Sorry Dad, this was somewhat sketchy at times... but AWESOME!

Look at us all sincronized... Clay was usually at the front but I took over for the end of the trip.
Getting an itty bitty lift.
The crew, calm and relaxed.
Whoo! Those are good level 3 rapids, good times!
The crazy thing is that our guide purposely pushed us into the rock for the shot. There´s actually a tiny bit of tippage happening there, but not too much.
Clay´s hand is sticking out the side. The other members are our German friend and accomplice, Dominique, the super skilled (and muscle-covered) guide, William, and me.
FAST FORWARD, FAST FORWARD! Why? To go under the waterfall!
Dominique and Clay attempted some Tarzan moves off the boat.
Standing up is not as easy as it sounds... for me... I was like ´forget the picture, there´s rapids ahead!´
Just an awesome picture on Domonique´s side of the boat




What an amazing day! Today started bright and early as we headed out to go white water rafting ($25 for rafting in the jungle all day, how can you say no?). As we were later told, our point of origin with the boat was new for the guides and we did it with only 4 people in a boat for 8. All the other companies started about 20 mins further down river. I originally wanted class 3 rapids, which is some white water, some big rocks, some waterfalls, but nothing that was going to kick me out of the boat. Well. After struggling like hell to get the boat about 150m down to the river, we were off. The first 20mins of our trip was class 4+. It was great fun and we had the immediate advantage of climbing into (literally, see above) a beautiful waterfall. However, shortly after getting back in we hit the start of a big rapid section and immediately flipped the boat simply because we weren´t heavy enough with only 4 people. Clayton and Dominique did better with this and William our guide was simply amazing, but I was terrified and didn´t think very quickly. I got stuck under the boat, which is OK because there´s room to breath, but the waves were so big that I sucked in water and tried to push myself out without taking in much air. Then I screwed up by not grabbing the rope that goes around the boat and I somehow ended up about 2m in front of it, just trying to keep my legs in front of me so I wouldn´t ram into rocks (note that we had decent helmets and lifejackets on, so it wasn´t too terribly death-defying). But apparently I really needed to get back into the boat because the coming rapids were so bad... our safety canoe dude (also excellent photographer) started yelling at me to swim back and it took me a while to be able to do much beyond stare at the coming rocks. But our guide was phenomenal; he had flipped the boat back over in seconds and hauled Clayton in immediately (smart guy was chilling right next to the boat the whole time). He got me in as soon as I was in arms reach and Dominique right after. I was doing some good yelling for the rest of that section but shortly thereafter we had a little celebration. The rest of the ride was awesome! I mean, if we could deal with boat flipping in harsh rapids then we were no longer termed beginners! It was loads of fun, under waterfalls and into rocks, dodging a hand-powered cable car at one point, jumping it through shallow sections, getting huge waves over the side... I´d never want to do it without a guide who knows the route, but I may have to get another tour at some point. Beautiful scenery as well, obviously, and torrential downpour at times with loud thunder claps, making it even more exciting.

Just to 180 things completely, I went for a massage when we got back to Banos... oh yeah, it was absolutely perfect. Later on we walked up to the thermal baths for which Banos is named and soaked in waterfall-fed and volcano-heated water, while looking up at a 120m (more or less) waterfall falling about 20m away. So picturesque.

I left the camera cord upstairs and I´m lazy now so you´ll have to enjoy the rafting pictures that we scammed off of Dominique (taken courtesy of our safety canoe dude who later said he was really hung over and not too impressed about a big rescue early in the trip). Awesome day, in short, I really had to share it with those who tune into the blog. Lots of love!

