Photography by Kristen Spruit

A few things were pretty evident about the province of Esmeraldas as we drove through at 5:30 a.m. The scenery was a lot greener than the rest of the coast I’d previously seen; Esmeraldas meaning Emeralds in English. Also, about 90% of the population is Afro-Ecuadorian. For a minute you could almost forget that you were still in Ecuador.

I arrived in Muisne and the bus driver kindly asked me where I was headed. I told him Mompiche. He then said to me, which no longer surprised me, that I was supposed to get off the bus back at the fork in the road, a place called El Santo. Muisne and the next little town of Mompiche are separated by a stretch of water with no bridge. A local offered to take me across on a boat, but the price had yet to be determined. Musine was a pretty poor, run down city. Despite it being 6:30 in the morning, everything was gray; the homes had all lost their color, the streets were rather dirty and in the few minutes I waited to figure out my next plan, I could tell that not a lot took place there either. I’m sure tourism was at a grinding halt too as the locals seemed a little surprised to see a white girl standing outside their steps in the early morning.

So, like many times before, I began retracing my footsteps. First I took a bus up to El Chaco. Then, at the fork in the road, got on another bus going to El Chamanga, wherever that was! I tried asking the guy who works on the bus collecting money if this was in fact the right way to get to Mompiche, but I’m sure he wasn’t too interested in being anyone’s tour guide. I took out my map and the lady behind me was curious. She started asking me where I was going and why on earth I was going there myself?! Mompiche, she starts talking about, and what I’m picking up in knowledge of Spanish is her repeating over and over how its dangerous and how I need to be really careful. The lady behind her starts to add her two cents, then the men across the aisle catch wind and start debating that no no, its not dangerous. So we’re winding through these hills going deeper into the forest, farther away from the coastline and I’m really wondering how this is going to get me to Mompiche, when this town is right on the beach?! The bus comes to a stop in the middle of nowhere in front of another dirt road and a big sign with an arrow that says Mompiche 20km. My bus driver first flags a random motorcycle passing by and tells me to get on the back with him because apparently he’s going to Mompiche. I say thanks and tell him I’ll wait for the bus. I get off the bus, in the middle of nowhere, honestly no houses for miles, just trees, two dirt roads and about 10 big black men, some with machetes probably used for working in the fields. I think I have an overactive imagination sometimes because I start thinking worst case scenario, possibly because of the ladies’ comments on the bus. One man comes over to me and asks why I didn’t go with the guy on the motorcycle…I wasn’t really seeing how it was any of his business, but I told him it was because I had heavy bags. I’m sure that made no sense what because in Ecuador, a motorcycle is transportation for a family of 6. A few minutes later a milk truck goes by, two men flag him down and ask if he’s going towards Mompiche, he nods and they jump in.  They call me to go with them. I wasn’t sure what was a better option; hitchhiking with strangers or waiting in a deserted area with strangers for some apparent bus to pass. I took my chances, and sure enough made it Mompiche by 9:30am.

My humble abode on the beach in Mompiche.

Mompiche is a small little town, right on the beach with not a whole lot happening. I was exhausted and just wanted to find a bed and in return managed to find the shitiest accommodations I have ever stayed in…ever! The lure was: they were “cabins” right next to the beach for $5 a night. This luxurious cabin was a square room made of wooden boards that met in some places, had gaps in others that held 2 bunk beds and a double bed. This beds were made of the same kind of wood as the walls. At the back end of this square was an open whole in the wall that led to the private bathroom. Well the private bathroom was a rectangular cement slab (with walls but no doors or curtains what so ever) that had a toilet sitting on one side with a big barrel of water next to it as it was not actually hooked up to running water. On the other side of this slab was a little pipe sticking out of the wall that you could turn for warm water. There was a whole in the floor where the water ran directly outside onto the ground. It think my sheets were clean and there was a nice hammock on the front porch so thats a bonus. This all being said, there actually were more decent accommodations, this being the one time that I didn’t actually look around first!

After getting settled in I went and found a place for breakfast. I’ve discovered that meals here are pretty interchangeable. I had rice, salad and chicken for breakfast….it was good though and only $2! My next discovery was that this little town of Mompiche had no electricity from 7 a.m to 8:30 p.m. The skies were gray and overcast so that took the beach out of the equation. I’d traveled all this way, and was thankful I did as it was on my list of places to see, saw the beautiful moon shaped beach and backdrop of lush green trees but then had nothing to do! Taking a little nap consumes most of the afternoon and then you can eat again! I went out and sat on the beach for awhile, watching some of the few surfers out there, and was graced by the presence of 8 little local boys who thought some giant, white tourist was the perfect person to show their comedic skills. It was actually rather sad despite it all, how they call each other monkeys. I’d heard it before when I was working at the school in Mindo, that the students who are from the coast sometimes say they are from somewhere else, to avoid the racial slurs. The coast is quite a bit poorer than the rest of the country, but the Northern coast in particular.

After telling my dear little friends that no, I did not need them to accompany me back to my hostel, I went back sat in my hammock for a bit and then was in bed by 8:30 p.m! Can’t remember the last time I saw that as the last number on my clock before going to sleep!?!

Life in Canoa is naturally laid back, worry and stress free.

I suppose one of the benefits of going to bed early is that you can naturally wake up early. 7 a.m and up couldn’t sleep another minute. I went for a walk along the beach; at the south end is apparently the best place to go surf and towards the north end they are building a big new hostel. I went back and had breakfast: deep fried fish, rice, salad, deep fried bananas and lemon juice. I decided that Mompiche and I had spent enough time together and I was ready to go back to Canoa. I had figured out all the bus directions, collected my things and was marching towards the end of the road when I heard someone call out to me if I needed a ride…in English. There was an American man, who I later found out was retired from the Marine Corps and had spent the better part of his life living in Ecuador, was driving back down to Bahia, the town just past Canoa. Two of his Ecuadorian friends, Olon and Jorge were with him. It was soo nice and sooo much faster to travel down the coast in a 4×4 than a bus! We stopped for lunch in Pedernales and again in Cabuya – literally a one shack town to take a breathe of the ocean air and get a view of the crystal blue water. Then we were back on the road and arrived in Canoa at 1:30 a.m – making our time on the road under 4 hours. The equivalent trip by bus…much longer. However, this being said – driving in Ecuador is not for everyone, so I am very happy to say it wasn’t me behind the wheel! Being back in Canoa was like a breath of fresh air. The sun was shining and the beautiful hostel I stayed in before had open rooms and life was SO good!

Sunset on the beach in Canoa in mid-December.

Oh gosh I have no words for Canoa! I could live and wilt away in the sun and die on that gray sand while the sun set and be the happiest person in the world. I feel like I shouldn’t even write about my last two weeks there because words don’t compare. There is some kind of energy there that’s almost indescribable that I have yet to feel anywhere else. And I know I sound so completely cooky but if you spend time there you will know exactly what I mean. Actually, in the town of Canoa there are 26 ‘foreigners’ living there, who all say that same thing; They came there and got stuck and could never leave. I made the decision to leave as I feel it was in my best interest to go back to Canada, spend Christmas with my friends and family and then go to school as I’d previously planned, but I had some moments of serious, serious doubt…you can ask Brittany. We debated the alternative one night over plantain and cheese pizza and the next morning over banana pancakes. I mean, just the food was enough to stay in this town for. I’m sure when you live in a climate where you have easy and cheap access to lots of different fruits and vegetables, you get creative in the ways that you cook these foods. The best example is plantains – they can be cooked, deep fried, put on pizza, cooked with cheese in empanadas etc. So I stayed in Canoa until Monday the 14th of December. In the meantime I met so many amazing people – a lot of really fun locals, two awesome girls and a guy from England, a three from the US, a guy from Montana, a girl and her aunt from Guayaquil (Ecuador)…So needless to say it was almost impossible to get on the bus that day. But I have the hope that one day I will make it back there.

Saying goodbye to my amazing Ecuadorian family in Mindo before returning to Quito to fly home.

I made it back to Mindo Monday night after spending about 10 hours either on 3 different buses or waiting a the stations. I spent Tuesday with my host family and saying goodbye to everyone! Wednesday I took the 6:30 a.m bus back to Quito, stayed at the exact same hostel that Ashley and I stayed in before she left. I spent the rest of the day exploring Quito and eating my last cherished Ecuadorian foods. On the list were empanadas – without a doubt my favourite! And Thursday morning, hard the believe the day was already here, 4:30 a.m I was at the airport – flew first to Panama City, then to Newark US – waited in the airport there for 8 hours and then flew back home to Ottawa arriving around midnight. I still think its pretty nice to point out that I was in 4 different countries in one day!

I still find it so hard to believe that my 3 months are over and I’m back in Canada! I still remember my very first day in Ecuador and how I thought the time would pass quickly – but never did I imagine for it to pass that quickly! I look back though on so many incredible experiences and all the lessons I learnt about life and how much I learnt about myself. It’s something I’ll never forget. When I get the first symptoms of  South American culture withdrawal I put on my Spanish music and picture myself back in Canoa with an empanada! I’ll be back someday!

No trip to the Amazon would be complete without holding some sort of snake. And, the full length of the Boa Constrictor is not pictured.

