of this feeling
You take the high I’ll take the low
We’ll get there before you know
We ain't got no time to waste
We got too much life to taste”
“40 Dogs” by Bob Schneider