banos pictures

Whoops it´s not working, I´ll try again tomorrow

Banos

This may be my second favortite place in Ecuador, after the Galapagos of course. Banos is in the beginings of the jungle... it´s surrounded and filled with beautiful natural wonders but it has comforts galore for gringos. I´ve come to admit that there are some comforts, such as vegitables and pillows, that I really enjoy and will sacrifice the Normal Ecuadorian Experience for. We arrived last night from Guayquil (big city, wouldn´t recommend it. However, we saw a good film there called The Last Mimzy which we both loved and highly recommend. Based in Seattle; close to home!). We made a friend on the bus who, as per usual, wanted us to stay in his buddy´s hostel. This place was by far the worst yet (though no tarantualas!) and I´m suprised it stayed standing for the entire night. Yuck, smelly, glad that´s over. This morning, though, we met a lovely Londoner who led us to the most amazing hostel! Beautiful huge rooms with a bedside lamp (you have no idea how wonderful this is), balcony, equipt KITCHEN!, beautiful patio upstairs overlooking the area which is surrounded by towering amazon mountains and giant waterfalls, free fast internet, oh man it´s heaven. And such good food nearby! If you´re ever in Banos, goodness gracious, set up shop in Casa Hood... best food in Ecuador (I say this with gusto). I must say that we seem to get along quite well with Londoners. This fellow, ´Kristopher with a K´, invited us to bike with him along the Av. de las Cascadas (avenue of waterfalls). Unfortunately he took one hell of a spill not too far into the trip... he flew like a bird but landed like a dude. He had to head back for stitches, poor guy, but was gracious enough to deny our assistance back, so we headed onwards. Regarding the cascadas I think I´ll let the pictures speak for themselves. There were $1 tram cars over huge drops to get to the falls, which were quite thrilling. The final really big cascada had a pretty intense trail down to it which reinforced my opinion that I never want to get have fisticuffs with a Quechua granny (indigenous peoples here). My goodness, they can hike it. We also saw one steal a pig in a sac today, which was pretty funny, but I digress.

The biking itself was the sort of thing that would not get Dad´s seal of approval, but he´ll have to forgive me because by the time I realized it was quite dangerous I was already between waterfalls, I´d paid for the bike, yada yada (read: I really wanted to do it!). There sure were some sheer cliffs with no barriers, though... but we´re alive and well with the healthy sheen of adrenaline-pumped people. When our buddy bailed Clayton had already gone through this short one-way tunnel and had to come back via a long and curvy one-way tunnel without lights, which I think was a really scary experience for him. When coming back via truck I understood how he had no idea where he was in the tunnel... pitch black and a couple bends in it. Anyways, tomorrow: white water rafting and visiting a smoking volcano. Whoo!

So we´re doing well, just had a good meal and are ready for the next adventure. You may not hear from me again before we head off to our jungle trip (only 3 days starting tuesday as the current plans go). It should be pretty cool, though short... I´ve heard that most people don´t like too much longer. That whole comforts thing again. I think you camp in a Quechua village, which would be very neat, but basic. Lots of love! Despite loving where I am, I keep thinking about how great it will be to see everyone at christmas time. Hugs!

more pictures!!!

The self portait. Our horseback riding group. Though not my favorite mode of transportation, we took these beasts up to the cierra negra volcano crater.
Yes, believe it or not, I can ride a horse. The crappy painters mask it to prevent inhalation of mad amounts of dust.
The interior of Isabella Island, its a lot of lava and cacti. The black is the distance is a fresh lava flow (2005 I think)
The boat from Isabella back to the main island of Santa Cruz leaves at an early 6:00am, but we got to see a nice sunrise over the harbour. Off in the distance to the right is the crater of a mostly submerged volcano.

pictures!!!

Dolphins followed beside our boat for a good 10 minutes! When they were jumping they were almost close enough to touch from the bow.
A giant tortise mowing down at the Darwin Research station.
Dawn a little shaken after a bumpy horse ride. In the background is mist spilling over into the cierra negra crater. The latest erruption of this volcano was just two years ago!
Sunset on the beach in front of our hotel on Isabella Island.
The view from our balcony on Isabella. Not bad eh?