Friday morning Ashley and I went across to the airport at 5am, said our goodbyes, she went through the gates and I went back to the hostel. After an hour of not being able to sleep I decided it was time for me to set out on my next adventure. I needed to get to the Bus Terminal Quitaumbe which is in the very far south part of Quito. Having paid $12 for half a ride there last time, it became my mission this time to make the whole trip solely by public transportation. And I did make – took slightly longer-an hour and a half from start to finish-but only cost me 25 cents! Around 8:30am the bus left from Quitaumbe for Tena in the Amazon. The ride was beautiful. We went through different landscapes, first it was quite cold, but the closer we got to Tena that more humid it became. I arrived around 1pm and wandered around looking for a hostel. The Welcome Home Break Hostal was quite nice and housed a ton of tourists. I wanted to do some sort of adventure trip in or around the Amazon, so I got some information from a many different companies but eventually decided on white water rafting with an Indigenous-run company. I also came across a tourism fair being held in the park. I´m proud to say that I left the Amazon and actually held a Boa Constrictor. This thing was so gross! It was as thick as a branch and still touched the ground when wrapped around my neck!

Saturday morning was pouring rain but the white water rafting trip still went ahead as planned. In our group was one guy from England, four girls from the US (one of which I met in Otavalo a few weeks earlier – crazy coincidence, but not the first time its happened) and myself. We all loaded in the back of a truck with the equipment and drove about 25 minutes to Serena, which was our entry point to the Napo River. After a quick tutorial, we started heading down the Napo River with our guide. The water level was much lower than usual for this time of year, so we would get sections with good rapids and the sections that were calm enough that we could jump out of the tube and float down the river. We passed many indigenous families, children included, who were panning for gold. I honestly never would have guessed that people still did this today. But, as our guide told us, when the locals who live along the river and in the private communities get low on money, they go out to the river, pan for gold and then take it into Tena to sell. Around noon we stopped for lunch near a little village called Santa Rosa. We had the best sandwiches ever – bread, guacamole, onions, peppers, cheese, tuna and crushed chips. Doesn´t sound too appealing but it seriously was! After lunch our guide took as around and showed us all the plants that are used to make jewelry, instruments, to cook with or for medicinal use. Everyone reapplied the sunscreen and bug spray, then we continued down the river. We stopped again to bathe in some waterfalls just at the point where the Napo River merges with the other river, which is quite brown. At 3:30pm, we finished in Puerte Napo and drove back into Tena. The trip was amazing though – and the scenery in itself is something else.

Sunday morning I was intent on making a little journey further into the jungle to a town called Mishaulli, basically for the fact that I´d heard that they have monkeys there that run freely around the streets. I took the bus, about a 30 minute ride in but already started off on a bad foot. Not only did I have to pay double the fare everyone else did, but I had a complete creeper of an old man sitting beside me. However, made it there, saw the monkeys eating garbage in the park and running around trying to steal peoples stuff! I took a walk around the town, across the bridge, then went back and sat down by the water where all the canoes dock. Just as I was enjoying the peace, I had my second uncomfortable experience of the day. Long story short some crazy man sat with me for 45 minutes, then when I made my escape followed me to the bus and told me he was coming with me wherever I went. I don´t know what made him leave, I´m just thankful he did, just as soon as the bus was leaving town. So strange! By this time I was done and decided to take the bus from Tena back up north to Baeza. I arrived there around 3:30pm. I was in search of Los Cascades San Rafael, which are apparently the largest waterfalls in Ecuador. You´d think a place like this people would know about and be able to easily direct you there. This was not the case! I think I asked at least 10 people alone in Baeza how to get there, and almost everyone had a different story. Finally I decided taking a bus to El Chaco sounded the most reasonable. Once there, I was told to take a bus to Lago Agrio. None of the tourist books gave information about the exact location of the waterfalls, neither did the internet, so I was pretty much relying on locals to give me a straight answer. I knew all too well though that this was highly unlikely. Even if the person doesn´t know, they´d rather make something up than admit that they don´t know. How frustrating! So basically I took another 3 hour bus ride to Lago Agrio, only to arrive there and find out that I was supposed to get off the bus 2 and a half hours ago!!! By this time it was 9pm – a terrible time to arrive in Lago Agrio which is already known as an unsafe spot for tourists given its proximity to the Colombian border. So I found the first hostel and crashed for the night.

Los Cascadas San Rafael is the largest waterfall in Ecuador, reaching over 500ft.

Monday morning I was half and half; half of me just wanted to go back to Quito, but the other half of me couldn´t give up considering I´d invested the majority of the day before in these waterfalls. So, my search for the falls continued! I walked around Lago Agrio waiting/looking for the bus. This city is really gross in my opinion. It is unbelievably hot and humid, really grey and somewhat depressing when you consider how much of the rainforest was torn down and replaced by the big oil company formerly known as Texaco. I did eventually get a bus…if you can call it a bus…that went to Cascales. This ´bus´was basically rows of benches secured into the back of a truck. Kind of a fun experience though. I was stopped half way at a military checkpoint. I´m assuming they were looking for mischief being smuggled in from Colombia, if that were the case. In Cascales I waited some more and then jumped on a bus heading back down to Baeza. I hate to point out the fact that I was retracing the exact footsteps from the day before. But never give up eh. In the end I made it to these damn waterfalls around 1pm. Apparently its not a huge attraction as I was the only one there. I´ve decided that I´m not even going to complain about how expensive the falls were – $10 for foreigners just to walk down, look at the falls from a distance and walk back. Round trip 1 hour! I will give some credit, they were beautiful. After that, once again I waited for an hour for a bus to pass by headed to Quito. We were stopped once again at a military checkpoint in Baeza and then made the rest of the way to Quito, arriving at Quitaumbe around 8:30pm. I´d been wanting to see the northern part of the coast in the province of Esmeraldas. It was the last place on my checklist of things I want to see before I leave. I’d read good things about Mompiche, so I bought my ticket to Musine, which, once again I was told I needed to go there to get to Mompiche. Once again, I would find out later that I was misinformed – not entirely a surprise! So I waited three hours in the bus terminal and at 11:30pm got on the bus to go up north. Although this was an overnight ride, which is generally not that enjoyable, this one wasn´t bad as I was able to sleep most of the way.

Yaritza's 15th birthday party celebration, which can easily be likened to a wedding.

Just like a wedding, all 150 guests enter and sit down, then the ‘bridesmaids’ and ‘groomsmen’ enter and line up down the centre of the hall for the Yari the Cumpleanera (the name meaning the girl who’s turning 15) to walk down. After this there are a lot of speeches, champagne and toasts, pictures with every table. Also, just like a wedding, the Cumpleanera has garders on her legs, which her date has to take off, and gives to each of the ‘groomsmen’ to put on the ‘bridesmaid.’ Then the last three she gives to her cousin. Then there is the waltz. First the Cumpleanera dances with her father alone, then she dances with her date along with all the other ‘bridesmaids’ and ‘groomsmen’ and then finally she dances with her godfather. Lastly she presents a choreography on her own. And then after 11pm we eat dinner – which, even though it was rice, was really good! After dinner the rest of the evening was all about dancing! Around midnight they stopped and there was a special moments where Yari had to cut the cake, then cake was served, the liquor was served and then it was back to dancing. Ashley, Sara, Ester and I had an awesome time. We all couldn’t get over how much it was like a wedding though – it was pretty much parallel aside from the fact that its a birthday and not a union. The music was shut off around 4am and Ashley and I walked back up to the house, knowing it would be awhile before the rest of the family and all their family made it back to the house. It was a lot of work for the family but it was a beautiful party!

Tuesday our morning started by meeting Wiston Churchill. We were heading outside when this overenthusiastic man asked us “Are you from Holland?” in broken English. And that began the conversation which somehow lead to the fact that he runs this business that takes people to this little island that he “discovered” which has all the same animals that you see when taking boat tours to Isla de Plate aka Poor Mans Galapagos. He asked us to follow him to his ‘business’ where he could show us recommendations from all the people who’ve gone before. This meant he took out a 5 notebooks and started flipping through to find people who also were from Canada. I guess that makes a recommendation more credible if the person was from the same country as you..And the funniest part was he showed us a 4 line recommendation in a guide book in French printed in 1999. I think it was the fact that all his family was around and excited to show us, that his name – Wiston Churchill was printed in huge red letters across his store/business/house/restraunt and that it only cost $20 that we decided to go. Mr Churchill himself told us to meet back there at 1pm for the tour. We were right in front of the beach and it looked like the fish boats had just come in, so Ash and I went down to this tent set up by the water, with several different tables of ladies cooking the fish and serving meals. For $2 this lady brought us a huge plate of rice (shocker) with fresh fish and potatoes. Once we’d fished she brought us two huge crabs. I can’t say I’ve ever had an entire crab sitting on my plate with a little board and hammer to get the meat out! It was quite and experience though. Ashley and I got through the crab legs no problem, but when it came to the rest….I think the table of locals across from us got quite a kick out of it when they saw our faces when we cracked the crab in the wrong spot! One man got up, came over and showed us how we were actually supposed to open it.

While taking a fishing boat miles offshore to a small island nicknamed The Poor Man's Galapagos, the tour owner's son showed us many creatures including huge sea turtles, Blue Footed Boobies (birds), and even a crab up close.

