It's Wednesday, I'm studying for midterms in Juan Valdez Café (basically, South America's Starbucks except much better and much cheaper), and trying to get things together for this summer.
We can start with the weekend though before I dive fully into talking about my internship this summer.
This past weekend was only the second time that I have traveled by myself here in Ecuador. The first was on my way to Puerto Lopez for Carnival, on a ten hour bus ride; this trip wasn't nearly as intimidating--it was only six hours and I was familiar with the bus system as well as the terminal.
The day began kind of rough. My taxi driver was late, so I missed my first bus at 2 o'clock--meaning I had to take the 3:50 bus almost two hours later. Nonetheless, I was stuck in Terminal Terrestre de Carcelén in Quito for the next two hours. I sat down with my things on the only open bench I could find and began to wait, when a man sat down on the same bench as me at the opposite end. A child with a dog on a leash went running past ten minutes later, but the dog had left a nice little trail of a gift, aka dog poop, along the way. The man next to me glanced over and began condemning the behavior and calling the child a brat; naturally, I giggled because I was thinking the same thing, just thinking it in English. We began chatting back and forth about where we were from, where we were headed, why we were in Ecuador, etc. He was very nice and complimented me on my Spanish; he assumed I was from Spain and had learned it there and was surprised when he found out I was from the States. As it turns out, he was a businessman from Bogotá, Colombia. WHAT LUCK! I had just been speaking with my family about the internship offer I had received and had been trying to convince them that Colombia was cheap and safe enough so that I could go. When I asked him what he was doing in Ecuador, he told me that he was a businessman and traveled to Quito weekly. He was taking a bus to Ipiales, Colombia (southern portion of Colombia) so that he could catch a plane back into Bogotá. I asked him what he did and he immediately responded with comercio, meaning trade. I asked him what his job actually was and he replied with business and trade, once again. When I asked him what kind of company he worked for and he still didn't give me a straight up answer, I decided maybe I wasn't supposed to know. Nonetheless, it was a delightful conversation and I even discovered that $1 USD = $2.50 in Colombian pesos. His "business partner" finally showed up and he was off to Ipiales. I still had a good hour to kill when another man sat next to me about fifteen minutes later. Right before he started speaking with me, a kid had wandered up to me who seemed totally harmless...until he tried to snatch my box of contacts from my bag. Turns out it was a mistake though, he wasn't a hoodlum, just a kid who had wandered away from his mom's sight. The man next to me decided to speak to me once he saw me swat the kid's hands and snatch my contacts back. He was Ecuadorean and asked plenty of questions, such as:
1. Why on earth are you in Quito?
2. Why is an American girl like you traveling alone to Esmeraldas?
3. WHERE DID YOU LEARN YOUR SPANISH!?
4. Would you recommend my country to other Americans?
That conversation was short lived though, it was time to go find my bus and take off. I appreciated him chatting with me though; as polite as the Ecuadoreans are, they typically keep to themselves around me because they assume I don't know Spanish.
I was traveling six hours into Esmeraldas to stay with my friend Maxi Anderson's aunt and uncle. Maxi's uncle worked in Esmeraldas in the 1980's with the Peace Corps and met her aunt here. They moved to Washington state for a while, but returned to Esmeraldas about five years ago to retire. Esmeralda is a province, so when most people talk about Esmeraldas, they are referring to the beaches because it's on the coast. But not me. Yes, I stayed in the province, but I stayed in the main city of Esmeraldas within the province.
Maxi's uncle Robert picked me up from the bus terminal in Esmeraldas; him and Maxi's aunt Carmen welcomed me with open arms into their home for the weekend. Mrs. Anderson cooked for me once I got there, despite the hour (11 PM) and I downed some Ecuadorean style chicken and rice. Off to bed I went to start an early morning on Saturday. Mr. Anderson took me to the fish market, which I absolutely loved because I'm a huge seafood eater. I bought a pound a half of calamari for $5. Insane, right?! And the shrimp (langostinos) were massive. We went back and waited on Mrs. Anderson to prepare lunch with the fresh seafood. Meanwhile, I found a pair of swimsuit bottoms that didn't match my top at all that I could wear later on to the beach and got to see a little bit more of Esmeraldas before lunch. After we finished lunch, we headed out to the museum in Esmeraldas that had the history of the past peoples within it's walls; much of it was surrounded around the large amount of African descendants in Esmeraldas, which was really interesting. I actually loved the museum. Later, we headed to Tonsupa to get some sun and swim for about an hour or so. Tonsupa was a beautiful beach with a plethora of cocadas for sale. Cocadas are these things about the size of a golf ball made from cooked coconut with sugar and other sweet things in it. You can get 10 of them for a dollar, so Mr. Anderson and I shared a few. We got on the bus and headed to Atacames, where we caught a dollar taxi back into Esmeraldas. That night, we had another delicious meal; after we ate, Mrs. Anderson's sister came by the house. I was happy to meet another member of Maxi's family, who was just as sweet as everyone else. She spoke in Spanish to me which was an unusual relief--I've found that I love practicing my Spanish. We got some ice cream from the neighborhood store, and headed to bed early. I was beat.