Isla Isabella

So we have just returned to Puerto Ayora in the Galapagos from our little getaway in Isabella. Though short it was a great trip. We rode horses up to a volcano crater (second largest in the world), did a little snorkelling and had a great play with a pair of curious sea lions, visited with a huge colony of sharks (though we weren´t in the water at the time), and went for a nice easy hike to some remote beaches, lagoons, and lava caves. Gotta say that I am madly in love with lava caves, it's just so unreal to imagine vast quantities of lava flowing through. Our hotel on Isabella was pretty fantastic; a wood cabin(ish thing because nothing in ecuador is quite as you expect it) looking right out onto the beach. I have to say that nothing beats the beaches in the Galapagos Islands... I previously thought such places only existed in beer commercials. This is truly the most beautiful place I've ever been, though I have many more places to go in life.

The current plan (for the inqusitive parent) is to have a lazy day today and look for a good day trip for tomorrow or wednesday. This will probably be at least $80, which is a bit expensive, but we've got 3 days to fill before we fly back to Guayaquil on thursday. We've also got a hike we'll do in one of those days. I think we'll spend a day in Guayaquil, leaving either on the 26th at night or the 27th on a bus to Banos. This place has thermal baths, good access to the jungle, and a fun downhill bikeride. So at some point within the next week we'll be incommunicado for a few days while we do a jungle trip. Afterwards we'll spend a day in Riobamba and a day in Cuenca... then it's out of Ecuador finally! For such a small country there sure is a hell of a lot to do. We've decided against travelling by boat into Peru because a) we don't have time and b) we haven't talked to anyone else that's even attempted this. So we will head down the coast of Peru, hopefully quickly as we want to spend at least a month in southern Peru with perhaps a few days in La Paz, Bolivia. We were also thinking about booking a flight from La Paz to Lima as it's not too ridiculously expensive and would give us an extra few days (and save us from a long a torturous bus ride).

So that's the update. Lots of love, miss you all!

ps-mom, I'm thinking that applications will occur either in Cuenca, Ecuador around the 10th (more or less, I don't really know dates) or in Cuzco towards the end of the month. I'll be in touch then, in any case. Ah! Scary! I have to think about real life again! Love you lots.

Alright, so some more about the Galapagos then...

We then travelled for about 5 hours and went snorkelling at another island, which was surrounded by marine turtles... the giant variety... and we totally swam with them! There was also a shark and many large rays including a sting ray and an eagle ray. The next day took us to another island where we saw more sea lions... there's just sea lions everywhere, perhaps we'll just say they're a given... and then we snorkelled off the beach. It was pretty cool snorkelling with lots of white tipped sharks and some rays, as well as a few more big turtles. I should note that the fish are absolutely amazing as well, such a huge quantity and variety with amazing colours, however I don't know any of their names. We then went around Espanola island and saw many different iguanas on the other side, as well as lava lizards which are really cool little guys. This was also the home of the albatros, blue footed boobies, nazca boobies, galapagos hawks, and a good variety of mockingbirds.

The next day we took off to Floreana island to see the mailbox re. below. We then did some awesome snorkelling with just mad amounts of fish, it was pretty unreal. Also more sharks, turtles, etc. I was doing a little mental summary and in this trip we have had a tarantuala in our bed room, a scorpion on our dinner table, a boa constrictor at the farm we stayed at, and now we've swum with sharks and sting rays. Pretty wild.

Well we have to head back to the ship now for dinner, so I must say goodbye. Tomorrow we're headed to Isabella island and we'll stay in a hotel for a couple nights... showers! real matresses! no seasickness! I'm stoked. This is supposed to be a cool place for snorkelling, checking out volcanoes, and penguins! Whoo! So it should continue to be thrilling. Lots of love to everyone!

mas y mas y mas

Albatros
hehe marine Iguana. I don't think I put in a picture of the land iguanas, but they're slightly bigger and a sandy colour.

Yep, there's even pink flamingoes here. They get their colour from eating brine shrimp, just like blue footed boobies get their colour from sardines and marine iguanas get their red colour from algae.