At 1pm we were back to meet Wiston – how he tells people with a straight face that his name is Wiston Churchill I have no idea! And the story only gets crazier. This man talks so fast, most times I only get a few words out of his entire rant, so we weren’t exactly sure what was supposed to be happening. So he sends us out in this little fishing boat with his two nephews, who would be giving us the tour. First they take us to this big booey not far out that is sitting full with the famous birds called “Blue Footed Boobies” (because their feet are blue). Next they said we were going out into open water because they know this special spot where they saw whales. I wanted to point out that the whale season ends the end of September, but we went with it. Well we had no life jackets, we’re in a little boat and we’re out so far we almost can’t see the shore. The waves are high enough that the little boat goes over the wave and slams down against the water on the other side. Ashley and I are looking at each other like “What the  hell are we doing?!” So finally we are more than far enough out and we stop, the boat rocking so hard I wouldn’t have been surprised if we tipped. They point over in the distant to what looks like the water being sprayed in the air from a whale. I’m not sure whether or not it was, but we both very enthusiastically go along with it. By this point we were green and the slightest bit looking forward to see land. We head back to this island that they ‘discovered’ – and went snorkeling. There was a small coral reef and huge schools of fish. The most interesting one was purple, yellow and blue stripped. After we get off and go onto the island with the younger of our two guides – couldn’t be more than 14 years old. He takes us around and shows us all the birds; there were tons of fragatas (these birds with huge red necks that puff out), pelicans, blue footed boobies and others that I don’t know that names. We saw another (dead) sea turtle and then collected a bunch of shells. The tide was starting to come in, so we went back out to the boat to go fishing. I think the last time I went fishing was when I was in grade 8 and my dad took the four of us to this kids fishing competition on the Rideau River. Well this surprisingly turned out to be quite a productive fishing experience. They gave Ash and I each a board with fishing line and a weight attached to it, which we dropped down by the side of the boat. After I caught the first fish, it became a competition between Ashley and I. And, it was rather exciting, we saw three or four huge sea turtles swimming near our boat. After an hour Ashley and I had each caught four fish…and I unfortunately hooked a turtle, which thankfully they were able to unhook with no harm. But not bad I’d say – I love fishing…when you actually catch something! It started to get really cold, so we called it a day and were back to land by 6pm. Wiston cleaned our fish – on the side walk no less. Then his wife took them back and cooked us dinner. In the meantime I think we met his whole family; his mother, children, their children and cousins and also two guys from New Zealand who were passing by that Wiston began promoting his tour to – he brought out the books again and started looking for recommendations from people from New Zealand….We ate dinner, thanked them for the adventure and then left to see what happens in Puerto Lopez on a Monday night – about that same that goes on during the day. We did however find a really good bakery.

Wednesday we decided we’d seen Puerto Lopez and were going to take the bus ahead up to Manta. The town doesn’t have a bus station, so we were walking down the main street when we head a guy calling out “Manta Manta,” so we figured that was our bus. He said it was direct, which usually means the bus is nicer and the ride is faster. Well this was quite the opposite. I swear the bus was from the 70′s and how it made it through the 3 hour drive in one piece, I have no idea! We felt and heard every single bump in the road though. We were in Manta around 3pm, which is one of the bigger cities along the coast, as well as another important port for Ecuador.  We made a pit stop at the tourist info center and got some more maps and info about the coast. Then we took a taxi across to Tarqui, which is the more frugal half of Manta. Once again the hostal we found was really good – for $5 a night we had our own room with our own bathroom, hot water and a TV. Ash and I went down to the beach, which on this half of Manta really isn’t one to write home about. There was so garbage laying around, a few ship wrecks just left sitting out in the water and a lot of cars driving back and forth on the sand. There was some sort of fish building near there as well because the smell was unmistakeable. But this end is where they build the boats so it was interesting to see them out their on the sand being worked on. We spent the rest of daylight back in town walking through the markets. This market is nothing like Otavalo, more like the one in Latacunga where all the locals shop. The streets are crowded with booths selling everything you can imagine, people set up selling on the sidewalk, and people walking up and down the streets trying to sell something. Along with that there are hoards of people buying, and taxi drivers trying to pass through. I like the markets though – I find it interesting. We bought some hand made peanut butter and some bananas. On the way back we bought overcooked, really gross Yuca bread. The best Yuca bread we’ve had was in Montanita at the bus stop and have yet to find anything like it!

We stopped for a few hours to enjoy the beach in Crucita- and to watch the locals surf and fish.

Thursday morning we woke up to no water and no power. So this made our decision of whether or not we’d stay in Manta longer. We packed up and walked back to the bus station and at 9am took a bus and hour and a half up to Crucita. Our bus was another one of those really old, really rickety, how-is-it-allowed-on-the-road kind of buses. The entire stretch of road was under construction, but we did make it there. And the first thing we found when we arrived was sun!!! It was so exciting – most days so far had been nice but no clear skies. We walked a block to the beach and sat on these huge steps that practically led into the water. There was a few people out surfing and a man by the shore fishing, but we were happy just sitting in the hot sun for 2 hours. Around the time that we though we might be starting to get burnt we decided to go ahead up to Bahia and across to Canoa, that way we could spend a few days without another bus ride. Little did we know that this meant back tracking – we had to take a bus to Rockufuerte  and wait til 1pm for the bus to Bahia. It was a beautiful ride though. We passed field after field of fruit plantations and rice fields. We arrived in Bahia at 3:30pm. Everywhere we’ve been we’ve seen so many bike taxis or motorcycle taxis which is basically a bike/motorcycle with a little cart behind or in front of it. In Bahia we decided to take one for 50 cents down to the waterfront. From there we had to take a boat across the water to get to San Vicente. The bridge is in the process of being built (looks like its still a long way from being finished), so these taxi boats are the only way to get across the water. Cars have to wait on the ferry but it only crosses a few times a day, unless its a holiday or weekend. On the boat we met a girl named Anna, from Tennesse. She lives in Canoa and is spending a year teaching English in Bahia. We took the bus with her 20 minutes north up to Canoa and then Ash and I went and found a hostal. Canoa is a beautiful, quiet little beach town. We soon discovered that there are actually a ton of ‘foreigners’ living there. We found a nice hostal, where we’d be staying for the next 4 night, right on the beach run by a couple from Ireland.

Friday morning we took a bus back into San Vicente so we could buy some food to make meals and use the bank – Canoa doesn’t have a bank or even an ATM. We took the bus back after lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach. Apparently there is a shortage so the power goes off every afternoon from 2 til 6pm, so the beach is the perfect spot to be. Ash and I cooked dinner together and talked with Lisa – a girl we met from Minnesota.

Cabanas line the beach in Canoa, selling drinks, typical Ecuadorian food, and of course, playing reggaeton music.

Saturday was another beautiful day! With it being a weekend, the town was busier and the beach was full. It was sunny and hot, so the beach was lined with colorful umbrellas, people sun tanning and people in the water. Anna had told us that at the north end of the beach there were caves that you could walk through. We were curious, so we walked up, soon finding out that we went right a high tide, meaning the caves were no longer accessible. But we did find a stretch of beach where no one else was and swam till we were hungry and had to walk back to town. There was this really nice surf shack on the beach owned by a young couple from Colorado. They served the best burgers – how glorious it was to not eat rice! Later we went back out to the beach, this time towards the south end. There was 3 people up paragliding the whole afternoon – one of the guys named Nathan was staying at the same hostal as us, and he makes games for the iphone. Since his job doesn’t require him to stay in one spot, he’s traveling around South America finding good places to go paragliding, and in his spare time making new games. As we were walking back up to the hostal we saw the fruit truck stopped. The back was full of every kind of fruit – for $3 we bought 20 bananas, 2 avocados, a melon, a watermelon, and an unknown fruit. I think the fact that fresh food is so cheap and good here is what I’ll miss when I go back home – that and being able to be at the beach in November!

A mother and her four children walk south along the beach towards San Vicente.

Sunday was cooler (maybe I spoke too soon), and really windy so we did some practical things – like using the internet to email home to the parents, laundry (its funny how much you appreciate clean clothes when you’re traveling), cooked some food and then read in a hammock for the rest of the afternoon. I picked up this really good book by John Grisham called The Innocent Man.

Monday, our last day in Canoa, we decided to try the caves again. It was another beautiful, hot, sunny day. We were told that low tide was 9:30am, so we set out at 9am for the north end of the beach. The tide was low but it was still next to impossible to get around a few of this huge rocks without being dragged out to sea. A local must have thought we were crazy because he came out and told us he show us a safer way to get to the caves. So Gustavo, our new friend – as he said to us, took us up the steep cliff and we walked around the top giving us amazing views of the beach, ocean and Canoa. We came down on the other side and went through the first two caves which were full of bats on the roof. We almost made it to the third cave but by that time the tide was already starting to come in, so started going back that way we wouldn’t get stuck out there. By the time we were back to town it was noon. We had lunch and then spent a few more hours on the beach in the ocean.

There is no better view of the town and ocean than from the sky - paragliding in Canoa.

