Surfing!!!

So today was our second lesson in surfing! we went to another beach with much bigger better waves and they showed us how to paddle out farther, and let me tell you its much harder to paddle out farther haha There was a national surfing competition in peru yesterday and all the surfing instructors went, and my instructor ranked 3rd!! He surfed a little bit for us and he was so so so good!!

People here in montanita speak much more english than anywhere else, there are also other gingos around so people don´t stare at us as much haha. Its much more touristy here than anywhere else. There streets are lined with tons of venders with lots of bracelets and headbands. There are tons of cute little resaurants and such. Our hotel is soo cute. There are about 4 people to a house thing and we share a bathroom. Its right on the beach and the town is only like a 10 minute walk on the beach. This is my last day on the beach after living on it for 2 and a half weeks!! Tomorrow were goin on an 11 hour bus ride to banos! :)

banana pancakes

alright soo we left our volunteer project yesterday and now offically on our adventure tour! Sooo while volunteering we accomplished half a fence for a park, mind you the fence looks super cool! its built out of these tree branches where if you plant them they grow back into trees!! ok so we didn´t do very much english teach, i only went to the school twice once to teach english and a second time to paint skirts for a festival that started the day after we left!! we also monitored some whales which was pretty sweet, we´re going whale watching again tomorrow so by the end of this we´ll be expert whale watchers haha. the whales are super huge!! last time one jumped super close and got the boat sprayed!!!!

We left our host family today, and if you read julias blog i can now tell you that hammock man has a purpose!!! those seahorses he randomly put on the fridge while we ate one day got painted and they gave them to us when we left. The night before they took out a HUGE box of family pictures and we went through all of them! most of them were baby pictures of Lugi, the 13 year old boy in the house, haha. As we were looking through them the power went out! not for long though cause it came back on in a few minutes.

ok soo my project leader, daneill, got dengue half way through our volunteer project. its bascially machalilla´s form of malaria. he basically just slept and went to the doctors for the week and is now going home so he can recoup. buuut anywayss on a better note i went surfing yesterday and it was super funn!! our instrucor was soo funny and played out the whole surfing and wave thing in the sand. and i´m about to go get some banana pancakess!!! real americanish foodd!!! i can´t wait!!!

Wait...I thought we were teaching kids english??

Ok so last night we had a short debriefing about what we were going to do today. Supposedly we had an hour before school started to plan a lesson then teach kids english, like numbers and colors and such, but oh wait! no time for planning, we moved tons of rocks instead! For the hour we thought we were planning we moved 15 super heavy buckets of rocks to a truck farther away than needed and got all gross before school haha.

So we all showed up at school with no plan, but i think we managed pretty well. After teaching the kids some numbers they all got up to dance because i guess they have some festival coming up where they all dance in the street. while they were practicing we made up a number bingo game and played that when they were done. Tonight we are going to puerto lopez for some discussion or something i`m not sure.

Despite the mosquito netting covering my bed i still have tons of bug bites, oh and theres a lizard that lives in our room. its yellow! and we found another little baby lizard in our room yesterday!!

Our host family is really nice, but they like to watch us. They rarely eat with us here, instead they just stand, sometimes sit, and watch. Daneill told us when we do laundry today everyone will come and watch, and we have big host family. Our host mother, daisy, laughed when we told her we had washing machines in america. she thought it was so funny she went and called her friend right then to tell them what we said haha The women in our host family wear all black everyday and i think its because their aunt died about 2 weeks ago. They`re all very nice and worry about us a ton.

The food here is a little different than in Quito. We still have lots of soup and potatos, but this morning and last night we had balogna! haha for breakfast it was a bologna omlet and last night was bologna and crackers for dinner haha so i`m sure sheila would be able to eat here :P We also eat lots of fish because machalilla is a small fishing town. oh and juice is a must. They only have instant coffee and tons of tea. alright its almost time for lunch!

So basically the past few days all summed up

On friday we flew into guyaquil to meet up with everyone else in our volunteer project. Then took a 4 hour bus rideto get to puerto machalilla where we are volunteering. The town is really small but its right on the ocean! Every morning the obnoxious roosters wake us up at like 5 in the morning.

The first day we went fishing and alex caught a huge puffer fish. The lines were jsut a stick with a fishing line and bait and hook. I didn{t catch anything but we got like 12 fish overall because we also fished yesterday. so for the rest of the day we had lunch then had so really long meetings.

On Sunday we we went snorkelling out by the islands our farther but couldn{t see much. Ceasar took us out and had 5 dollar fish that we caught yesterday for us to eat. It was very tasty. We fished some more then rode the kayaks back, and greg fell off on the way back. After snorkeling we went to some sulfur springs that were not hot as advertised but still smelled wonderful. we covered each other in mud cause i guess its good for your skin. the locals thought we were funny. then we walked to a veiw point and saw tons of pigs and goats on the way. We went back for dinner, played some cards and went to bed.

