Las Playas

August 10 was a national holiday in Ecuador - I think it was Independence day or something. Anyway, so the whole family and I packed our stuff to head off down south to the beaches. It was difficult to pack that day and get ready because the night before I had eaten a bad hot dog and so for the first time I was sick because of the food. Only one time being sick is not too bad considering I´ve been here for 9 weeks now. So I was stuck in bed, not being able to move, with really bad stomach cramps, but eventually after much confusion and toing and froing, my mum was able to buy me some pills to help a little bit (So crazy - they sell tablets here individually and so I got like 3 maxolons for 5 cents each! Bizarre).

So we gathered all our stuff and off we went. There was heaps of traffic going out of the city because of the public holiday and every person is basically trying to get out of quito. But we soon hit the "open road" but if that implies going fast and easily, that is a wrong assumption. The road was insanely bumpy with massive rocks everywhere. I was absolutely amazed we didn´t break down or have a flat tyre or something on the way there. But I was feeling so drowsy and still ill, so despite being jolted constantly right off my seat and having to pretty much constantly brace myself, so as not to slide right off, I did sleep most of the way there.

Montañita, our destination beach, is only abouit 400km away from Quito, but it took us...are you ready for this...it took us 15 hours to get there!!! and that´s with straight driving. I think we must have gotten lost at some point, and it was such slow going due to the road. The speed bumps here (which by the way are called chapas muertos ie "police corpse" - lovely) are ginormous and so you basically have to come to a complete stop and slowly creep over it and when you´re on a road with no lights and no one else around, there were some pretty dramatic jolts to the whole car and we all went flying around the place. Makes for an interesting journey.

What else might have slowed us down was the fact that Gonzalo was driving the entire night straight and so was obviously really tired, but also - and this completely shocked and freaked me out, but all during the trip he was drinking Bacardi!!!! I couldn´t believe it! I know people might drive AFTER drinking, but the actual notion of drinking WHILE driving is absolutely insane for me. What´s more surprising is that the mum didn´t seem to think it was a problem either and kept feeding him drinks!! I´m so glad we made it there alive - seriously. Now that is a major cultural difference.

So we left at 5pm on Thurs night and we arrived in Montañita on Fri morning at 8am. It was early and so not much was open and it didn´t seem that nice at first, and so everyone was not really very impressed with it and there were rumblings amongst them that we should keep driving and go to another beach more south that´s apparently better. But I felt bad for Gonzalo and I didn´t think he was in a good state to be still driving, so I just said that I wanted to stay here and it was fine for me. We managed to find a room just for the night and then we went off to explore the place and swim.

My first impressions of the beach weren´t that exemplary because when you´re comparing beaches to those in Australia, it´s a high standard to meet. It was overcast, the waves were small and dirty ie dumping a lot of sand and the sand didn´t seem that clean. But I thought what the heck - I´ve definitely got to give it a try and swim. Here are some pics of the beach and the town:




It looks pretty good in the photos because the sun came out in the afternoon and it was heaps better. So overall, my final impression with the place is that I´d totally go back there again and I think it is the best beach for me in Ecuador. I say that because apparently this is one of the few beaches where it´s possible to surf, that is it´s an ocean beach with waves. Most of the other beaches are kind of like St Kilda or a inlet or bay, and they are way overcrowded. Whereas this beach and town had this really cool funky surfy atmosphere to it - all these hippy tourists who had chosen to stay there and make their crafts and just chill. It´s kind of like an Ecuadorian Byron Bay probably. So I definitely really liked it.

While we were waiting for Esperanza and Gonzalo to go to the beach, there are these guys walking around offering temporary tattoos - temporary meaning it stays for one month. Luis and Dario both got one, so I thought I´d join in. Mine is the one in the middle and then there we are displaying off our new look on the right. Unfortunately the guy doing Dario´s (left pic) wasn´t that good, and so it had pretty much smeared and disappeared within two days. But Luis´and mine are still around, which is cool. Only $2.