At 3pm we met Mike -  a man from Kentucky who owns a hotel/apartment farther south down the beach (where Anna lives) and runs the paragliding. He also, without a doubt has thee biggest truck in all of Ecuador. Piece by piece he had it shipped in and put together down here. This truck is even big by American standards, so you could imagine how big it looks in comparison to all the other vehicles here. So we go up to the launch site at the top of the cliff and I was first to go (tandem). It was amazing! I was harnessed in front, the pull cords to inflate the parachute and immediately we run of the side of the cliff and are in the air. We were up for about 40 minutes and it was incredible. The beach and the homes on the south end of Canoa are so beautiful. At one point I was given the ropes and started to learn how to fly. I was surprised, the landing was so soft – it was just like stepping out of a car. Then Ashley went. The two other guys from the day before were flying too – I guess they go up almost every day. The whole thing cost us $30! We had the rest of the evening to kill time and enjoy the last of the beach and Canoa. At midnight we walked up to the main road and took the night bus back to Quito. This was the worst bus ride evvvver!! I’ve yet to figure out why the driver insisted on blaring Spanish disco music the entire night The front door was left open the whole night so it was freezing cold and every turn was met by slamming on the brakes and then speeding up once around the corner. Around 3am we were stuck on the side of the road for 45 minutes with a flat tire. When we made it to Quito around 7:30am Tuesday morning, we were exhausted and never happier to be off a bus! Little did we know that when we asked the police officer if we could go back through the gates to take the bus to the north terminal he’d make it his personal mission to wait with us and put us on the right bus. Ok thank you but I have a brain. Oh and he wanted to know if we were single, liked babies, coming back to Ecuador, had a boyfriend and liked Latino men?! Ok go away! We did witness an accident though. It was horrible. A man came off one of the buses and cracked his head on the side walk. There was a huge pile of blood and it seeped through the bandage they put on his head. The ambulance came along with a huge crowd of spectators, gave him and IV and took him to the hospital. The security guard was taking pictures and then another security guy swept the blood of the sidewalk with a broom. And just about the time the the commotion died down our bus to Otavalo came. The bus was stuck behind a line of trucks so it was a long ride. We arrived just after noon meaning we’d spent the last 12 hours on buses! We were exhausted! We went to the same hostal I’d stayed at the last time I was there. Our room this time was a little creepy though. The bathroom in the room had a shower with a big window in it that opened up to the hallway and didn’t lock. The bathroom door didn’t locked either, which meant that anybody wanting to get into our room without using the door was a likely possibility. Also made using the shower kind of tricky. I think we were too tired to care because we slept there anyways.  We went out in the evening and found the best empanada stand – they were huge and only 25 cents. We came back and watched an English movie….which was about a girl and her friend going to Paris and getting kidnapped from their apartment – made the bathroom situation a little bit more creepy!

Two horses being transported in the back of an open truck.

Wednesday morning we went out looking for breakfast and found a hair dresser. Ashley wanted to get her hair permed and I decided I’d get highlights so we spent the rest of the morning there. With everyone here having black hair, I think I was the closest thing to blonde hair that she’s ever done. But for $25 it was well worth it. We stepped outside and it was so cold and pouring rain by the bucket load, so there was not much else we could do other than (eat and) go back to the hostal, watch a movie and wait for it to clear up a bit. Around 5pm it did – we went and got empanadas again. The lady had a huge smile on her face – I think she was happy to have loyal foreigner customers. We walked through the streets and found a chinese store. For some reason It totally didn’t fit, but it was entertaining! We found some really nice shoe stores too, but no surprise Ashley and I are too tall (= too big of feet) for this country. Some of the indigenous people don’t even make it up to our shoulders – and I’ve never really considered myself freakishly tall!

Thursday was a nice clear day so we went out to the market. Since its a weekday its not nearly as huge and and hectic as it was on a weekend. Although it was so interesting to see it on a weekend, it was slightly more pleasant to look at things on a weekday. We spent a few hours there and then had lunch at a little street vendors booth. Ashley ordered while I took the stuff back to our room. In Ashley’s Spanish she ordered us soup, which was really good except for the mystery meat in it. My guess is that its so part of a pig, but I think I’d rather not know. Another interesting type of food we saw was bugs – we saw little old ladies sitting on the side of the street with these big bags of bugs. At first we both wondered what they’d do with that. Later we passed a little vendor selling these bugs cooked. I’m sure they are rather delicious, but unless I’m starving I don’t think I’m that adventurous. Later we  took the bus up to Cotacachi so we could go back to leather street. My brother was kind of specific about what he wanted for Christmas – oh to be the baby of the family!

Friday was the last day of our travels. We walked through the market to buy some Ecuadorian coffee, honey and fruit. Then we went back, packed up our stuff for the last time and walked up to the bus station for 1pm. The ride back was really pleasant – first we took the bus to Cayambe, waited on the side of the road for the bus to Quito and then from there took a bus to Mindo. We were back by 6:30pm and it was nice to see everyone again! It was apparent that everyone was consumed with details about the party tomorrow night. So we are back in Mindo for the rest of the week; Ashley’s last week in Ecuador. She’s flying home Friday – hard to believe we’ve been together 6 weeks and I’ve been here over 2 months!!

Saturday morning Ashley was starting to get her first bit of travelers sickness, so we stayed at the hostal until it was time to leave. We did a bit of reading about places in the area and decided that the Quilatoa Loop looked really interesting. So around 11am we walked through the city and came across the market on our way to the bus station. This market was really interesting because it was unlike the Otavalo market this is primarily for tourists, this one is where the locals do their shopping. We were mostly interested in the fruit…and the truck that was selling 30 oranges for $1. Past the bridge and to the left was the bus station. Just as we walked through the gates a bus was pulling out heading for Zumbahua – just where we wanted to go. I´m guessing not a ton of tourists head out this way because we got some curious looks when we got on. It was packed out, so we sat in the front and shared the seat with two other boys. And by seat I mean a leather mat sitting on top of the motor on the floor. We met a really nice family sitting around us. The mother was traveling with her three little boys and daughter and told us she lived in Zumbahua.

A lady herding her sheep along the side of the only main road that winds through the Ande mountains.

The scenery driving up through the Andes was so beautiful. Again the roads were really narrow, so before going around a corner the driver would blow his horn to warm if another vehicle was coming the other way. That doesnt mean they slow down though. We passed a few little old ladies walking down the mountains with their herds of goats and vegetables strapped to their backs. We pulled in Zumbahua and the family we´d met ushered us into a truck which we needed to take to get to Quilatoa. Turns out the driver was their father – they really know how to do business! It was about a 20 minute drive. All along the way people would get in out of the back of the truck to hitch a ride. I hope they appreciated it because we paid $10 for their free ride. I´m hoping it had nothing to do with the fact that we clearly look like tourists because thats starting to get a little old. We got to Quilatoa around 2pm. It had been misty and a bit rainy the whole afternoon, but when we arrived it actually started raining. It was so cold there too – around 6 degrees celcius. I think I´m going to have  a hard time readjusting to the Canadian winter if I think this is cold! We were thankful though that our little room had a wood stove.We sat in the main room with the nicest Ecuadorian family. They were all dressed in traditional clothes, but different from those in Otavalo. The ladies wore knee length skirts, with high white sockes and black shoes. They all had on big shawls and greenish hats with a peacock feather in the side. Most of the men wore the same hats and big ponchos. It looked like it was starting to clear so Ashley and I went out to see if we could see the Quilotoa Crater – basically all there was to the town of Quilotoa. I guess the town was only 10 years old and had a total of 80 people living there. The government set the town up as a tourist destination.

The Quilotoa Crater was formed about 800 years ago after a volcanic eruption. It is about 3 km wide, 250m deep, and has a greenish colour because of dissolved minerals.

Well this crater didnt exactly look like it existed when we first went to look. It was more like a big hole filled with white clouds –  literally all we could see. But on the way back down the hill to the hostal we ran into none other than Suse and Simone. Thats when Ash and I decided that we were supposed to do the Quilotoa loop with them. We all spent most of the afternoon back in the main room at the hostal trying to warm up by the fire. We went back out awhile later and were able to see the crater. It was beautiful! The water had such a different greenish colour. Its supposed to be really beautiful when the sun is out, but we never saw even a hint of sun. We spent the evening back at the hostal – because the weather was pretty cold and rainy meaning there is not much else to do in the town of Quilotoa. I think all the tourists that did come to the town that weekend were all staying at the same hostel as us. There was another Canadian, a couple from France, two guys from Isreal, three guys from Quito and us four. Everyone was telling stories about their travels, where they´re from etc.

A map of our hiking expedition, a sparsely traveled route from Quilotoa to Chugchillan.

Sunday morning we woke up to a freezing room, our fire had gone out in the night, and we had no water. So all that meant was we ate breakfast and Simone, Suse, Ashley and I set off to hike to Chugchillan. As we were about to leave we met two people, a guy from the US and a girl from Tailand, also going the same way who wanted to join us. We had these scavenger hunt-like directions that, if we followed carfeully, would get us no problem to Chugchillan. We had to hike two thirds away around the top of the crater. Our directions said to hike to the second sandy patch. Every patch of sand was a debate whether or not that counted as a ´patch.´At least we could see the crater, there still no sun, but it was better than full clouds. Rightfully the first half of our hike was so cold and windy. We all agreed that it was actually perfect hiking weather. So in summary; we hiked to the second sandy patch and went right, found the big rock with the stick in it and went right, walked til we saw two even bigger rocks and took the path on the left down the mountain into the sleepy little town of Guayama, walked to the cemetery and went left which took us down into the canyon, continued until we saw what looked like a path with a tunnel, walked all the way down to the little river, crossed and literally walked straight uphill until we saw a gravel road, which we followed until we found Chugchillan. The whole walk was so amazing – we came down the side of this huge mountain and passed little boys herding their sheep in the hills. We could see everything for miles. Then we went down and back up the canyon and passed little homes and farms set right in. We passed a group of people heading in the opposite direction and we all agreed that we were definetly hiking it the right way! We walked into Chugchillan around 3pm, so we´d been walking for about 6 hours including the fact that we´d stopped for lunch for half an hour. We were all so thankful for hot water and food! After walking around and watching a game of marbels in the town centre we headed back to the hostal where we met a couple from England and played checkers and hang man until dinner. Then it was off to bed because we had another long hike in the morning.

