CARNAVAL 2010
Trip Start
Jan 02, 2010
1
8
14
Trip End
Jun 02, 2010
San Clemente y San Jacinto, Manabí, Ecuador
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
We got of the bus Friday morning in Manta, ate breakfast (if you can call fries, eggs, sandwiches, and milkshakes breakfast), and got picked up by the two friends, which was really really nice considering that Manta was like a 30ish minute drive from the beach. We got into our swimsuits right away and hit the beach. Like in Montanita, the water was absolutely perfect and warm. Later we went back to shower and eat dinner, then out and about for the night......except that we were all so tired from traveling all night that we ended up going at bed at 10pm--it sure seemed like a lot later. It was funny, while we were out we´re like uhh where is everybody? since the discoteca was virtually empty. Out at dinner, that´s where, at 9pm, ha.
Saturday and Sunday were pretty similar. Wake up, eat breakfast, hit the beach, grab lunch, shower, rest, get dinner, go out at night. One girl had brought pancake mix, so Saturday morning we made pancakes in the kicthen where we were staying...other food highlights included trying ceviche. For the most part, meals were pretty identical, including some combination of eggs, rice, lentils, meat, patacones, and juice to drink. Which is fine with me because I love all of those things. Also the thing here is to ¨play Carnaval¨ which basically means throwing water (or foam soap, or whatever liquid you can get your hands on) at people, so on more than one occasion we were splashed with stuff, sometimes refreshing, sometimes definitely not.
Where we were staying was certainly not luxurious. The bathroom got infested with ants, and so we asked the dude working there to clean them up and he was like they´re dead! and small! you all are big, don´t be afraid! But we were like uhh no please get rid of them in any case. Also, if you were lucky enough to sleep on the top bunk by the window you were certain to get rained on...or in the one big bed apparently water was leaking through the roof one night too. And shoving that many wet clothes into one place definitely does not create a great aroma. Oh well, I thought it was more hilarious than anything else, I mean I´m not really that picky when it comes to stuff like that and we were spending more time outside than anything else.
Something else entertaining that happened: Saturday night we went to this one restaurant for dinner, paid our bill, left, fine. Then, the next night, we went back to the same place, and AFTER we ate our meal, the waiter brought us the check and was like oh hey by the way you never paid last night either so here´s the bill for that too. WTF? Uhh yeah we did you fool. After arguing with him forever, and after one of the guys went to complain to the manager about it, we just left. He still insisted that we hadn´t paid, but whatever. So we were joking about how we should go there for breakfast the next day, and we actually did go back later to swim in the pool there, but it was so busy that the guy probably didn´t see us there. We were the only gringas that we saw anywhere the whole weekend, so we´re guessing that the dude remembered us and thought he could pocket the extra money and take advantage of the situation, but haha no luck sucker.
The end of the weekend proved to be a bit more chaotic. The friend who invited us, Pedro, of one of the girls I went with has an hacienda about halfway between the beach and Quito so we were going to go there Monday , spend the night there just chilling and whatnot, and then come back Tuesday. We were trying to catch a bus, which was proving vo be very difficult, so Pedro kindly offered to drive us to the next bus stop where we were supposed to catch the main bus to the hacienda. It would have worked, except that everybody and their entire family was on the road trying to go to the beach creating the most unbelievable traffic. So we just decided to go back, spend the day at the beach, and leave in the early evening when the roads would be less crowded. Well, later it was decided that it wouldn´t even really be worth it to go to the hacienda because we would be there for about 2.5 seconds before we had to head back to Quito. But no one wanted to stay in that godforsaken room another night, so we decided to leave that night on the bus, about a 7-8 hour ride. It´s kind of funny, this sort of lack of a plan seems to be typical Ecuadorian style of doing things, which is fine with me though, I have no problem just going with the flow. Anyways, all was going well once we got on the bus, I was taking a nice little nap, until I woke up and we were stopped in the middle of the road. Apparently we had been stopped for a while. Why, you ask? Oh, no big deal, just a landslide blocking the road. And since it was the middle of the night, nobody would be able to come clear the road until morning. And the driver apparently insisted that the road was too narrow to be able to turn around and take any detour route. Insisted, that is, until 3 hours later when magically they decided oh yeah maybe we can turn this freaking thing around and just go some other way. Sooo we finally got back to Quito around 8 in the morning, feasted on McDonald´s breakfast (which does not have nearly as many options as in the U.S.), and stopped at Pedro´s house to pick up our stuff (he had taken most of it in his car with his friends so we didn´´t have to carry it on the bus), and watched The Hangover there--I think that movie gets funnier every time I watch it.
All in all it was a good weekend. Transportation seems to be a consistant problem in my travels, I did get some pretty painful sunburn despite my best efforts, and the room was less than ideal, but hey whatever. The beach was nice, water was warm, Pedro and his friends were super nice, and it was all pretty relaxing and chill. AND this week I now only have 3 days of class. Today two of my three classes were canceled (one I knew would be, but the other apparently the professor was sick). I also have my first exam on Friday which is kind of a drag, but I´m not too worried about it. Next week I have another exam and a paper due, followed by another exam the following Tuesday. Soo the next 2 weeks will be sort of busy in terms of school, but I think I should be able to handle it. It is midterm season afterall, which is so crazy to think about, I´ve already been here like 7 weeks, time has just been flying. Eeeeeee, one semester definitely will not be enough.
Until next time!