There's a post box here, tradition being that you look through the mail and see if anyone has left one to be sent to somewhere near your home. Likewise you leave yours behind and hope someone else sorts out the mailing part. I've got one that will head home with sister's birthday package to Canada... hopefully the family will post it for me.

It's hard to choose a few! We also saw lots of boobies and frigate birds but you've already got pics of those from earlier in the trip.

Galapagos pics

GALAPAGOS

Hola amigos!

Well, my oh my, what a vast adventure we have had here. I will start by saying that we got a great deal but I deeply believe that no matter how much you spend here, you got your moneys worth. We're just on a short excursion in the town before returning to the boat so I don't have time to upload many pictures just now. I'll try to add a few of the best ones, though I'm not certain how I'll choose.

OK, we flew into Puerto Ayora, the main city on the second largest island in the archipelago... there are many islands in the Galapagos. We thought we would stay the night on shore and sort out a tour the next day but one tour promoter was excellent at slowly lowering the price and adding little things gratis that we ended up on a ship that evening. On the way we were given a tour of the land turtle farm... litterally, it's a conservation farm for land turtles. These are the really big guys, living up to 200 years. There was also a lava tunnel on the farm which was really neat, a great big circular cave that had been made out of lava, which is a creepily cool thought when you're walking through it.

Our ship is the smallest one I've seen. It's a 50 ft sail boat, taking only 8 passengers. This is fantastic as we are all young and willing to loose comfort for experience. We were always the first group onto the islands, giving it a little bit of that explorer feeling. The first island we visited was small... and fully PACKED with sea lions. Literally hundreds and you just hang out with them, watch their behaviour, and try not to challenge the bulls. There were also some colonies of marine iguanas and sally lightfoot crabs.

OK I'm going to add some pictures now and then I'll report more. I don't like to potentially loose text during picture addition.

random post

Hola all

Well I don´t really have too much in the way of new pictures, we just happened to find really quick internet and I´ve decided to make a quick post because it´s so easy here.

Agua Blanca outside of Puerto Lopèz was rather cool, we saw some pre-Incan runes and swam in this Volcano-water lake that reeked of hydrogen sulfide (but I think at the levels at which you can smell it it´s not too dangerous). It was a strange place though, it was 5 miles off the highway but the road was treacherous and looked like it wasn´t really headed anywhere cool. Then suddenly a tourist town appeared, though it wasn´t so wealthy that the livestock were restrained or a menu could be found. It was just a very odd place, it´s difficult to describe, but I did enjoy scouting out the ruins. These were essentially rock foundations of the longhouses that the civilization before the Incans used. There were also some tombs, which are big clay pots like you might plant geraniums in but they have skeletons in the fetal position with their most prized possessions (aka fancy conch shells and gold. They believed these 2 things to be equally valuable which the Spanish found extremely confusing when they arrived). It was also nice to bike there... it always feels good to get around without relying upon a motor.

So we´ve made our way to Montañita which is another costal town. This one is big with surfers and therefore is stuffed full of parties and gringos. It´s a cool place and we´ve met some very interesting europeans of the Irish variety. In any case, I don´t have much else to say other than we´re safe here and will probably stay here for the weekend.

Lots of love to all!

pictures of boobies!

Really cool turtle at Isla de la Plata, there was a whole swarm of them
Frigate birds, the poofy-chested red ones are guys showing off. The females have pink feet and the youngins have heads that look like snow balls.
A blue-footed boobie in the midst of a mating dance. They´re so ridiculous and akward, I love them, they literally walk as though they´re wearing scuba diving flippers when they´re doing their mating dance.
I think this is a great pic of the Nazca Boobies, which are also hilarious to watch.

I should note that the normal beach birds in Puerto Lopez are Pelicans and Turkey Vultures which are like Seagulls and Crows respectively but way way way bigger. It´s fun to watch the fishermen run their catch from the boat to the truck with like 30 or 40 of these gigantic birds diving at them... dangeous job!
Me! At a beach called Tortugita on the path to Frailles los Playes. There were really cool crabs here that could really leap from rock to rock.