After the tattoos, we were ready to swim and so Luis and I bolted in and I was surprised to feel that I didn´t need to get used to the water at all. It was a warm room temperature and very pleasant and the sandyness of the waves didn´t seem as gritty as it usually is, so it was really quite nice. We went and rented a surf board to give it a go and it was funny because Dario or Luis had never tried it before and man it is freakin hard to explain how to surf in spanish, all the while trying to swim amongst the waves and not get dumped and help them to stand up etc. I was screaming "paddle paddle", because didn´t have time to think of what "paddle" is in spanish, and so obviously they didn´t understand me, but through many demonstrations and pushing them into the waves and because it is a long board and it´s really not that hard with one of those, they did semi-stand up towards teh end, which was really cool. Unfortunately Gonzalo, who had my camera and I told to take pics of us, didn´t know how to zoom in on us and so thought that we were too far away for photos, so didn´t take any. such a bummer..ah well.

We went for a walk around the beach and I saw this funky sand sculpture. I thought it was cool how it was actually in the sand and not above it. It looked really cool. I´ve got to try that one day.

Oh and I thought it funny to see the cultural differences here that beach cricket or rugby for us is of course beach soccer here for them.

There were guys walking up and down the beach selling ceviche - raw seafood marinated/"cooked" in lemon juice. Thought it looked really cool with the beach setting behind them.

Everyone was pretty zonked from the 15 hour drive, so we all napped and then went for dinner after, which was yet another menestra. I like menestra (a piece of meat, rice and beans), but it was almost all we ate on the trip, so I think i´ve had another of menestras. And then Luis, Dario and I hit the town and we found this cool alleyway lined with cocktail stands and they can make any cocktail for you for just $2! Very nice. But Dario and Luis really don´t have much money at all and so after shouting them a cocktail each, we decided just to go back and hang on the beach for free. It was all really fun, but the tide came rushing in, so we hit the sack at about midnight ready for the next beach day.

Breakfast in these seaside towns is not the usual bread, coffee or whatever - it is always something fishy. The guy on the left in front of the gigantic pot is selling encebollados - this fish soup that everyone eats and his store was packed. But I decided to go for the other alternative and try ceviche de ostra - oyster ceviche, with a full mix of every type of other seafood. I´m not the biggest seafood fan, but this was really really good. It´s got one gigantic oyster in it, conchas, fish, prawns, a tomato and onion salad, tostadas (those toasted corn bits you see on top) and a whole lot of lemon. You could tell it was incredibly fresh - top notch =)

So we decided to ship out and drive on to Guyaquil and Salinas - the biggest city in ecuador and a beach close by respectively. The drive there was fascinating - all these small pueblos that were just so poor. Here´s one of the houses that I wanted to show just how these people really don´t have very much at all. Just a really simple basic wood floor or sometimes dirt, with a palm frond roof. I even saw houses without all four walls and maybe half a ceiling that I know were being used because I could see a bed in there.

Anyway, we arrived in Salinas and Luis and I got out to explore the beach. It was just as I described earlier - just like a port or harbour type beach and absolutely packed to the brim with people. This was the beach that everyone said was the best, which I don´t quite understand, but I guess they all want something different out of their beach experiences. There were heaps fo food vendors and I can never walk past a gigantic coconut so as you can see there I am with the one I bought.

What was really cool about this beach was that there were these guys renting time on jetskis and the guy told us it was only $15 for 20min and before I knew it, they had thrown a life jacket on me, I got a quick 2second whiz around with the guy to learn how to use it, and Luis hopped on the back and off we went. I love the total absence of paperwork and all that fiddly stuff that prevented me from trying it last time. And there wasn´t even a set course. We just zoomed out and tried not to hit any of the swimmers and then avoid all the boats and yachts moored in the waters and we then just sped around as we pleased in open water. Soooo awesome!

After that, we had a quick lunch and then kept on going to Guyaquil - a huge port city right in the south of Ecuador and the rival city to Quito. Here´s Luis, Dario and I in the car just chlling as we drive.

