Haaaha. Juuuust kidding. I tickle myself.
The next morning we headed back to the airport for our flight to Guayaquil. Dad had his first experience of culture shock as we were passing through the security check. Instead of looking at what was in the bags, the lady behind the x-ray machine was getting a fierce kiss from her supervisor. Welcome to the land of machismo, where sexual harassment does not exist. The flight to Guayaquil sort of damaged me, because after getting there in 45 minutes, I will never again be able to get on that 12 hour bus ride. We arrived and headed to the bus terminal, which is more like a shopping mall and definitely larger than the airport. We managed to catch a bus to Puerto Lopez immediately, but not before I deserted my poor parents to buy some cheeseburgers. Fortunately, when the man helping us asked ¨donde?¨, all of that studying paid off when Mom understood and said, ¨McDonalds¨. The bus ride was long, but we had nice seats in the front and thankfully, the windows opened. The road out of Guayaquil isn´t exactly the prettiest landscape you´ve ever seen. It´s littered with trash and shacks made out of wood and scrap metal. Since that´s certainly not what the majority of Ecuador looks like, I thought it could only get better for them after that since it was the first time they ever really saw the country in daylight. Once we got to Puerto Lopez we loaded ourselves into a ¨moto-taxi¨ which looks like this…
That´s Brooke, a volunteer on the coast, and she is making that face because once she had a traumatizing accident in one of those bad boys. Of course, I didn´t tell my parents about that incident until later. The highlight of Puerto Lopez was probably the whale watching trip we took out to an island about an hour and a half away from the main land. The boat part of it was nauseating. It was a mixture of the strong smell of gasoline and the fact that the boat was traveling at about 80 miles per hour that made me want to hurl. My parents were just fine…Mom likes the smell of gasoline. Once on the Island we had our own private tour. While the rest of the group took a hike to see some birds, we stole some shells, hung out on the boat, drank beer, snorkeled and watched the boat men catch octopuses. On the way back Brooke and I decided to stand on the top of the boat to avoid feeling sea sick. That really meant us hanging on for dear life as we sped back to the town. The whales of course were beautiful. Puerto Lopez overall was sort of a let down, I think probably because the weather was cloudy and muggy. I was excited to get to Brookes site, Ayangue, and to stay in a really nice hotel.
But of course, it wouldn’t be Ecuador without a little drama. We arrive at the hotel, really the only suitable hotel in the town I might add, and a snotty woman at the front desk basically tells us, ¨Sorry, we´ve got a big family reunion here, there´s no room for you.¨ Now this has happened to me before, but I had never imagined it would happen at a nice hotel like this one. So naturally, I went just a little crazy. After about ten minutes I was getting no where with the evil wench. She had offered us a hostel in the town, and access to the pool and restaurant. So I let the restaurant owner take us down there. The hostel ended up being someone’s house. That´s normal here, but of course for my parents it was ridiculous. So Brooke called the President of her town to see if he could help out. Meanwhile, I continued to tell the restaurant owner that I was going to tell everyone I know NEVER to go there, and I was going to bash it all over the internet. He said the Ecuadorian equivalent of, ¨Shiiiit¨, and got back on the phone. Ten minutes later he comes back relieved because he had managed to work something out. We had our room, and it was a beautiful day for tanning. A few margaritas later we were all loving life…except for Dad, who was asleep in the room as a result of his first experience with GI discomfort. The rest of our time in Ayangue was very relaxing. Thankfully the weather was nicer, and so everyone was happier.
Our trip to the coast was fun overall, but I was excited to get back to the Sierra. We spent a few days in Quito. I think they enjoyed the change of scenery and food and seeing the historical center.
Finally we got to Ibarra, which for me was the most exciting part of the trip since that’s where my life is. We went almost immediately to see the girls, who were very excited to meet the parents. The evil Director nun was on her very best behavior, and met my parents with a polite smile. The most amusing part of the trip came in the wee hours of the next morning. There was a ever so slight knock at my door at 6 in the morning. There stands my mother, nearly weeping, looking a pale white despite her tan. She´s mumbling, walking in circles although she is very clearly awake. ¨I´m so sick…I´m so sick¨. I am an evil person I know, but it took everything in me to keep from laughing. ¨ Ok ok…calm down¨. What I really wanted to say was…¨Yea…welcome to my life.¨ Actually I think I probably did say that. Anyway she rested for several hours and then woke up feeling ok at about 9. Feeling ok of course means not having the urge to let out any bodily fluids, but still you feel like death. I´m pretty sure that both of them knew they would get sick here…I guess they just didn´t realize how dreadful it is. Once again, welcome to my life.
We spent the next week seeing everything that Imbabura has to offer. Pretty towns and lakes, the city of Ibarra, of course. And spending some time with the girls. For the most part they were troopers. They took the bus, ate Cuy, learned to say ¨Buenos Dias¨ to almost everyone. And most importantly, they helped me feel a little bit more like a bad ass for being here. For not only putting up with the little strange things that happen day to day, but finding those things to be normal. Lastly I will say, for those of you willing to leave your comfort zone…I welcome more visitors.
Oh and also...Happy Birthday to Dad...who is 65 today...but can still stag leap like a champ:
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