So today we did tons of digging. the ground was super hard so we had to pick axe it before we shoveled. It cloudy but people still got sunburn. We broke for lunch at 12:30 and came back to dig an even bigger hole. I guess it{ll be a play ground eventually. tomorrow we are planting flowers in it. Tonight were having a bonfire on the beach i believe.

greg is incredibly good loooking in his bandana and sunglasses. He applys his sunscreen every hour and reminds me to do so on occasion. He love his mom even though he has yet to call her. he will soon. Ill write again soon hopefully with pictures!! :)

yummm frutas!!

Well today Isabellas husband was here. We met him at breakfast, and he seems very nice. There was also another guy here and I have no idea who he was but he slept here too. For breakfast we just had watermelon and bread. and some kind of wonderful juice of course. Ít´s a different type of juice everyday!




Class today was shorter than normal because we went to the market where we tried tonsss of different fruit! aka 15. All of them were something i´ve never had before and they all looked super exotice! Even the bananas tasted a little different!! This market was HUGE!!! After we spent about an hour tasting fruit we walked around to see the rest of the market. First we walked throught the vegetable section then this herb section that was selling "love potions" which were basically perfume but julia and I had to buy some Then came the meat secion. All I have to say is ew. there was just raw meat everywhere! I touch a fish too! Standing by it for a picture i accidently touch itt!! ahh haha. well anyways next was this basket/tricket section. Then came the flowers. It was very beautiful! each section just had things piled high to the ceiling! It was so so interesting. we bought our host mother flowers for a doller, a dozen roses! ;)

AFter the market we walked to a store so people could get boots for the volunteer project. On our way there there were these 2 sketchy looking boys who seemed to be selling these out of date dirty posters. When we passed they tried selling them to us but after we passed they followed us. Especially my friend Alex. The 2 of them would not leave her alone and she was getting annoyed and telling them to leave. Next thing I know shes on the grounded scrambling to grab her camera and 10 dollar bill. She said as the boy was putting the poster in front of her he was reaching to her fanny pack and unzipping it, but when she tripped over him because she was trying to push him away her camera and bill fell out of his hand. Luckyly she got all her stuff back, but it deffinetly made everyone else more cautious with their stuff, especially around little boys with ugly posters!

After we got back to the school we walked back to our host mothers house and quick stopped at the market yet again to pick up some bracelets haha. For lunch we had soup yet again and rice and some kinda of meat.

For 2:30 we were back at the school to cook dinner. We chopped and diced tons of stuff. The guy kept telling me to follow him cause he needed my help but he never told me what to do so i ended up just following haha. but anyways the dinner we had so sooo good. We had these potato patties filled with mozerella and onions, which is like totillas here. when we made them they were sooo hot they like burned out hands!! haha We also had sausage. The egg was not cooked all the way through so i did not touch that haha. I tried avocado for the first time and right after I took a bite everyone looked at me and was like "you eat the skin?!" whoops guess youre not supposed to haha. We also had this hot sauce that was super hot but good. I was soo full by the end.

After our school dinner we went to the market with Alex and Carrie. I bought another pair of pants haha and got some for other people who asked me to pick them up a pair so i had a whole bag full of pants. we were there for ever, i was soo tempted to buy tons of stuff but i made myslef wait because we are going back to the market in a few weeks.

When we got home everyone was just knida doing there own thing. We had a late night meal which was just soup and Isabella had a cake for Julia and I because its our last night here. At dinner we gave our host family a book about new york which is pretty much just pictures but they seemed to like it a lot. Isabella gave us a little keychain change purse that says ecuador on it. AFter dinner Julia and i did the dishes while it seemed like everyone was getting ready to leave. We were soo confused. AFter a while Isabella came to say good bye and we said good bye to everyone and took pictures and everything. AFter they left, their friend had come earlier and stayed when they left, her friend told us they werén´t coming back until saturday! haha good thing we chose to give them the book tonight and not in the morning like we planned!

Well tomorrow we leave for Puerto Machallia for our volunteer project, i´m not sure how much internet we will get there but hopefully we´ll have some!! ps i just had my first warm shower in a week!! Its a good sign!!

Salsa take 2

So yesterday June 9th we had a super good breakfast again. It was a hard boiled egg and the awesome bread with some kind of cheese on it. So good!!

On the way home from class Julia and I stopped at this HUGE market where i bought there awesome pair of pants, i totally went back today go get a green pair! That made the trip home a ittle better because we stook out like a sore thumb, everyone was watching us once again haha. oh and there is sooo much smog here. cough cough i think i caught the black lung ;)

For lunch we had soup again which seems to be the thing to eat here. We always eat our soup first and then Isabella seems to bring out the other dishes as soon as one person finishes. We also had some kind of local dish which was beans onions and some meet. You mixed it with rice and it was muy bienn.

After lunch we went back to the school early to meet up with everyone to go to the market but we didn´t have enough time to we just went to an internet cafe and made some phone calls. Its only 5 cents a minute there!