Boobies!

As all the boys say when they see the birds for the first time... hehe I´m sure the tour guide is only laughing out of politeness. So guess what... CLAY WON A HUGE SCHOLARSHIP! WHOO! It´s very exciting, he had just written it off as the results we expected mid september, but we just found out like half an hour ago! Yay clay, you rock.

So we travelled from Bahia south to here, Puerto Lopez, on monday. It was actually a decent bus ride, a great way to see the countryside. We came in late and got the first place the lonely planet guide book recommended... yeah, they had a retarded rooster over our room that felt the need to crow all the through the night. It´s was totally hilarious, a sleep-deprived clayton went upstairs at like 4am to try to kill the rooster, I´m not kidding, he broke a chair and everything, it was really really funny because it was rather out of character... the boy likes his sleep damn it. So we played a very early morning round of card games and walked down the street. A man on a bike asked us if we were looking for a room and if so he owned a hotel... normally we say thank you, what´s the name, maybe we´ll check it out later. But my only question was ´¿Tiene pollos?´which means ´do you have chickens?´. He was very confused and was like, ´for food?´and I said no no, not for food, live chickens and started some wing flapping movements. As soon as we determined that there were no chickens we were in and have had a great time there since. It´s not social like a hostel but the owner set up a trip to Isla de la Plata (aka the poor man´s Galapagos) and took us out to another part of the national park here, so it´s worked out quite well.

So our Isla de la Plata trip was awesome, though we didn´t see any whales as we´re just at the tail end of the humpback mating season. Some people are still catching them, but it´s spotty. For $30 we got a boat trip out to the island (about 20 miles one way), a 4-hour guided tour in english on the island, lunch, and snorkelling. Decent value, really. The main features of the island were frigate birds, blue-footed boobies, and nasca boobies. And the snorkelling was everything you expect tropical snorkelling to be... there were some really funky fishies down there, shaped all different and of course in very vibrant colours. We had a really great time and found some AWESOME food when we got back... I don´t care how set against veggies Ecuadorians are, they´re cheap, they´re good for you, and they´re especially delicious when fresh. We had a fantastic stir fry which I wouldn´t doubt most Ecuadorians go their whole lives without trying. So we´re not really getting accustomed to the food in that we don´t like eating rice and fried food for 3 meals a day, but it´s nice in that the veggy dish is always the cheapest.

We have a 5 day pass (2 days down) to the national park that puerto lopez is surrounded by. Today we went out to a place called Frailles Los Playas which is a beautiful, pristine beach. Our taxi driver (and hotel owner) drove us out around noon and dropped us off at the top of an optional trail you could take to a few different beaches. He also picked us up from the end of the trail at 4 (all for $8! Probably 20K one way). The trail was great, we went to a few gorgeous beaches which we all very different (I´ll add some pics). It was nice just to go for a bit of a hike without being in a big group, and to see the landscape which was somewhat desert-like. We saw a huge iguana! It was probably a meter long... very cool.

Tomorrow we´ve decided to rent bikes and take smalled packs out to another part of the park called Agua Blanca where you´re allowed to camp. It should be good times, we´re both itching to get on bikes (yes yes, I´m a convert, I know, he´s very proud of that fact). The road is pretty bare car-wise and relatively flat, which will be good for our very well-rested muscles!
So that´s the scoop my dear friends, lots and lots of love from afar and all the best in whatever endeavor is currently on your plate. We miss you and every day I think about how nice it will be to visit in the winter, even though I´m enjoying my time here. Hugs!

Boobies!

As all the boys say when they see the birds for the first time... hehe I´m sure the tour guide is only laughing out of politeness. So guess what... CLAY WON A HUGE SCHOLARSHIP! WHOO! It´s very exciting, he had just written it off as the results we expected mid september, but we just found out like half an hour ago! Yay clay, you rock.

