La Costa

Again, need I say more?  But of course I need to give a little background...

Last year when I was in Ecuador I took the last week to travel to El Oriente, or into the edge of the Amazon jungle in the east. This year I decided to head west for La Costa. My plans were up in the air until the last minute. I was supposed to do la costa trip with some of the fellas here, but scheduling ended up not working out for enough people at the same time. But this was my last weekend here in Ecuador so I was determined to make it happen. Eduardo wasn’t feeling up to heading out to the beach and got kind of sick on Thursday, so I made last minute plans with some of the girls from my Spanish school to head to Puerto Lopez, which is around a ten hour bus trip to the coast in the west.

After calling the bus station Thursday afternoon to reserve a seat I found out there was only one spot left and they couldn’t reserve it over the phone. I rushed downtown to the bus station to pick up the ticket and luckily I got it. Unluckily, after hanging out with the kids at Remar and being hyped for Puerto Lopez I returned home to find a note from Edu telling me to pack my things for la playa (the beach). He had apparently made some type of other plans for me to head to la costa and then had gone to el Parque de la Carolina. I packed my things and met him at la Carolina to figure out what was going on and what I was going to do.

When I got to la Carolina, Edu explained what was going on. Knowing how much I wanted to go to the coast, he had set up for me to go to la costa at Atacames with his sister and her friends. A few hours earlier I had no plans, now I had two separate bus tickets to the coast (Edu had set up the bus with his sister for me). Atacames is on the northern coast of Ecuador, and was a six hour trip, and is were many local Ecuatorianos go for vacation when going to la costa. I had a tough decision to make, but decided to eat the ticket to Puerto Lopez and head out to Atacames with Edu’s sister, Liz, and her friends.

Now I’m sure the Puerto Lopez trip would have been fun, so no disrespect to my North American friends who took that route and so courteously invited me. However, from the beginning of the Atacames trip I knew I had made the right decision. I met up with Liz at la Carolina and we took a city bus to her place before meeting up with her friends. Sidenote: I love that we were running late but since everyone runs late here we were on time and even a bit early for meeting up with people and catching the bus.

While waiting for the bus, I was introduced to several new groups of people right off the bat. Liz’s friends, Amanda, Sandra, and Malena. Amanda and Sandra’s brother, Walter (or Spark, his MC name) and his friends. Sandra’s daughter, Daisy and her friends from school (and their friends too). The final group were friends of Malena’s husband, Diego, who was our bus driver along with Christian, who also drove (when I asked Christian if driving a bus was hard, he shrugged and said that it was actually pretty easy). Basically, the short part of the story here is that I met tons of new people who I’ll refrain from trying to name all right now.

Before catching the bus, I had picked up some Chifa or Chinese food (chaulafan) along with other snacks (including my beloved chifles dulces) and my new friends quickly introduced me to Norteño (I had heard much about this low-cost alcoholic beverage and all the rumors were true). We picked up the bus around 9pm and drove through Thursday night, but there was little sleep cause this bus had a sound system that did not go to waste. The interior of the bus was also properly lit with red lights and some of the speakers even lit up when the bass hit. I’m telling no lie when I say that this bus was better prepared for par-tay than many of the regular house parties I’ve been to. There were also plenty of drinks, eats, and good beats for the passengers.

Upon arriving at the coast, we dropped off Walter and his friends, who split off from us. We got into Atacames around 5am that Friday morning, which put our trip at about 8 hours, but that’s only cause we took about a half-dozen pit stops to grab more drinks, snackage, and bathroom. I think Amanda bargained for us to get an $8 per person hotel, which I later found out covered the next day and a half that we were there. I think Amanda asked me how I would like sharing a room with 5 people, with everyone else being female. I said, no problem, I just wanted to sleep. So when we got in the place I grabbed a top bunk and crashed until people started trying to wake me up at 8am the next morning (this was not happening). I went back to bed, but Daisy woke me up some time in between 9 and 10am I think and said you got 5 minutes to get ready, apurate. Fair enough. I threw my contacts in, shaved, and was ready to go check out the beach.

After walking the beach, checking out the beautiful ocean, and meeting up with Liz, Amanda, and Sandra, we headed back to the hotel. I had camarones con arroz y platanos (shrimp with rice and friend bananas) with juice for breakfast. Total cost = $2. I could tell I was going to like Atacames.

I could go on and write more, but I’ll try to wrap this up without writing a book. Again, I think the pictures tell the story better than I can describe here anyway. Swimming in the Pacific, nice. If I hadn’t lost my glasses to the sandy undercurrent I would say that I prefer the Pacific over the Atlantic (the Gulf of Mexico waters were fresh several weeks back). Really I just feel blessed to have hit up two oceans in one summer.

As you can see, I spent most of this trip relaxing (sleeping in hammocks on the beach is great). However, there was more partying that Friday night. We went to these bars on the beach with music and dancing. Drinks were cheap and eats were delicious. I had a huge hamburger I think sometime around three. We caught these motorcycle cabs back to the hotel around 3 or 4am, but there was more music on the beach right outside our hotel on the beach. I was through dancing though and fell out in one of the hammocks.

When I woke up and saw that others had passed out in less comfortable places I decided to call it a night. The next morning we ate and I had shrimp again for breakfast. By this point, the cook had already figured out that I ate a lot and stacked my plate even higher for all of two dollars. Afterwards, we packed, took off, and picked up some of the other people on the bus. Those who got up later that morning went to go get a bite to eat. I picked up a papaya batido (shake). We again took off on the bus, about noon, but stopped an hour or so later at this small town, Tabiazo. Actually, when driving through the town the bus snapped a power line and the broken line fell in the bus through the sunroof. I hadn’t noticed at first and when I got out of my seat I almost touched the line. I would have had the second biggest shock of my life on this trip.

