Mama Mia - it's hot in herre

It's Sunday now - Mother's Day - a national holiday in Ecuador.  The kids had school off on Friday for it.  Today is a day of dancing festivals around the country and last night they had the annual Mother's Day competition in town.  Picture a beauty pageant, but flipped around.  Mothers are there with one chosen child who speaks to the crowd about why their mother is the best - and then the mothers are asked questions to somehow determine who is the best mother of the year.  And then they are judged.  I of course could understand none of this, but this is what I am told is going on.  Happy Mother's Day, Mom!  I'd definitely put you in the competition if you were here.  :)  NB - yes, they do the same thing for father's day. LOL.

Anyway, I finally made it to Canoa yesterday after an epic taxi-bus-taxi-ferry-bus ride that took me about 10 hours.  The main bus ride (6 hours) was quite an interesting adventure.  The bus station itself was crazy --- crowds of people, some carrying live chickens (no kidding) and others taking huge bags of rice and flour along with their belongings.   Anyway, after finally figuring out how to buy a ticket to the right destination - only possible with the help of about 5 different samaritans who actually took me to the right bus - I boarded the bus that would take me 6 hours to get to a place called Bahia de Caraquez.

The ride was perilous - I seriously almost had about 15 heart attacks.  They speed around hairpin turns, pass "slow" vehicles against oncoming traffic, and vendors actually get on and off the moving bus all day to sell things like hot empanadas, ceviche, ice cream, water and other drinks, newspapers, etc.  So weird.  It was interesting to travel through the countryside, which by the way is absolutely beautiful.  Rolling green hills with tropical trees, flowers and plants, green mountains in the distance that sort of remind me of those in Hawaii with the sharp horizontal ridges - and the ocean turns a beautiful emerald green color when the sun is out.  So pretty!

So, after 6 hours, I got off the bus and boarded a ferry to San Vicente.  Then met a nice Austrian girl, Daniella, who has been here for 3 months and is buying property.  She showed me how to take the bus to my hotel and invited me to a party in town later that night. I didn't end up going b/c I was exhausted but I'll see her later in the week most likely.

I reached The Sundown Inn and was immediatly met by the family that runs it.  I settled in and rested in my room that overlooks the ocean.  I have a balcony with a hammock and it is absolutely beautiful.  Beautiful and hot!!!  It's hot here, yes.  There's no airconditioning anywhere.  But there are fans and there is a breeze and it really is just beautiful.  I ate dinner with the other family and the other students at the hotel - a couple from Canada and another single woman from Maine.

So far, things are going well, except for the fact that my Spanish has reached an absolutely pathetic level of bad. School will start for me tomorrow though so then at least I'll be studying again and hopefuly it will come back soon.  I can pretty much say what I want to say - in the present tense - but I can only understand about 10% of the response I get. :)

So far, the people in this country seem exceedingly friendly and helpful, but very very poor.  They use the American dollar as their national currency which makes things easier for me and everything is super cheap.  I was told today that I could get a 1hour massage for $7.

I'm going to get a coke and walk around now, but I'll check back in soon!! Hasta luego. xoxo

PS - This computer does not have a working USB port, so it's not possible to upload photos.  I'll add them all in later when I go back to Bahia.