So we travelled from Bahia south to here, Puerto Lopez, on monday. It was actually a decent bus ride, a great way to see the countryside. We came in late and got the first place the lonely planet guide book recommended... yeah, they had a retarded rooster over our room that felt the need to crow all the through the night. It´s was totally hilarious, a sleep-deprived clayton went upstairs at like 4am to try to kill the rooster, I´m not kidding, he broke a chair and everything, it was really really funny because it was rather out of character... the boy likes his sleep damn it. So we played a very early morning round of card games and walked down the street. A man on a bike asked us if we were looking for a room and if so he owned a hotel... normally we say thank you, what´s the name, maybe we´ll check it out later. But my only question was ´¿Tiene pollos?´which means ´do you have chickens?´. He was very confused and was like, ´for food?´and I said no no, not for food, live chickens and started some wing flapping movements. As soon as we determined that there were no chickens we were in and have had a great time there since. It´s not social like a hostel but the owner set up a trip to Isla de la Plata (aka the poor man´s Galapagos) and took us out to another part of the national park here, so it´s worked out quite well.

So our Isla de la Plata trip was awesome, though we didn´t see any whales as we´re just at the tail end of the humpback mating season. Some people are still catching them, but it´s spotty. For $30 we got a boat trip out to the island (about 20 miles one way), a 4-hour guided tour in english on the island, lunch, and snorkelling. Decent value, really. The main features of the island were frigate birds, blue-footed boobies, and nasca boobies. And the snorkelling was everything you expect tropical snorkelling to be... there were some really funky fishies down there, shaped all different and of course in very vibrant colours. We had a really great time and found some AWESOME food when we got back... I don´t care how set against veggies Ecuadorians are, they´re cheap, they´re good for you, and they´re especially delicious when fresh. We had a fantastic stir fry which I wouldn´t doubt most Ecuadorians go their whole lives without trying. So we´re not really getting accustomed to the food in that we don´t like eating rice and fried food for 3 meals a day, but it´s nice in that the veggy dish is always the cheapest.

We have a 5 day pass (2 days down) to the national park that puerto lopez is surrounded by. Today we went out to a place called Frailles Los Playas which is a beautiful, pristine beach. Our taxi driver (and hotel owner) drove us out around noon and dropped us off at the top of an optional trail you could take to a few different beaches. He also picked us up from the end of the trail at 4 (all for $8! Probably 20K one way). The trail was great, we went to a few gorgeous beaches which we all very different (I´ll add some pics). It was nice just to go for a bit of a hike without being in a big group, and to see the landscape which was somewhat desert-like. We saw a huge iguana! It was probably a meter long... very cool.

Tomorrow we´ve decided to rent bikes and take smalled packs out to another part of the park called Agua Blanca where you´re allowed to camp. It should be good times, we´re both itching to get on bikes (yes yes, I´m a convert, I know, he´s very proud of that fact). The road is pretty bare car-wise and relatively flat, which will be good for our very well-rested muscles!

So that´s the scoop my dear friends, lots and lots of love from afar and all the best in whatever endeavor is currently on your plate. We miss you and every day I think about how nice it will be to visit in the winter, even though I´m enjoying my time here. Hugs!

a few more, then I´m out into the sun!

Looking down the beach from the place we stayed at in Canoa. There were some really cool birds at the mouths of the rivers.

Looking out to the sunset in Canoa from our dinner table. Pretty awesome

Pictures

This is Bahia, on the day we arrived.
The hammock on the patio that sits over the river. This is a particularly comfy one, it gives a good hug.
Clay wrapping up his bag lunch, which is really in a banana leaf that has been heated to make it bendy, then tied up with string pulled from the bark on the trunk of the tree. The woman is the fantastic (I think) chef at Rio muchacho, who´s family we´ve been visiting.
The school coming of age cerimony. Note that dogs are everywhere and no one pays them any attention, though this one tried hard to be ridiculous.
This is my friend Eliot. We were playing whales, because he loves them. The big leaves are whales in special oceans we made, and the little leaves are sea lions for the whales to eat. Eliot grew up (to age 3) in Kenya with his parents who are from the UK, and they´ve spent over a year travelling around south america now. Fantastic kid, great imagination, I had lots of fun.