So at 3:30 we went for salsa lessons. This time is was soo much fun. We did spins and everything with partnerss. My partner was way short and had braces of course haha and he thought my name was the weirdest thing in the world, he could not say it to save his life haha. But it was super fun! After salsa we had some time to kill before we went out to dinner with everyone so julia and I went to a pastrie shop on the corner to get some chessecak to curb out hunger.

Around 6:30 we met up with everyone at the school where we went to a mexican resaurant calle red hot chili peppers. The food there was sooo good and soo filling! We got a pitcher of pinnapple drinks to share. We wanted to go to this chair lift that over looked the city before dinner but it was too late and it looked like it was going to rain so we chose against it, maybe when we come back to Quito in a few weeks.

Hey look at me! I´m a tourist!

Day 2 in Ecuador and it feels like 2 weeks! I´m starting to be able to understand what most people are trying to say but thats like 25% of the time and being able to respond is a whole other story!

For breakfast we had bananas and yogurt with jello and lemonade bread. Surprisingly I wasn´t hungry before lunch today. After our Spanish Lessons we quickly went back to the house for lunch. Lunch was this interestingly good green cream based soup where you put popcorn in it and eat. We also has some kind of boneless fish which was also good and cucumbers and tomatos and rice. Rice is pretty much at every meal.



After lunch today we had to quickly return to school for our tour of old town in Quito. We first took the bus where we had to stand as the diver continually abrutly stopped and accelerated, it seems all the drivers here are crazy. Our first stop was a basillica. It was beautiful! There were gargoyles and tons of gothic architecture. Our guides only spoke spanish of course so I understood little or what people translated. We walked down some narrow streets as every car stared at our group.
Maybe it was because we had our cameras out or because we were wearing our backpacks in front of us, but we screamed tourists! We were told to do this because i guess people cut the bottom of the backpacks while you´re wearing them and steal everything in it that way.

When we reached the president of Ecuador´s house people started approaching us to buy scarves. They were pretty cheap and they were very persistant but only 2 people bought any. It was 2 small girls and their mother with a baby on her back selling them. This is when people knew we were toursits the most. They were circling and watching us like we were dinner and they were lions in africa or something! but anywayss we then went into the Presidents house, and the mayor was there. They also had guard like in London!

We kept walking until we reached a shop that sold nuts. Our guide had us try all sorts of candy and nuts. All were pretty good and a bag was only 25 cents so we bought 3 different kinds. Then we went to a pastry shop where we bout 2 pastries for only 1.45. And that pretty much leaves me at where I am now, an Internet Cafe.

:)

¿Habla usted inglés?

Our first day in Ecuador was yesterday. We arrived to our host family´s house late on Sunday. Everyone here speaks Spanish including our house family who speaks NO english what so ever! It all started in Miami when they said everything in Spanish before English haha. I´m picking some up but its a good thing julia know Spanish!

Isabella is our host mother and there are 2 wild and crazy little boys in the house as well, Pablo and Nicholas. The houste does not have any cold water julia and i bundle up after showers because it is ICEY cold. In the morning Isabella had breakfast for us which was a small egg and bread. The bread was extremly good!! There was also some kind of juice which she made from a large fruit, i´m not sure what it was. Isabella and Pablo walked us to school where julia and I split up for Spanish lessons. After the lessons we went home for lunch.


outside our spanish school. this is half of the i know no spanish class.

We were both starving by lunch! Isabella had soup, rice, cabbage, and some sort of meat for us. Neither of us at the meat but everything else was rather tasty. We had a break before we had to go back to school and Isabella took Julia, the 2 boys, and I to a park on top of a mountain. It was extremely beautiful! It looked over the city of Quito and all the mountains that surrounded it. The clouds were just surrounding the mountains almost hugging them. Quito is right in the Andes mountains so as you walk the street you just see mountains sticking out of the horizon. Before we came to Ecuador everyone said you can experience 4 seasons in one day...well they ment it. On our way to the park Julia and I were hot and wearing shorts and a T shirt and it was sunny and beautiful but by the time we left, maybe and hour or so later, it was cold and rainy.


Us and Pedro at the park on the mountain! :)


More of the park!

At 4:15 we headed back to the school for salsa lessons. We had a minor detour on the way because we went the wrong way but because Julia and I have a stellar sense of direction we made it to the school on time! These were fun but really fast. Afterwards we went to an internet cafe to make some phone calls and a cute restaurant afterwards to hang out before dinner.

We gave the boys silly bands and they absolutly loved them. They watch the disney channel all the time as well as barney and other shows on pbs. Its funny to see them all in spanish. Pablo likes to pretend he´s Spiderman a lot too.

We caught a cab back to our host family´s house, which is only about a dollar for a cab ride. Everything here is really cheap. For dinner we had tortillas, chicken, rice of course, and banana which was super good!!! It was warm which i didn´t expect it to be. Hopefully I can upload some pictures at my host family´s house!
Chao!

Cause I'll Be Leavin on a Jet Plane

Everything is now packed and tomorrow morning, bright and early, Julia and I will be at the airport. We're on our way to Quito, Ecuador for our 5 days of Spanish lessons!!! :)