A group of children we met on the road as we hiked to the next town.

Monday the sun was shinning, so we knew it was going to be a good day to hike. With the same kind of directions as the day before, our original plan was to hike to the next town called Inslivi. Turns out we missed the sign just past the cheese factory and this road was the only road for miles to get to this town..or it was the fastest way. The alternative was hiking down into the canyons and hoping to take the right path. So we changed plans and decided to follow the road we were on to Sigchos, the next town after Inslivi. This road took us all around the mountains. We passed a group of 4 little kids. The little boy about 8 was riding on this bike with no tires, his little brother not much younger was walking beside with two little girls – one looked about 5 and the other 3. It was sad because they looked so dirty and were  out walking around by themselves. Suse game them all balloons. At first they didnt look like they knew what they were but after Suse blew them up, their faces lit up. We also passed little old ladies walking barefeet down the road herding their goats and with huge loads on their back. They looked like they worked hard their whole lives. We passed a little old man who was so excited to see a picture of himself when Suse took it and showed it to him on her camera. Ashley and Suse both said that the scenery the closer we got to Sigchos looked a lot like Australia with the Eucalyptus and Gum trees. There was quite a few beautiful haciendas in that area too.

An incredible view a couple kilometres outside of Sigchos.

We were saw thankful when we rounded the corneer and saw Sigchos at the bottom of the hill. We´d been walking for  6 hours, but we all laughed at the fact that some of these people make these walks every day and we´d just done it once. Sigchos looked like quite a big town but the streets were like a ghost town, not a lot was going on. The four of us decided that maybe we´d just take the next bus back to Latacunga at 4pm. Trying to get on the bus was kind of an interesting experience. It looked like the guys who worked on the bus didnt want to sell us tickets because they were saying it was not a tourist bus and it was full. They were all laughing to each other, but we waited till 4pm and the bus was not full so the driver let us on. More people got on as we drove through town, so we all ended up standing up for the 3 hour drive back to Latacunga, which was fine at least we got on. The drive there was even more interesting though. The main road leading to Latacunga was closed so we had to take this donkey path. At one point we rounded a corner and there was another bus coming our way. The road wasnt big enough for two vehicules to pass, so we had to back up into what looked like someones driver way, to let the bus and line of cars pass. The skys were pretty clear though and all the locals on the bus were so excited to point out Mount Cotopaxi to us - pretty much the first time any of us had been able to see it since we´d been here. Suse was almost convinced that it was a myth and didnt actually exist! I´d say she was happy to be proven wrong. After passing through a few more smaller towns we made back to Latacunga, meaning we´d officially completed the Quilatoa Loop - a lot of walking and a lot of help from wheels. It was a good thing we werent trying to drive north because with it being a holiday Monday, the roads that way were almost at a standstill for miles. We went back to our same hostal and once again were thankful for hot water, food and a bed!

Tuesday we said bye to Suse and Simone. They were headed back to Quito to continue their Spanish classes. Before we left we met our same English couple at the hostal who we´d originally met back in Chugchillan. They were headed to the Amazon. Ashley and I were headed south to Banos. Tuesday was also a holiday, so our fingers were crossed that things wouldn’t be busy and more expensive. We got to the bus station and stood in line (our first line) for bus tickets. It didnt help that people kept walking up and standing infront of us like it was no big deal. We get to the counter only for the lady to say that we can pay for these tickets on the bus. Normally we do this anyways so I´m not sure why this day we chose to wait in line. So first we took a bus to Ambata. From there we met two ladies who were also headed to Banos and split a taxi with them to the other bus station. The bus ride down to Banos was only an hour. How excited we were that the sun was shinning and it was hot! We found this incredible hostal that had a private bathroom, hot water, two nice beds, a TV and a balcony for $6 a night! That was the basis of our decision to stay there for two nights! Banos is famous for its thermal baths and health and wellness. The streets are lined with places to get massages, pedicures, manicures, facials and all that. So of course we couldnt pass up the opportunity. We both got an hour massage for $20! Sadly to say we were back to the hostal kind of early and took advantage of the english TV! I think its been awhile since I´ve watched anything in English, let alone watched TV.

Ashley and I in the park in Banos.

Wednesday we walked around Banos and found a place to eat an all inclusive lunch for $2. Banos is very touristy – there are a ton of hostals, restaurants, companies that run tours to the waterfalls and Amazon, and places that make and sell candy from sugar cane. Ash and I decided to check out these thermal baths that Banos are apparently famous for. There are two places, we went to the one out of town at the top of the hill at the end of the road. They werent exactly what we were expecting! There were 4 ´pools´ and the water was more brown than anything. I can´t say we stayed there long.

Thursday morning we took advantage of the English TV for one last time and then checked out of the hostal. We walked down and went to the church Banos is famous for; Iglesia de Nuestra Senora del Agua Santa (Church of Our Lady of Holy Water). The church is huge and beautiful and I guess people from all around Banos and the area fill it for several masses every Sunday. Small waterfalls can be seen on the edge of town, so we walked up and put our feet in them before we left. Ash and I took the bus back to Amabato and then caught the bus at 5:15pm to Guayaquil. The first stop was in Riombamba and we were able to see a beautiful sunset. The rest of the ride was rather long and unenjoyable. The roads were closed most of the way in one direction, so we spent a lot of time stopped waiting for traffic to pass or driving slowly through construction zones. We finally arrived to the huge bus terminal next to the airport in Guayaquil around midnight. The minute we stepped out the door on the other side we were baumbarded by taxi drivers. They were all so aggressive. If we tried to talk to one, every other one tried to cut in telling us to go with them. We discovered that some of them werent official taxi drivers, just people with personal cars trying to make a little money. It was a strange feeling when the security guard came over and pointed out the car that he reccommend we take and then wrote down the number of the one we got in. The taxi driver was nice though – he took us across town to one of the few hostals actually in Guayaquil. We counted our lucky stars that they had rooms available or else we´re not sure what we would have done. As long as there was a bed we were happy, we were so tired.

Friday morning we enjoyed a complimentary breakfast from the hostal and then set out to go see the Malecon, which is the port area in Guayaquil. The city is the biggest in Ecuador and the main port for import and export to and from Ecuador. The city was big and crowded, we couldnt find the right bus and our first taxi stopped and told us to take another taxi because he didnt want to drive there. So we abandonned the idea, bought some food and took another taxi back to the main bus terminal. We bought our tickets to Montanita and left for the beach at 3pm. It was amazing how different the scenery was. Everything became very flat and less green. First we drove west towards the beach and then the rest of the drive was right along the coast. It was crazy, the movie Blood Diamond was playing in the bus and just as we were approaching the first little town we saw about 8 or 10 men walking along the side of the road carrying riffles. No idea what they were doing! Up the coast we passed through many little beach towns. Life seems so relaxed with all the little fishing boats, hammocks in cabanas along the beach and people biking down the roads. It was only a 3 1/2 hour drive to Montanita. It was already dark, so we stayed at the first hostal we found. Hostal Ricky, ironically owned by a man names Ricky was offering free surf lessons, so it sounded like a good buy. We met two girls there, also Canadians who are friends of the Canadian we met back on the Quilatoa loop. We also met Patrick, a guy from Switzerland, who I must say has thee most beautiful eyes I have ever seen..

Saturday morning Ashley and I were so excited to go down to the beach. We walked the whole stretch to the north until it ended with huge rocks. The sky was pretty cloudy but we still had our hopes up for sunny skies. The beach was gorgeous. I´m half tempted to buy a little shack and become a hippie. Ash and I walked back into town in search of a new hostal. Last nights was right next to the road so I think we both counted every bus and truck that rolled past Montanita. We found one called Hostal Montanita (applause for the original name) right on the beach for $7 each a night. At 3pm Ash, Patrick and I had a surf lesson with Ricky. This was my first attempt at surfing so I was pretty excited. The waves were really good too. After a couple of hours out there I wasnt exactly a pro but I was able to stand at least a little bit…a few times. Its definetly harder than it looks. A lot of fun though! There was a surfing competition on yesterday afternoon too, so the beach filled up quite a bit. Ashley and I have quickly discovered that Montanita is a night town. It is very quite during the day but everyone and everything comes to life around 6pm. Music is playing from every restaurant and bar and people fill the streets. Vendors have little tables along the side walks with jewelery and little booths sell fruit drinks, empanadas, french fries.

Sunday (today) was a glorious day. Ash and I walked south down the beach to the next town. We could see a crowd of people on the beach and the closer we got we discovered the men were out doing the big fish for the week. It looked like hard work pulling the huge nets in. The one man said they start at 8am and when we were there it was around 10:30am. We watched as they pulled in the huge nets with tons of fish. The birds must know the drill because there were dozens of them circling overhead. The town must know the drill too because we´d see more people join the crowd and fill their plastic bags with fish and return home. Once the truck was full, the rest of the fish in the net were fair game. The man said we could take some but we didnt have anywhere to cook the, let alone anything to clean them. Ashley and I walked back up to our beach, meaning the beach near our hostal, and spent the rest of the afternoon in the ocean. The sun was shinning and I couldnt think of any other place that I would have rather been at that moment! We decided to stay here another night and tomorrow will probably catch another bus up to the next beach town. The most we have planned for the next week and a half is to check out Ecuadors coast line, learn more how to surf and we are open to what ever else comes our way!

