Ecuador II

"Desayuné jueves con café", I wrote in my notebook.  "I ate Thursday for breakfast with coffee".  Huevos= eggs.  Jueves=Thursday. Oops. Another language learning highlight was when I was eating lunch and a guy asked me what I was drinking.  "Jugo de niña" I replied, smiling.  "Girl juice". He looked awfully confused, then said, "ahhh, hugo de piña".  Pineapple juice.  Double oops.  The salsa lessons aren´t going much better. The only lesson since last week came from a diminutive guy who insisted on dancing with me at one of the beach bars this weekend, poor boy. Luckily i had bare feet so I didn´t injure him. Eventually he gave up on the salsa: "Bailas como quieres," he begged, "Dance however you want."

 

The beach? Yes, the beach.  A 9 hour bus ride down 7000 feet to the Pacific.  10 gringos went to the beach this weekend to celebrate two gringa birthdays.  Unfortunately Emma had to work, so I was a stranger among strangers.  I didn´t know any of them, and it felt like the cast of The OC.  Wow. These girls were prepared! Two days at the beach, and each one had a hiking backpack full of tequila, 14 serongs, 6 cute outfits, jewelry, gigantesque sunglasses, and a complete set of cosmetics. I was fascinated. 

 

Montañita.  It´s a tiny town on the ecuadorian coast north of Guayaquil that has been entirely usurped by surfers who came for a week and never left.  Dude.  To say that the atmosphere is laid back is a gross understatement.  I had a great hummous and eggplant sandwich.

 

In other gastronomical news, I have been slurping down ceviche like it´s my job--it´s seafood marinated in citrus until it´s ´cooked,´ with onions and cilantro... mmmmmm.  Expensive, though, at $5 a pop, give or take.  A lady in my friday night conversation class said she´d teach me how to make it.  And did I mention the avocados.  My god.  They are like butter.  And the ripe plantains... que rico.

 

Last night I was walking home and a tantalizing whiff of street meat caught my nose. I couldn´t resist.  "Am I going to get sick?" I asked Rubén when I got home.  He grinned, "wait two or three days."  I´ll keep you posted.

 

In other news, my other housemate Karen went to Peru and they didn´t let her back into Ecuador because she had used up her 3 month tourist visa plus 3 one-month extensions.  Chuta.

 

So it goes on this side of the equator...