After taking care of the line, we took another road to the Rio Tabiazo, where people were bathing, washing clothes, and upstream many were just chillaxing in the waters. This lat place was where we headed and spent the next couple of hours just chilling in the fresh water. I needed this cause I hadn’t really bathed in two days and the salty ocean water had made me a bit sticky. Oh, I didn’t really mention before that the $8 per person hotel room had sporadic water supply and came with pretty much zero amenities. Though this really didn’t matter cause all I needed was a place to crash at night. Actually, you hardly even needed that. A group of Daisy’s friends camped out on the beach.

After enjoying the river waters for a spell, we changed and got back in the bus. Again, we stopped pretty regularly for bathroom, snack breaks, and once to eat dinner. There was a more chill atmosphere in the bus on the trip back and less partying (thank God, cause I was spent). I got back to the Edu’s around 10pm that Saturday night and watched some movies while looking over pictures I had taken. Edu was out partying, but like clockwork he woke me up a little after 8:30am Sunday morning and said it was time to go play ball. (Sidenote: Edu spent all of two days retired from ball by the way). After several hours in the park I was once again through. Though today we got some encebollados (like a gumbo soup) in the park before heading back to the crib. And of course I had to grab me some Bon Ice before catching a bus home.

Today Edu told me that my despedido (going away party) would be this upcoming Tuesday night. I asked him if I should cancel my last day of Spanish classes that I have scheduled for Wednesday. He said yes and added that there was only one goal for Tuesday night and that this would probably prohibit me from being able to attend any class Wednesday. Next blog: Mi Despidido

Saturday, It's a Saturday

Ok, I’m going to try and keep this short, even though yesterday was a long day. A little more than the average Saturday, but I did more of the same things I’ve been doing while in Ecuador: play basketball, eat, and hang out with friends.

The day started as usual with Eduardo and me going to El Parque de la Carolina to play basketball at 10am. We usually spend around 4 hours playing ball each day on the weekend. The outdoor ball is killing my ankles and knees with the hard concrete, but it feels good to be out there dunking on the fast break or nailing el triple to cap the game.

I usually don’t bring the camera to the park cause people will run off with your stuff if you’re not watching it. The park is safe during the day though, although you might get punked at night if you’re traveling solo. Last Thursday night we heard gunshots across the street from the courts as a bank seemed to be getting robbed. No one stopped playing and we went on to win the next game.

On the weekends we run games to 30, 40, and 50 or more points. It really all depends on who’s waiting and how close the games are. You always have to win by at least two points and when it’s close and competitive between the two teams were just tack on another 10 points to win the game, as we decide on the spot to just play for another 10.

Playing ball in the hot sun for 3 or 4 hours takes it’s toll on the body and that’s why we buy drinks or “Bon Ice” after we're done playing (I think we used to call these things “Freezies” when I was little kid back in the day). For ten cents you can enjoy a piece of heaven with a little frozen kool-aid encased in plastic. Rojo (red) is the best flavor in my opinion, while others prefer orange or green (like Edu).

After the games on this particular day, Fabricio was kind enough to come back to the crib and cook fritada (a kind of dish prepared with beef, onion, and other spices) for Eduardo, Javier, and me. After the game we stopped at Supermaxi to pick up the groceries, caught a cab back to our place, and a couple hours later at around 5pm we were enjoying a great meal. Fabricio took care of the main dishes (fritada and ensalada) and everyone else pitched in a bit, with Javier preparing the rice, Edu making naranjilla smoothies, and me handling the jugo especial for afterwards (basically screwdrivers).

I ate, ate, and ate some more. After finishing my plate I took care of the rest of Fabricio and Javier’s food. And it was good. We enjoyed my jugo especial afterwards as we brought out the cards. Javier did some magic tricks (some of which I’m still trying to figure out) and then we played some other card games. Unfortunately, I had to leave as I had plans for dinner with the family I stayed with when I was first here in Quito in 2007. Señora Graciela Dávila hosted me last summer in her home and has had me over a couple times for dinner this summer. I pretty much met her entire family at the celebration of her mother’s 80th birthday last year, so I know he brothers and sisters, nieces, etc.

Graciela’s niece, Christina, invited me over for lasagna Saturday night, along with two girls who are staying with Graciela this summer (Catherine & Laura). Christina’s parents, her nephew, and one of her best friends, Adriana, were also there. I was at Christina’s place by 8pm another great meal and conversation, but afterwards the night was still young.

Graciela was kind enough to give me a ride back to Edu’s place and at 11pm the fellas were still throwing down and having a great time. After getting caught up on the events of the past few hours that I had missed, I quickly got back in the mix as bartender. We repeatedly passed around the liberations in the trademark wineglass as we joked our way from Saturday night to Sunday morning. We listened to and watched Madonna in concert (we had actually been doing this since the afternoon - the fellas are Madonna fanatics). We also played more cards and took more pictures. We laughed, we cried, and Edu gave up basketball. This is a much longer story and there were much longer stories that I’m going to have to leave out here.

I remember going to bed around 4am and Edu trying to wake me up before 9am Sunday morning to go play more ball. Although Edu tricked me into thinking he was going to play, he just ended up just watching from the sidelines with Javier as I played ball with Fabricio and the other fellas from the park. After another 4 hours at the park I was and now am beat. I told Edu if he’s really retiring I may do the same while here in Ecuador. Will Edu leave the game he loves so much? I don’t think so, but we’ll find out this week.