A few children, who live the next street over from where I'm staying, entertain themselves in their front yard.

Monday was back to school after the holidays. This week was my last week teaching because the two original teachers; Shyam and Pramila returned from Ecuador and would continue teaching the two classes the following week. So I taught Monday and Tuesday. These students are now in their final term and will graduate high school the middle of February. I think the ones who can afford it or who get accepted into a university will study but the others will return to their homes and start working.

A new volunteer came to Mindo this week two. Her name is Esther and she´s from Sweden. She´s staying for three months as well and is helping Sara, now that Claire is gone, teach English too. We´ve been showing her all the best places in Mindo to get snacks – the lady who makes the Batidos, the bakery for the best bread and the man who makes the brownies. It´s a good thing that we have to walk a lot here!

Ashley came in on the bus Wednesday night from Quito after spending a few extra days in Cotacachi. Thursday we walked 5km down this one donkey path away from town to Shyam and Pramilas house. The scenery down this road is actually really beautiful because it becomes more and more country the further you walk. He had lunch with them and caught up on everything that I´d done in the classes. Then they took us down to see where they are building their new home. It is going to be so beautiful when they finish. 90 percent of what would be walls in their home is glass windows. It is built pretty much in the middle of the forest but right next to a little river. We were thinking that that wouldn´t be a bad place to reitre! We were thankful when we were walking back into town that we were able to hop in the back of a mans truck who was driving by. That evening we made brownies again! My host family seriously loves American desserts! Ashley and I had met another girl that day names Renata from Norway, who was traveling around by herself. So we went and had dinner together. For $2.50 we had rice (surprise!), chicken, salad and french fries – it was a lot of food.

This morning I had my last classes. So today was a fun day, no lessons. Ashley came with me so I think initally everyone was surprised to see another ´giant´like myself! First they asked Ashley to sing to them in English, which she did. I don´t know why but they always want people to sing to them. And then it was the sweetest thing, first one girl sang to everyone in Spanish and then the whole class sang to us. They sang this song about ´friends from the beginning, and friends forever.´Awh it was so sweet! And then they wanted Ashley and I to sing our national anythem together and thought it was pretty cool that one part is in French. After we played pictionary, which actually has some educational value to it because the students had to find and act out the words in English. It was hilarous – they got so into it which made it so much fun! For a tie breaker at the end Ashley and I had to act out a word – group two won and they were cheering and laughing like this was a big soccer game! And then for the last part of class we went out to the court and played basketball; Ashley on one team and I on the other. I think without a doubt my team won : ) What a morning … I loved it! It was kind of sad that I was done teaching, but I know I´ll be back to see them.

Map of Ecuador

Now Ashley and I are in the process of making last minute plans and packing. We are going to travel for the next three weeks around Ecuador. Our plan at the moment is to go to Tena in the Amazon first for a few days. Then work our way down south as far as Cuenca….if we have time we want to keep going down further and cross the border into Peru. Then we want to work our way up the coast, spend a good few days at the beach and then come back to Mindo around the 20th of November. We have to come back because on the 21st Yaritza (the girl of the family I am staying with) is having her huge Sweet 15th Birthday party. So I think it´s going to be a busy but fun 3 weeks!

Tuesday morning we were waken up at 9am by a knock at the door, being asked if we wanted the room cleaned…umm no thanks! So at that we figured it was time to start the day. We went out and looked for a place to stay for that night. We met two guys on the street who started the conversation with, are you girls dutch? Not exactly, but I guess two tall girls in Ecuador don´t exactly blend in, like these guys. But this was helpful because they showed us a cheap hostel in the Mariscal district; only a few blocks down. This is the tourist area with all the hostels, restuarants, bars and so on. Also a lot of police officers and soldiers walking around with riffles. Afterwards we stopped and bought a pound of strawberries from a little lady on the street for $1 and then found an empanada place for breakfast/lunch. I dont think I´m ever going to get sick of these things – we shared one made with chicken and vegetables and the other with beef and vegetables…so good! In the afternoon our mission was to find the Ecuador National Health Center. This involved using the buses and the trolley system. And at the same time that we left it started pouring rain. And when I say pouring I mean pouuuuring! There was so much rain in some places that the drains couldnt drain the water fast enough compared to the amount that was coming down. In some places, the water was a quarter of the way up the cars tire! And sure enough Ashley and I had to walk for awhile. We took the bus first to the trolley along Avienda America. The trolley was an interesting experience! To get on you litterally have to squash into everyone – its so full! Good thing we didn´t have bags because I this is where a lot of pick pocketing happens. Eventually we found this Health Center and got vaccinated for Yellow Fever and Typhoid. It might have been smarter to get this done before we came to Ecuador but we saved ourselves a boat load of money, so it all worked out. Since it had stopped raining after we finished this, we decided to walk the hour back to the hostel. Which was good because we got to see all the little shops and bakeries and parks a long the way. One in particular was where we bought this bread that was later dipped in choclate. We evened things out with two apples from a little boy selling fruit in a stand on the side of the street. Quito was still kind of cold Tueaday (15 degrees), plus we were soaking wet, so we decided to drink some tea and warm up at the hostel before going back out to find some dinner. Its amazing how much the Mariscal district livens up after dark. During the day it felt like a ghost town. I think there was another soccer game this night because we could hear the cheering from every bar or restuarant we passed (that had a TV). Dinner was great, we tried 4 different things at 4 different places; shawarmas, bolonel verde, humita and empanadas. The new one for me was the humita, its a kind of corn that is ground up with salt, cooked and then packed into a rectangle type shape and served in a corn leaf. Really good actually. We ended up just going back to the hostel, talking with a few people and then going to bed kind of early. Our room had two sets of bunk beds, so Ash and I took the first set and at some point during the night two other people took the other set. It was a good deal for $5 a night…plus we got free breakfast Wednesday morning.

A welcoming performance by an indigenous group on our first night at the El Meson hotel in Cotacachi.

After breakfast we had to walk back up the the Radisson where we were meeting the rest of the bus group going on the Import and Export Tour. Ashley had signed up for it before she came, one of the main reasons she came to Ecuador, so I decided that morning to do the course with her. The first lady we met was Sue from California. She has definetly been added to my list of ´the best people I know.´ So by the time everyone got their lives sorted out and loaded on the bus it was around 10am. There were 30 people on the tour, quite a few couples, all from either Canada or the United States. The morning and early afternoon we spent at different stores in and around Quito. One was a Native Art Gallery, another was a place that made coats and blankets and also a couple that owns their own chocolate business. We started the drive to Cotacachi, where we´d be spending the rest of the week, around 3pm. The road leading out of Quito goes right by where they are building the new airport. It´s nice that this one won´t be right in the middle of the city! It´s kind of funny – one way the government is paying to build this new airport is that every person who leaves Ecuador has to pay a tax of $42, separate from all your other airport taxes. On the bus ride we were able to get to know a lot of the other people in the group. One man, Jim was a retired Airforce pilot, who has spent the last 2 months in Ecuador and is the process of applying for his residence in Ecuador. He´s already bought a place here and plans to enjoy his retirement here. Actually a lot of the people in the group were in this same position or were thinking about doing the same. He was such a funny guy though – he had a story about everything! We arrived in Cotacachi, which is just a little farther than Otavalo, around 5:30pm at El Meson de la Flores. It´s a hotel owned by Gary and Merry Scott – a couple who have been doing these course on Import/Export and International Living for years. So the course was based from here. Ashley and I actually stayed with friends of friends of my parents who live about a 15 minute walk out of town (because it was free : ) But the home where we stayed was beautiful. It was in this contained area with three other homes all inhabited by retired couples. We were told by everyone staying at El Meson that we were fortunate we didnt have to hear the church bells every morning because apparently they were very loud and went off for a loooong time.

Thursday was the beginning of the course. First we had a lesson about starting your own Import and Export business in Ecuador. So over the next few days we would be going around to all the local aritsans in the area and in the little towns nearby to get ideas about what you could use to start your own business. Since the local cost of all this hand made crafts are really so cheap, a person wanting to start this kind of business could really do well if they had a market for it because the crafts can be resold in North American for at least double or triple the cost and it would still be considered a good price. Between Thurday and Friday we visited so many different little artisan shops. We saw a family who made leather coats and purses by hand! You could even show them a picture or make your own design of what you wanted, and these ladies would have it ready for you within a few days. Cotocachi is famous for its leather work. The town has a street called Leather Street which is intirely devoted to dozens of store selling anything and everything made from leather. We also visited two different families that hand make the traditional instruments used in the Oriente. It is all carved out of wood and the drums are made from cow hide. We visited a mother and daughter who make ornaments out of Masapan, which is kind of like bread dough. They shape it into anything you can think of – this time they had made Christmas ornaments. We went to Peguche and saw the process of how the people take the wool, they dye it and then spin it into yard (all by hand) and then make it into sweaters and scarves. Same thing here, if you wanted something made, just show the ladies a picture or give them an idea and they´ll make it for you. Back at El Meson we had a workshop about roses. A man came in with boxes of roses that his family grows to talk about their business. They ship beautiful fresh, long stem roses in 3 days to anywhere in the US for only 90 cents a rose. All of us were given flowers to make our own bouqets. A man who was originally from the Amazon also came to talk to us about all the different herbs and natural plants they use and have made into different products for every kind of aliment. The best thing is that it is all 100 percent natural, straight from the Amazon so there is no way that it can not be good for you.