There was a beautiful sunset as we arrived in the city:

We got lost and I liked how we didn´t even have a map of the city or a plan of where we were going to sleep that night, especially since Guyaquil has a reputation for being an incredibly dangerous place. So there we were slowly weaving our way around the dodgy neighbourhoods at night trying to get to the city centre. But we did see some interesting things. Like the pic below, I was confused as to why the street was full of people just sitting around and what they were there for. Turns out it´s a popular past time - street bingo.

But after some helpful mechanics and a whole bunch of other passerbys, we found our way to the city centre and specifically to Malécon. This is a fairly new development strip right on the river, much like Southbank in Brisbane, with a whole range of different attractions. Like a chinese-y garden, a museum, a lot of fountains, sculptures and monuments and observation towers that you can see the river and the city. It was pretty nice and here are some pics of us there:

Another pic of a cool colonial type building in the city centre. Guyaquil is actually really beautiful because of all this colonial architecture. Definitely worth a re-visit there to check it out more extensively.

After another menestra dinner, we found a hotel to crash for the night - it was about 11.30pm at this point, and so while the parents and I slept in the room, Luis and Dario slept in the car since it was easier and cheaper. I felt kind of bad, but there wasn´t anything I could do about it, but they seemed to be OK with it.

Breakfast the next day was really nice. I had a humita (left pic) which is this mashed up maize roll thing. Very tasty. Everyone else had balons de queso y carne - which are massive balls of mashed platana with cheese or bits of pork. I liked my humita better =)

We checked out the market and I didn´t really like it that much because the people in Guyaquil are so pushy and really trying to sell to you. If you are stationary for even 10seconds or so, you are swarmed with guys shoving socks are you trying to sell them to you. So we moved rather fast through the whole place. I thoght it was cute how there was just this lady sitting on a stool holding two dogs, obviously selling them. So cute.

We went back to Malécon again to take photos during the day and here is Dario showing off the place. It was funny how in every pic he´s in, he´s got the arms out with the ´tude, and every shot he took was a tad askew.

The biggest monument there was to Simon Bolivar, who was an absolute heroic figure in the independence of south american countries from spain. I forgot who the other guy is shaking his hand, but it´s some famous Ecuadorian. You can totally see the height difference between me and the guys (Luis is the same height as Dario) in this pic.

We were running out of time because this is Sunday and we had to get back before it got too late and it was going to take us about 12 hours to get back. So we packed into the car and off we went - our beach holiday over.

It was absolutely a beautiful fascinating journey back. We passed fields and fields of sugar cane, bananas, rice (so strange - I could have been anywhere in Asia when I saw those paddies), coconuts, papaya, and heaps of other tropical-y countryside. Really beautiful. There was one point where the entire street for almost a kilometre is lined with fruit stalls selling every type of fruit. Here are some pics:

And that was it - we arrived in Quito at about 11pm, so it did take us a solid 12 hours to get back. The road taking us up to Quito, which is of course a road that ascends 2800m, is quite a crazy loopy steep road and it was a relief when we finally reached the top.

Ecuador collage

Here are some pictures that I´ve taken of my work and of the city that I thought were pretty cool, so check them out.

The pic on the left is a the typical crowd outside the clinic when I arrive every morning. The gate is locked till about 8.45, but people have already started forming a line and I have no idea how early they would need to come to be first. But the next pic is a view from the inside of teh clinic and all the doctors, before the gate opens, goes out and gets all the ID cards and figures out who has the greatest need and the what the order of the day will be. The doctors will then come back with all the slips, and my job is then to get all the files and put them all in order ready for the day. And that´s what I do for the rest of the day. It might sound mundane, but it really is a crucial role and I have no idea what they´re doing now without me there.

These are the two lady doctors - Laura on the left in the green is one of the dentists and Rosalia on the right is the doctor. They absolutely loved the little Australia koalas I gave them.

