a weekend to remember

I think it is safe to say that after this past weekend I am going to need to reevaluate my definition of “adventure”. Thursday-Sunday kind of put my past adventures to shame… which was surprising to me and will be to my SBC friends, too… all the ones who regularly see me riding around campus with campus safety – my “friend” – and climbing out of 3rd story windows. Anyway, I’ve had some serious fun over these past few days. I’ve made some new friends, learned a ton about Ecuadorian life and culture, got a pretty impressive “tan” (which is currently appearing to be a burn… but I believe in the future of the tan) and had an experience that I will always remember when I look back on and think about my time in Ecuador.

So a bunch of us decided that since Thanksgiving is coming up at home and we’re going to miss it… sad!... we would go to the beach for the weekend and at least celebrate the fact that we’re not stuck in cold temperatures. We frequently travel on the weekends, we always have fun, and it’s really not that big of a deal. We decided on Canoa – it’s a beach in about the center of Ecuador and beautiful. One of our friends left on Wednesday night with her Ecuadorian friend, one other student was going to travel alone and meet us there, and the rest of us decided that we would leave on Thursday night and take a night bus. We bought tickets early in the week and went planned on leaving after our class on Thursday night.

We went from class (at about 7pm) to Mariscal to have supper and pass some time before going to the bus station near old town. The bus didn’t leave until 9, so we had some time. I was actually able to wander into an internet café and call my dad and step mom at home… that was pretty nice because they are always working during the hours when I could call them at home. We haven’t been able to talk much. I talked to them for a little while and then we took a taxi to old town.

We left Quito at 9ish and were ready to settle in for the 9 hour ride to the coast. The bus was packed and there were six (6!!) people up front to switch off for driving. It’s normal to have another person for such a long trip – even two more people – but six? We drove for almost 2 hours and got about 45 minutes outside of Quito because one on them kept having some crisis which required stopping. And of course every time we stopped not only would all six drivers pile off the bus, but all the men in general. It was a slow, slow process.

We started to get out of the city and onto the windy mountain roads and it was so foggy! We couldn’t see anything. The bus driver was driving kind of funny too … he kept shifting at really strange times. He was laughing a lot and it almost seemed like he was trying to show off to the other five. We got to a toll booth that (would normally be) about an hour out of the city and the bus overheated. It completely filled with smoke and then shut off. We were stuck there for two hours while we waited for another bus to come. By the time it came – and we transferred – and we left the toll station – it was 1:30am and we were only about an hour away from home. We all laughed about it and decided that a little bad luck is going to happen. We were glad to be on our way again.

Then at three the same bus driver drove over a huge pile of rocks and blew out the front right tire. That was another 2 hours – we watched the sun come up while the six drivers and every man on the bus watched as one man changed the tire. By the time we were finally on our way again the sun was up, music was blasting throughout the entire bus, two babies were crying (as they had been for hours at this point) and everyone on the bus was frozen. The four of us were still laughing about everything.

We made it to San Vicente at 10:30am. From there we still had to travel another 16km to Canoa. We traded buses and made the rest of our trip… around 11am we finally found the hostile where our other friend had already checked in. It was a long night!

But, it was also a beautiful day! So we changed into our suits and went out to find some food – breakfast or lunch or something. We ate and then went down to the beach. All of us put on tons of sunscreen (55spf!) and we all got sunburns. It was a sad situation. I actually went in earlier than everyone else did because I could tell that the Ecuadorian sun was kicking the butt of my sun block. I’m glad I did – my sunburn ended up being pretty bad and if I had stayed out too much longer I would have been a very unhappy kid.

We hung around Canoa for all of Friday and until Saturday night. We had so much fun! We played on the beach, went to happy hour at our hostile (which I didn’t have anything to drink during… like always… but still had fun), ate at different restaurants and explored new foods, talked with the locals, danced, laughed A LOT, slept very little…

It was a great time.

On Saturday night we planned to take the night bus again. I had to be back in Quito by 7am on Sunday morning (for a religion field trip with PUCE) and we were all praying and hoping that the bus ride back wouldn’t be as much of a disaster as the one there. First we had to make it back to San Vicente. We walked down to where “the busses pass every 10 to 30 minutes” and waited for over an hour. At this point we had the four girls who had traveled down together and one other student, Ben, who was going to travel back with us. Ben is fun… but a little overly outgoing at times. Before we knew it he had flagged down a pickup truck that was carrying an entire family and going in the direction of San Vicente. The father was driving, the grandparents were up front with him, and the mother and her 4 young children were in the back. Ben talked the guy into taking us to San Vicente if we would give him a dollar – and started yelling “come on!!” at the four girls who were just about thinking he had lost his mind.

So we took the risk… it was a mother and her four children (who were eating their supper) in the back… and grandparents. We rode the entire way back to San Vicente in the back of this pickup, talking to the mother and kids and learning about them. Culturally, this is where I am finding I learn the most. Not only about Ecuador but about life and the world in general. It was a valuable 20 minutes.

We got to San Vicente and had to find the bus station again. We got our tickets and then Ben convinced me to go walking with him so that he could find “meat on a stick” (meaning from one of the street vendors) before the bus left. We walked around the town a little – it was well lit and well populated and is known to be really safe.

When we got on the bus to leave for Quito we were looking out the window as we left the town. The exact intersection where the family had let us out of the pickup not an hour before was having issues… there was a man holding up a taxi driver at gun point. My friend Lanier and I saw what was going on – the man who was holding up the gun saw the bus and got rather upset. It was kind of a scary moment. A little intense. At the same time, it was just another thing to add to the list of unexpected things for the weekend. Once that was over we settled in a little. We stopped to let some people of and Lanier and I got some pan de yucca con queso … yucca bread with cheese … because we were hungry. It was really yum! We ate it and fell asleep. My sunburn hurt so, so much, so I had a hard time resting. But, compared to the bus ride to get to Canoa this was still wonderful… no overheating, no crazy six drivers, no tire problem, we didn’t freeze, only 8½ trip… I was impressed with the normality of it.

We made it back to Quito at about 5:30am – enough time for me to go home, take a shower, change, have breakfast and still make it in time to meet up with my class friends. So that’s what I did. It was kind of my mini-marathon of the day but I made it to the Rio Coca station on the ecovia (again, the other side of the city) by 7:15. There were three other students from the class. We took a bus to El Quinche. It’s a small town about an hour outside of Quito and they are currently celebrating religion holidays and “the virgin of Quinche” who is said to have established their town. It was cool. We went to the church and talked with some of the people. I learned a lot.

On the bus ride home I managed to get separated from everyone else and ended up traveling alone. I was actually completely okay with this. The bus was packed and I sat on the floor with a husband and wife who had just completed a traditional walk from their town to Quinche. They taught me a lot. Like the pickup truck the night before, these conditions were not the most favorable … sitting on the floor of a dirty and crowded bus, alone … but I had a really valuable experience.

I made it home to Quito around 2. I was exhausted and wanted to sleep but had a midterm to take yesterday that I needed to study for. I spent most of the afternoon nursing the sun burn and reading for the midterm. Thankfully I think I managed to send it running back to Hugo with its tail between its legs… it was long but not too hard. I passed out last night (watching Grey’s Anatomy reruns with my host sister) and slept – finally!

The weekend was wonderful though. I love times where I can drop my books and learn 10x more just from living life. How many people get the opportunity to do that? I’ve been lucky. Anyways… I am going to go to Católica and meet up with some friends for lunch. I realized this morning that I turn 21 two weeks from tomorrow and that I’ll be flying home 3 weeks from Friday. There is still soooo much to do between now and then… plus, more traveling!

Best to all!!!