A lady we met in San Pable whose family hand weaves baskets, furniture, mats and decorations.

We also went to San Pable-San Rafael Totora sisa to see a family who does basket weaving. They showed us the process from start to finish – and not only did they make baskets but they found ways to make chairs and other decorations. Friday afternoon we had an interesting experience, we went to see the Shamana. In Ecuador this is a person who is believed to have natural healing abilities. In order to become a Shaman you have to be born into the family and then go through rigorous training and then the final test is being left out in the wilderness alone to survive for 30 days. And if this person does, people believe that they have the ability to help other people. Some of the real ceremonies are held in the Amazon and can last for hours. People participate in this to dry out all the negative energy and release ´demons´or anything negative they have been harboring their whole life. I wasn´t sure what to think of the whole thing; I watched with an open mind though. So this Shamana we visited was a woman and we go into her little room that is quite dark and has a bunch of candles lit in the corner. The room smells very strong like herbs and different kinds of plants. Everyone sits around the room in a circle and she begins speaking in Kichewa (the Native language – we had a translator). She asks for a volunteer to take part in this ceremony. So this one man stands in the middle on this straw mats. Traditionally this is all supposed to be done naked, but thank goodness this one wasn´t traditional. The Shamana puts this plant that looks kind of like poison ivy all over the man and then spits 100 percent pure alcohol all over him. Then she blows fire around him and makes him dance on this mat that is also on fire. It was really different.

And then Saturday. First we went to San Roque where they carve ornaments out of wood. We pull into this little town and in the center is this park. On either side of the park are these two awesome looking slides that are shaped like dragonflies. Naturally Ashley and I were like, awesome, lets go take a picture with them and relive our childhood by going down it. Well this slide was rather huge. I´m not going to go into further detail about the whole situation because it is rather rediculous, but lets just say that in the end I was left rather crippled and have been cursing dragonfly shaped slides for the past five days. This thing was not very intelligently engineered, to say the least. So the moral of this story for me is that slides have different safety standards in different countries.

Next we went to San Antonio de Ibarra, a town that is also known for its wood carvers. Here there were shops and shops of hand carved furniture. It was unfortunate that I was still in so much pain at this point because this little town was so beautiful and I would have loved to walk around and see more of it. In the centre, like most of the little towns, there was a big park and a church. On one corner of the park there was people playing live music. The weather was so perfect Saturday morning too. Around noon we went into Otavalo for the famous Saturday market. First we visited a coffee shop that sells coffee and coffee beans grown in the Intag region. And the rest of the day everyone was left at their free will to explore the market. It seemed so much bigger to me the second time around. Ashley and I walked around for 4 hours and discovered parts that I didn´t even see the first time! We walked through the food market where there was vender upon vender selling fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, spices, meats…it went on and on. I still can´t believe how much there was to see. And aside from the fact that this place was so huge, I happened to run into Claire, who´d moved up to Azama for 3 weeks. It was an awesome but strange coincidence that of all places to be we were on the same street at the same time. We returned back to El Meson around 5pm and everyone enjoyed a wine and cheese for the end of the course. Two indiginous men and two little girls performed the traditional dances for us. There was a long meaning behind these dances. Some of the people were returning to Quito Saturday night to fly home the following day. One couple was Talle and her husband, who Ashley and I had become good friends with. They live in Baltimore, originally from Nigeria and want us to come down to meet their family. Also, they said they´d love to show us Nigeria some day. So the course itself was quite interesting. I got quite a few ideas that maybe some day I will use. But for the time being for me it gave me a lot of ideas for my interest in Journalism. Another lady we met, named Uni who is also from Canada, just moved there and is in the process of opening her own school. I think I´d love to come back and teach in her school for awhile too.

A little girl in the market in Cotacachi.

Sunday Ashley and I walked around Cotacachi for awhile. We discovered the Cotacachi market. We ate the most delicous lunch, chicken, rice, potatoes, salad, beets and eggs for $1.50. I´m not sure if it gets any better than that! I bought a beautiful bouquet of flowers to take back to my host mom in Mindo for her birthday for a $1! Ashley decided to stay in Cotacachi until Wednesday, so I caught the bus into Otavalo around noon. From Otavalo I took a bus to Cayambe, got off a long the side of the road somewhere and then caught the next bus to Quito. I love how systematic the whole bus transportation system works here – it really is fool proof. In Quito I had an hour wait and then caught the last bus to Mindo at 5pm. In the station I ran into a few of my students who were also returning to Mindo from vacation. It was so sweet how excited my host family was to see me when I got off the bus around 7pm. I love these people! They have already started asking me when is the next time I´m going to come back to Ecuador. Half joking they ask me why I can´t just stay and make my life in Ecuador…I think I do miss Canada and my friends and family though…it has been a year! Sunday was my host mom Maritza´s birthday. She cooked for her own birthday party that night. It had ceviche and icecream cake. I´m pretty sure ceviche is not just an Ecuadorian thing but it was the first time I had it. So this past week was pretty awesome, (aside from the slide incident which I will not talk about anymore) although I know I haven´t mentioned everything. Writing about it just a week later and already I can´t remember all the little (but important) things.

You could tell that there was going to be an important soccer game on Wednesday because half the town was wearing their Ecuador soccer jerseys. I walked back into town around 5pm to watch the game with the family I’m staying with at their restaurant and as I passed each store or restaurant I could see people crowded around the TV. It was Ecuador versus Uruguay and I could be wrong, but I think it was the final game that Ecuador would play in order to qualify for the World Cup. Unfortunately the verdict was that Ecuador lost, Uruguay won. It was intense though, when the game finished, nobody said anything, they just got up from the table and started doing something else. I tried to support the Ecuadorian soccer team, you know because I am living here now and everything, but my heart really lies with Brazil…Corinthians, GALO…going to be there in 2014 (or is it 2015?)!

I was walking back across the park Thursday evening when I ran into two other girls looking for a hostel to stay in. We started talking and I came to find out that one girl is from England traveling South America for 5 1/2 months and the other from Australia doing the same thing. They had met in Quito that day and decided to come to Mindo for the weekend. We kept running into each other over the rest of the weekend. Actually in this town its highly likely that you will run into everyone numerous times a day. They are both leaving Monday; one is going up to Colombia for 10 days and invited me to come with her, which is a very tempting offer but I Ashley comes that day and we are going up to Imbaburra, Cotacachi and Otavalo for the week. The other girl is taking a bus down to Peru to see Machu Pichu, then on to Bolivia and across to Argentina. I am so tempted to hop on the bus and go with them…maybe I’ll plan something for my last month here…

Friday morning was supposed to be the last day of classes for the school before vacation. I went into my class at 7am and students started telling me that they all had to go to the ‘comodor,’ which I had entirely no idea what it was. I thought that were just trying to get out of classes, but in the end I highly doubted all of them would have been in on it – very trusting, I know. So I follow them across to this ‘comodor’ and turns out they were right. The other class in their grade that I teach was there. I guess the ‘comodor’ is this hall where they have mass in the mornings (and ironically had a dance in the night before) and use for meetings when the parents come. But this morning it was full of vegetables that they had harvested from their farm. Everyone was sitting surrounded by piles of beans that had to be shelled. So I sat with them for three hours and we shelled more beans that I can think of. It was good though to get to know them a bit more. After the beans were put into small bags and they would sell them to the parents or people in town to make a bit of money for their class. By 10:30 am all the families had arrived at the school to pick up their kids to take them home for vacation. First they had like a seminar about parenting, which is pretty important seeing that a lot of the students come from broken homes across the Sierre and the Coast. And then they were free to go until class starts again on the 26th.

Rosita and Liz barbecuing for Roberto's birthday celebration.

Friday was the birthday of one of the sons of the family I’m living with. Friday night, to celebrate, they had a big barbeque for him at the house. There was so much food! We ate these kabobs that had 3 different kinds of meat, plantains and vegetables. It was served with molta, (a type of corn that looks like a bean), potatoes and some green sauce over everything. It was so good!

Friday was also Claire and two girls from Holland’s last day in Mindo. The two girls came last week as volunteers for an agriculture project, but found another project to do in Vilcambaba, which is a city very south of Ecuador, near the border to Peru. Claire was leaving to go up to Azama, a very indigenous community outside Otavalo, to volunteer for 3 weeks before going back to the US. I know Sara and I are going to miss her – especially her crazy expressions! So Friday night we all got together for a bit and then went to get Empanadas. This time I tried the ones where the crust is made from plantains and inside it has chicken. Very good!

This week it has rained so much here. But its nice – especially because at night it means that you can’t hear the dogs barking and the roosters crowing! The mornings have still been really hot and humid though. I still find it funny that we get all the weather (except for the weather that accompanies snow) in one day.

This weekend was quiet. I had time to walk around and actually discovered there is more to Mindo than I thought. There is a big soccer field, basketball and volleyball court next to a community swimming pool (wouldn’t be my recommendation to swim in this one though). I walked down all the little roads that lead of the main road and saw a little veterinarian office and a health centre; not to be confused with a hospital or a doctors office – the closest of these being in the next town over called Los Bancos. And I didn’t believe it was possible, but there was even more hostels. I would be really interested to find out what the ratio of places to sleep are compared to the number of tourists. And Mindo does get a lot of tourists.

