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.