canoa

My friends, Ryan, Mark, Melanie, Josh, Blaine, and I went to a beach called Canoa for Carnaval (a celebration in the beginning of february that everyone celebrates and everyone gets 2 days off of school or work or whatever they do.. pretty much a pause on life for ecuadorians). We took a night bus so we could get there at a good time on Friday and have all of friday, sat., sun. and monday to soak up the sun and relax. Well the trip there was interesting enough.. the first bus trip took about 10 hours to get to Porto Viejo and on the way there we stopped at this place to use the bathroom. I was thinking yay a nice gas station and good time to get off this stupid charter bus and stretch. not a gas station. not nice. raining outside. so we got to the place at 3:45 in the morning and when we got off the bus, about 1/2 the town was there (families too) eating full meals and people cooking and just hangin out listening to music! i then went into the bathroom and there were 3 "stalls", no lights, no toilet paper (which you really have to get used to in ecuador), no handle to flush, a little bit of water in the toilets, a sliver of light from the top of the door to the "stall", no soap or toilet paper and possibly no water (cant remember). the entire trip from quito to canoa took like 15 hours. maybe 17.yes.

then we took another bus to get to Canoa, that broke down in some small town, we waited for about 45 minutes to see if they could fix it and they told us we needed to catch another bus. we finally got to canoa and we were supposed to be staying in a house that could fit all 6 of us in, meals provided and only the maid and brother live there. not the case. we were passed off by the lady that takes care of the "house", to another old lady and then again to an old, sketchy man. it was not a house, but a hostal (or hotel.. not sure and it didnt have a name). the first night was fine (me and mel, josh and mark, ryan, and blaine had rooms), but then we had to move to another room for the rest of the time (one that had 2 rooms in it). there was no floor.. it was dirt. our bedrooms were very small but fit a bunk bed and a double bed in it, so ryan, mel, and i slept in one room and the other 3 guys in the other. the bathroom was probably 4 feet long, and consisted of a toilet about 5 inches from the door that the lock was broken on, a sink that was half on the floor, half into the shower, and a shower that sometimes didnt have much pressure and was always cold. ha. and we were supposed to pay $5 a night but we payed $10.

the streets were all dirt and mostly muddy cause it had rained pretty good before we got there so we walked around barefoot a lot since that was what the townpeople did. we went to the beach every day (even the first day we got there at about 5 we went swimming right away because we were so nasty and then some ecuadorian guys we met invited us onto their small boat to put out some nets) and all got burnt even though we put 45 on 18 times a day (the most sunscreen i've ever put on in my life). every day we would sit on the beach and watch the most amazing sunsets, we'd get dinner (always delicious food and outside in the sand and cheap!), go out to a bar and dancing and walk back to the beach to relax (i, along with ryan, fell asleep 3 out of the 4 nights on the beach). we met some pretty cool people.. we met 2 jorges and one of them had a world's greatest dad shirt on so that's what we called him and the other one was kind of annoying, but nice too. all the young people there talked like they had been smoking weed (which was true of some of them) and everyone was soo relaxed.

it was fun and awesome in general. a few things didnt make for a good trip but we didnt let them ruin it. one of the friends was a little crazy emotional and had a few anger problems so that made for some interesting times. as we were about to go walking down the beach like always during sunset, ryan and i BURRIED our rainbows in a sand hill, and when we got back they were not there! we spent about 30 minutes tearing apart the sand hill and also looking around the beach restaurants and on people's feet for our flip flops but they were nowhere to be found! bummer. the way back back took about 13 hours i think. needless to say, we were all totally exhausted, but had school the very next day. yay.