It was great coincidence – Saturday my family wanted to bake. In the morning I made Brownies for them to sell in their restaurant  and in the evening I made apple pie! Problem from Monday solved! I think the Ecuadorians concept of North American food is based solely on our desserts. I won’t complain though. I’d walked past this little building with a fence around it about hundred times in the past month only to find out this week that it is actually Mindo’s gas station. There was a truck parked on the street in front so I was able to witness the process of how it works to fill up your tank here. I’m not sure exactly how the gasoline is transported here and where they keep it because here they don’t have pumps. But, the man pours the gas into 4 liter water bottles and then with a funnel they pour the gas into the trucks tank. The bonus is that its full serve.

This afternoon I went to the sports park and watched the people play volleyball. I think that Sunday afternoons are game days. All the along the fence and the back wall were people watching. Actually the back wall was full of little old men who I’m sure used to play there at one point too. I’ve noticed that here they play with teams of three as opposed to how we play with six. You can tell they’ve been playing for a long time though because the rallies would last forever. I think there must be one main place here where everyone buys their running shoes because half the people there had the same ones in either black or blue.

I’ve come to realize that its generally a toss up whether you will have electricity or water. For the most part both are very consistent but at the randomest times, either might not function. For example right now, it is neither raining or lightning or any weather related issues going on outside but our house has no electricity. Its 6:30pm and it just got dark outside. The sweetest little lady named Rositta, who lives downstairs just came up with a candle and asked if I wanted to use it so I can see. I love this lady!

A view of Mindo from the mountain at sunset.

So tomorrow marks the end of my first month here. To mark the occasion I am going to take the bus to Quito to meet Ashley at the airport! I’m so excited – I haven’t seen her in over 9 months. Should be a fun next month together!

The bus to Cayambe was full. I was lucky I was one of the first people on and got a seat. The bus stops whenever somebody on the streets wave them down, so by the middle of the ride the aisle were full with people standing. The drivers prefer this though because they want to make as much money as possible in one trip.

It was amazing how the further north we drove, how different the landscape was, especially in comparison to Mindo. There were still a lot of mountains, however they were all pastoral. The bus ride to Cayambe took an hour and a half and cost $1.50. I wasn’t sure how I was going to know where to get off in Cayambe and where to catch the next bus, but thankfully the driver yelled “La Senora que va al Otavalo! Aqui! Aqui!” So I got off and he pointed out that the next bus coming up right behind us was going to Otavalo, so I was supposed to get on that one. And he was right. Not 30 seconds later the bus comes to a stop, I get on and away we go to Otavalo. The more we drove, even more changed, especially the people. I’d see them getting on and off the bus, walking along the side of the roads or working in the fields around their houses.

I noticed that everyone had long black hair, including the men. Almost all the women wore traditional clothing; they wore long dark skirts and these beautiful white embroidered blouses. Their hair was in a long braid down their back and wrapped with ribbon. Their wrists were full of red beads, their necks full of gold beads and they wore long gold earrings. Over their shoulders they draped heavy shawls, which they use to carry huge loads. It was amazing; I would see these really elderly woman walking along the road with these impossible loads tied in their shawl to their back.

The bus to Otavalo from Cayambe cost 75 cents. We drove into the town and again I had no idea where to get off. This bus was continuing on to Imbabura, so it never actually stopped at a station. When it looked like it was starting to head out of town I decided it was time to get off. It was so great, I had no idea where I was or how to find the market. I loved the feeling though of having to figure it out. Claire and Sara had come here yesterday so I was too meet them at their hostel. So I just started walking what looked like was towards town. In the process I found a Panderia and bought this delicious bread for 15 cents. I kept walking and eventually came to the center park right in front of the huge church. All the roads leading down from there were full with artisans, which lead to the main market. I found the girls and we walked six blocks through the market to our hostel Aly Samayll. This hostel was probably one of the best I’ve ever stayed in. It is 4 floors with private or single rooms, cable TV and private bathrooms…for $7.50 a night! No kidding, I’m not sure what the difference would have been from a hotel. Plus, our balcony literally overlooked the market.

Otavalo, primarily an indigenous town, is famous for its market. During its busiest time, almost one third of the town is full of stalls selling everything from textiles, tagua nut jewelry, musical instruments, leather items to produce and traditional food.

By this time it was just after noon. We went back down into the streets to walk through the market. It was amazing! I feel like everything I saw I could write about. The market itself is humungous. There are indigenous people selling everything you could imagine that they could grow or make themselves. The first section outside our door was all food. Women were selling homemade break, there were raw chickens and fresh meat that had been killed that morning hanging in stalls. A whole row in the middle was of women selling grains, vegetables, fruits and other raw foods that I’d never even seen before. Along the edge were street vendors where you could sit and eat a meal.

We kept walking and passed a man selling live chickens and another was carrying four boxes of little chicks. There was even a man selling puppies! We kept walking and here there was row after row of artisans selling handmade scarves – every color and style you could imagine. There were handmade purses, hammocks, sweaters, blankets…There were booths selling handmade jewelry; brackets made from thread, beaded earrings and necklaces, wooden rings. And then a whole other section had silver jewelry. There were booths selling handmade wooden furniture, ornaments, paintings, rugs made from Alpaca fur ….honestly it was incredible how much there was to see and it never ended! Any everybody wanted to sell you something. Even if you just stopped for a second to look, they would come over and say “Here Senorita look, look,  just $5″ and if you’d say no thank you, they’d say “ok ok how much you wanna pay? How much? I give you $3.” And you wonder how they do it; selling hand made items that must of taken hours to make just for a few dollars. But this is their life and the talent is overwhelming.

We spent pretty much the whole afternoon looking and still didn’t get to see everything. On the way back to the hostel around 4pm we stopped and got some food from a street vendor. I’m sure these places wouldn’t exactly meet North American health standards, but I think the best way to see a country is to live like a local. I’m not sure what the name of the food is that we ate, but they are these little orange balls of mashed potatoes and cheese fried (of course, I think you can fry anything here) served with lettuce and beets for 40 cents.

Happy to pose for a camera, two indigenous brothers stand in front of their family's stall.

By this time the vendors were all starting to unpack. I guess they arrive around 5am to set up for the day and then unpack everything around 4:30pm. It looked like a lot of work to do every Saturday and Sunday every weekend, but again, for a lot of them this was their livelihood.We went back to the hostel and it was the most glorious event; we were able to take a hot shower! I’ve gotten used to taking cold showers everyday with it being refreshing afterwards and all, but this just felt like a luxury! We went back out at 6pm to meet Sara’s other German friends who were also in Otavalo this weekend. Saturday night was the big soccer game, Ecuador versus Uruguay. I don’t follow soccer so I don’t know for sure, but I was told this game was huge because the winner would make it into the World Cup. So we met at this little restaurant to watch the game – I think just like everyone else in town. The first goal was by Ecuador and they whole place went crazy! People were jumping on their chairs and straying beer everywhere. Then shortly after Uruguay scored and the place was silent. It was tied till the end of the game when Uruguay scored in overtime in a penalty kick. All the Ecuadorians were so disappointed! And us 3 were so hungry! We walked to this restaurant which is raved about in the travelers guide books and sadly we were so excited to eat American food. We had pizza and pasta, but it was so good…a nice change from rice!

Sunday morning in Otavalo was a completely different mood from Saturday. Almost all the shops were closed, but the main market was all set up again. We walked down to get break for breakfast and on the way passed this huge line of people outside the bank. We’re not sure what it was for but I don’t know if I’m going to get used to seeing a soldier guarding the bank with a riffle. Every bank I’ve seen here in the bigger towns and cities is like that. We started to walk towards the bus station around 11am. We passed the park, which had a band set up and playing in the middle. The sides were lined with people shinning and reparing shoes. Its so funny how I’m pretty much a giant here. I’m 5’9 and almost none of the women in Otavalo came up to my shoulders. Most of the men were marginally taller than that.

We got on the bus and left for Quito around noon. This bus ride wasn’t exactly enjoyable. Since the bus was only half full the driver drove so slow while another man yelled out the door to try and get people to come on. What should have only taken 20 minutes to get to the main road leading to Quito took almost an hour! The road goes around sharp mountains so the rest of the trip was a slow drive (for good reason). Its kind of a strange feeling seeing crosses along the side of the road where people have gone off the edge. Plus most places don’t have guard rails and it had started to rain, so I was ok with the fact that the ride was so long! In Quito we took a taxi (who we got jiped by because we are foreigners) to El Jardin. In this area is the cheapest place to call other countries, so Sara called Germany. They we went into the El Jardin Mall and ate lunch. We could have just as easily been in the US. The food court had McDonalds. It was so strange seeing these two different worlds colliding. Actually the more of Quito I see, the more Europeen it feels.

We got on the bus at 5pm to go back to Mindo. Quito felt a lot colder than Otavalo and especially Mindo. I know its at a very high elevation but I didn’t think I’d see people wearing hats and mitts. The bus station is always so interesting; people are getting on and off trying to sell food, especially ice cream. It was foggy and rainy on the drive back to Mindo; seems to be pretty typical for a night drive along this route. Getting back to Mindo at 7:30pm in some ways felt like we’d been gone longer than two days but in other ways the people looked like they were still in the same spot when we left. I’m really beginning to see why they say that Ecuador is a small country but very diverse.