Political adventures in ecuador

Hola mis amigos!

We have returned to Bahia for a couple days to get our laundry done, take out some cash, and visit a few ecuadorian acquaintances. The end of our days in Canoa were incredibly uneventful, which was fantastic. We lied about and read our books in hammocks, swam in the warm southern pacific every day, tried our hand at surfing when we felt full of energy (because those waves require some fighting!) and ate and ate and ate. It was awesome, for those of you that know me, eating is high on my list of the best delights in life. Oh, oh my, all the HELADO (ice cream), it´s just so cheap and fantastic, I´m gaining a few dairy pounds, but esta la vida, and what a great vida it is on the beach. We did meet a couple interesting guys on the beach, ecuadorians, one who also lived in the US and spoke english. Had some discussions concerning drugs, relegion, business, etc in ecuador... we´re starting to realize how far we really are from home... there are some huge differences here, but I think such things will be for late night discussions back in Canada.

Last night warrents some discussion, though. We had come back into Bahia in the morning and managed to organize a meeting time and place for dinner with an ecuadorian family we had met in Rio Muchacha (on the phone none the less! This is much much harder than in person, where charades helps everything. I think we entertain some people with our communication shenanigans). They invited us to their house, which was very nice, and told us about how they hated the food in Rio muchacho because there were too many vegetables. Rio muchacho had our favorite food thus far. Ecuadorianos eat starches and meat, and that´s about it really, it´s no wonder that the majority are overweight. It´s kind of sad considering their climate is perfect for vegitables, making them very cheap, but it´s not part of their palate. ANYWAYS (I´m rambling) we brought a cake we had bought at a pastelleria and everyone seemed happy. The mother even wanted to wash our clothes (to make money, but the convenience is great). They had an election yesterday and drinking alcohol was illegal for the weekend. This was quite strongly enforced (the store had to take all it´s liquor off the shelves, you couldn´t even buy bottles of wine). So by last night many people were itching for a beer and the government supported big parties around the country. We went with the family to do some latin american dancing. It was surreal, quite different than anything I could have anticipated. Unlike in the club, drinking was way WAY more important than dancing and most people stood around the central square looking nervous like at a middle school dance. The drunkest guys were given the flags of the winning party to wave about. When we arrived at 9 or 10 there was a guy passed out in the middle of everything right on the street. Only transvestites were dancing, and they were not G rated. Then they had a popular local band play and things got going a bit more. There was also a dance off where they found a girl who wasn´t ecuadorian (she was 15 years old) and made her face off on stage against an ecuadorian girl. There was a lucky guy on stage as well; clay thinks that he was a winning local rep, but I don´t know for sure. Anyways, this dancing was really really not G rated, and there were small kids there, a government-funded affaire... totally surreal. We left at about midnight because a) the family seemed to be concerning themselves about staying with us which suggested potential for sketchiness, b) we were getting quite outdanced (dancing got going after the dance-off) and c) it´s generally a good idea for gringos to head out before everyone gets too hosed. Good, crazy times though!

So that´s a little insight into ecuadorian politics. It pushes our usual limits of open-mindedness. Lots of love to everyone at home. We miss all of our friends and family very much and wish that we could share all of these experiences with you... hehe oh how people would stare at a big pack of whities! We would be the talk of ecuador. We wish all of you the very best in everything you´re doing and really look forward to seeing you at christmas.

Mom- yep, that´s the alpaca sweater! I love it. Not scratchy either, it´s a good material.
Nanc- We get back on Dec 23rd... it would be so incredible to see you, how I miss my nancy time, it´s been so long and there´s so much to chat about. Lots of love (I think we´re closer to you in distance now, though, than we are to BC... whatever that means, haha)
Sister- you rock. Huge hugs to you, my lovely friend and sis.