Sunday, I slept in and woke up to breakfast from Mrs. Anderson. After breakfast, we rested a little more before lunch, then ate, and headed to Atacames. We took a bus from the bus station into Atacames; naturally, there was a small convenience store where I decided to find a diet coke and some oreos to hold me over for the afternoon before we headed out. While talking to the store clerk about what I intended to buy, someone approached me and quickly asked me a question that I couldn't understand because he spoke so fast. I asked him to repeat himself and he had asked if I was from "Italia". No, I'm not...I'm from the States! Oh, your Spanish is beautiful, I just assumed you were from somewhere with more prominent Spanish! Who are you here with? I said, oh my friend in the States has an aunt and uncle who live here so I'm just visiting, but I'm living in Quito. He said well are you headed to Atacames? I said yeah, I've never been! He said who are you going with? Once I pointed to Maxi's uncle who was waiting on me by the bus, he said oh, okay, have a good time! I guess he got the hint that I wasn't alone and scurried off. Mr. Anderson and I boarded the bus and headed into Atacames. I liked the beach, but it was much busier than Tonsupa. The good news is that I didn't get burnt! Which is was a welcome surprise. We returned to the house in one piece, relaxed and happy from the beautiful weather. I ate dinner, went upstairs and showered, then packed my things and took a night bus around 11:30 back to Quito. Mr. Anderson went with me to wait on my bus back to Quito, where he told me that my bus would probably be stopped on the way so that the police could check for guns and anything else that could be traded on the black market. Comforting, right? But we ended up running into Mrs. Anderson's nephew who was headed back into Guayaquil; Teodoro, about the same age as Mrs. Anderson, was so nice. I told him my friend Laura and I were planning on staying in Guayaquil for Semana Santa for a night and exploring the city for two days and he invited us to stay with him and his family! What a relief, because I have heard mixed reviews about the safety quality of Guayaquil. He got on his bus to Guayaquil and I headed over to my bus headed for Quito. I said goodbye to Mr. Anderson and thanked him for a beautiful, relaxing weekend and left.
I got back into Quito around 5 AM. I had fallen asleep on the bus and here, unlike on the airlines full of Americans, they don't wake you up when you finally get there. I woke up and there were maybe three people still getting off the bus. I started scrambling to get my things and get off the bus. Like in Quitumbe, the southern Quito bus terminal, there were taxis waiting right outside of the bus saying "TAXI? TAXI? TAXI?" so one particularly persistent one approached me and I accepted. We began talking about where I was headed and walking across the street. We passed about 8 yellow taxis and I began to panic a little, where was his taxi? Turns out it was a white, unmarked car, but I had already agreed and gotten a picture of his plates in case anything happened so I got in. He began talking to me like most taxi drivers do. What're you doing in Quito, where are you from, what do you study, etc. Then he began asking me about where I was staying, which wasn't weird because that was obviously where he was taking me. Then he asked if I was staying alone...in a hotel. I was quick to respond, NO! No, I'm staying with a host family. I just talked to my host mom, I told her I'd be home in ten minutes, so she's waiting at the apartment for me. He kind of laid off after that and I made it home safely, despite the small panic attack I was having on the inside.
A few hours later, my granddad told me that he decided that it would be fine to go to Colombia; I couldn't be more excited! I will be working for the Smile Education Foundation, a small nonprofit (smilecolombia.org) for the summer in Bogotá, Colombia with my friend Carolina. Even better? We will be staying with one of her family friend's in something similar to a home-stay; they will house us, feed us, show us around Colombia, etc, similar to what my host family here in Quito does for me.
I recommend visiting their website if you all get the chance to learn about their cause at smilecolombia.org.
Also, since I will not be in the States for my 21st, I am asking all of you who had planned on celebrating with me to donate to this awesome cause!
That's all for now, but Semana Santa (Holy Week) aka spring break is coming up; Laura and I will be traveling to Guayaquil for a couple of days then back to Playa Ayampe to see our friends Sandra and Galvan! So be on the lookout for that.
Until then, wish me luck on my midterms!
You have two ears, one mouth. Listen more, talk less.
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