There are so many stray dogs and inevitably, some wander in and just check out the place. Not the cleanest or hygenic thing for a medical clinic, but it still happens. The pic on the left is the filing room where Cathie and I spent most of the day.

Last Monday and tuesday, the street was absolutely packed with crowds and crowds of people and the line went so far down the street I couldn´t see the end of it. The reason they were all there was because school was about to start and the foundation was giving out school supplies to all the sponsored kids. There was something like 2000 plus kids that received school supplies.

The dentist at work.

This little girl, Alisson, is the absolutely cutest little girl I have ever met in my life!! She came in several times and we got to know her pretty well. We would give her drawings and paintings to do while she waited, and other times she would just come in and watch us work and give us company. It was perfect timing and I´m glad she came back in my last week - she actually came back to give us both a little present! Sooo cute. I gave her one of my koalas, so here she is showing it off. I totally love her and wish I could be her sponsor, but whoever her sponsor is is totally lucky and they really ought to get to know her.

On my last day, they organised a lunch of chochos con tostados - which is this white bean soaked in water, with tostadas and the ubiquitous tomato and purple onion salad. It´s quite tasty and it was nice that they did that for me. In the pic on the right, it´s Dr Laura on the left of the table, then Dra Rosalia, Dr Ernesto and Irma - the mother of the two girls I went to Baños with a couple weeks ago. It was a nice farewell lunch and even though I still didn´t understand everything they were saying, it was still cool to be part of it. Can´t believe I was there for 8 weeks, but it was definitely really good. Definitely a challenge but worth it.

The area we were in was called La Roldos and is obviously a really poor marginal area, hence the clinic being situated there. So here are some pics of the neighbourhood. The pic on the right is a paved road, but most of them are dirt roads. On the right it´s a view from the back of the clinic. If you zoom in, you can see Mt Cotopaxi in the far distance. it was such a beautiful view, when there wasn´t a massive cloud of smog blocking it - with the snow capped Cotopaxi towering over the entire Quito valley.

Here is a more complete view:


This is plaza de independence, right in the centre of the city. These pink trees are just beautiful.

The mannequins here are so hilarious - absolutely totally all about the butts and the chest. It´s amazing how far they all protude, but that´s the look they go for. So funny.

They´ve got an ingeious security system here - it´s called jamming huge spikes of broken glass into every top surface of walls and roofs. Bloody brilliant and looks quite effective. It definitely deters me from trying to break into houses ;)

I´m not sure what this sign means. I saw it in the park and I wonder if that particular sitting position is offensive or maybe some other reason why it´s prohibited ? - very curious. I wonder what happens if you do choose to recline in that matter - who polices that and what´s the fine?

Some food pics:

It was Danilo´s birthday on 30 Aug, so I made him a choc pavlova. I was pretty proud of the way it turned out since cooking here is quite altered (apparently) due to the altitude and so need to adjust teh temperature and time accordingly. But it was as perfect as I could make it and it was really tasty =) None of my family had ever had anything like it, so glad i could expand their culinary world.

Frozen banana on a stick - yum..hmm..

Saw this in the market and not sure exactly what they are - I think the big brown compost looking pile on the right is coconut with apple? The big green balls I think are sugar coated figs and the white balls are sugar coated peanuts? I´m sure they´re all very tasty, but didn´t try any.

This I did try though and very frequently at that too. It is called helados de paila, which is the ice cream found everywhere here. They make it by spinning the mixture constantly on a massive stand of ice, and I guess over time the icream solidifies and that´s helados de paila. Really nice. I saw this boy every day on my way back from work, spinning away his pan and watching tv at the same time.

After my last spanish lesson, Sofy and I went out for sharwarmas - the Ecuadorian kebab. Eating shawarmas is all about the sauces of mayonnaise and aji and every bite you take, you pour it on nice and thick. And of course a shawarma meal isn´t complete without one of the gigantic Ecuadorian pilsener beers. Only $1 for that giant bottle! It´s not the best beer, but hey who expects that for $1.