WEEK 8 IN REVIEW

Monday 11/11

Today we came to Montañita and found a hostal, ate street burgers (mine, veggie) and danced at the bar... ha.  I had so many alcoholic beverages placed in my hand and I didn't drink a single one, in case any of those photos make it onto the Internet haha.  The locals tried to dance like us to the English songs, and we tried to learn Latin dancing from the local guys... not easy.  It was quite the first night!  I'm excited for the beach tomorrow.


Tuesday 11/12

Cool date! At 11/12/13 at 14:15:16 I was probably sitting on the becah loving life. :)  I've been eating good food, avoiding advances from flirtatious men, walking on the beach, and loving the weather.  Today I must have eaten something I'm allergic to because I feel super sick (hindsight: veggie burger cooked with regular burgers from yesterday) ... that, and the mosquitoes! So painful! My legs are covered in bites.  But I paid $8 to have 16 pounds of my clothes washed and dried, and I'm in HEAVEN!!! But, yeah, who knew I was carrying 16 pounds of clothing?!  Plus I have more that I didn't wash... I could have consolidated a bit more...  I'll probably make a list at some point of what I was glad I brought, what I wish I hadn't brought, and what I wish I had brought.


Friday 11/15

I kinda got lost living the beach life!  Three meals a day in restaurants, lying on the beach, hopping over waves in the WARM ocean, and dancing all night... it's been kind of a whirlwind.  A guy yesterday came up to me on the street and said, ''I saw you dancing the other night, you were so drunk!'' and I laughed and said, ''No, I didn't drink anything!'' (because I didn't, even though I got handed LOADS of drinks... I just held them for a minute and passed them on) and he said, ''No, I saw you... you had so many drinks!'' and there was really nothing I could say to that.  He thought I danced like a drunk person, apparently!  I thought I was a little more coordinated than that.  But anyway, interesting that in that situation there was ZERO possibility of convincing him that I did not (nor do I, ever) drink alcohol.


Sunday 11/17

Yesterday, Charday from Canada and I left for Quito at 6:00pm and arrived at 4:00am.  I got SO car sick on the way, I was up for the last 1-1.5 hours trying not to throw up.  Oh my gosh it was horrible.  We curved up and around a mountain, and I woke up in the middle of it.  I didn't fall back asleep until like 6:00am (2 hours after we got to our scary, dirty hotel).

I woke up at 9:30 and set out to find a place with Internet to locate a Mormon church, but I couldn't find a place... I came across an Evangelical church, so I went in.  There were 4 adorable children playing drums, keyboard, and singing, and then the substitute preacher-lady (the regular preacher was out of town) gave a sermon.  People greeted me very kindly, and a family sat by me.  The people were so genuine, and I was impressed by a little boy (age 10-12) who got up to use the church phone to call his friend to come.  So touched by that!  Kids have the purest hearts.

After Evangelical church, we got a taxi to a new hostal because our ''hotel'' was sub-par and $22.  We came back to the Hostal Santiago where Oscar and I stayed last time (the 2nd one that I loved, $10) and I think the lady recognized me but couldn't place me. :)