Okay, so here are some pictures finally! Taken with the lovely Hannah Goldberg´s Camera (since my lovely camera decided to crap out yesterday right before we went diving with sharks. yeah, i dont want to talk about it, im not a happy camper!) but anyways, this morning we had a free day so Megan, Hannah, Ginny, Tim, and I went to la lobaría--a place to see black marine iguanas, sea lions, and sea turtles. It was amazing. In these first three pictures there are tons black iguanas in the background. the last one is just a cute picture from machallia that i found on the camera and wanted to post.

Feels Like Home.... almost.

So today we drove on a real blacktop paved road! It had painted lines and everything!! It made me a little homesick.

The driving here is the funniest thing. Our bus driver, Juanito, is amazing. Our bus (Tricia and I named it Azul) has gone through the most ridiculous places thanks to the skills of Juanito. It has trekked to the jungle, through giant puddles, over rickety bridges, and through the tiny cobblestone streets of Baños, Montañita, Quito, and the five million other places we've been. As as testimonial to how amazing Juanito is, here is his best moment thus far: We were late for an activity and the bus was trying to navigate a narrow road. There was this little car parked directly in the way. After an attempt to get around it (foiled by the edge of a roof we were close to hitting). Juanito got out, opened the door of the car, hot wired it, and moved it out of our way. Needless to say, we made it on time--and Juanito became the God of all motor vehicles.

So not we are in Quito! We know the streets, the restaurants, and the good internet cafes (hence this post). It almost feels like home! Well, except for the fact that we are back to cold showers with tubs that don't drain.

Yesterday we were at Cotopaxi and we actually got to climb the glacier as high as our guide would let us go. The view was incredible. It was freezing cold and it started to storm so we had to turn around go back to the lodge, but it was okay because we were all dying--the trek to the lodge was about an hour, straight uphill, at 4800m--and that was just to the lodge. But anyways it was amazing.

Today, we went mountain biking and rock climbing. It was a lot of fun, and a nice rest from the extreme sports we have been doing (puenting, glacier hiking, ect.). So anyways, everyone is going to dinner and they are waiting for me to finish up here sooooo ¡!ciao!¡

JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP!

So I don´t even know where to begin. I don´t even know where I left off.

We left Montañita and came to Baños where we had the most amazing shower. We voted the Hostel the best shower in Ecuador. We spent the night in El Marques Posada, and then left early in the morning for our tour of the jungle. On the way there, we mountain biked over 30 kilometers (about 11 miles) along the Avenue of the Waterfalls. Not only was the view incredible, but we would pass random waterfalls that just flowed through the road! There were no baracades or fences--just natural flowing water alongside of a ¨highway.¨

After the bike ride, we went white water rafting down the Río Blanco(I think?). The boys were all in a team and of course, they flipped their raft twice completely, and each one of them fell out an additional 5 times. They took it like champs though. It was insane white water rafting there because on one side you had insane mountain elevations, and on the other there were these amazing planes where my guide told me the Incas were known to have lived (I´m pretty sure thats what he said--it was in spanish).

If that weren´t enough to tire us out, our guide said we had some extra time. He told us that we could go to a monkey reservation. We were all ready to pass out at that point but who says NO to a monkey reservation in Ecuador? The reservation was nothing like we expected. We walked into this fenced in area (it was pretty big) and adorable tree monkeys started climbing all over us. No joke, we literally held them like babies in our arms. They would swing above us and then land on our heads, and climb from person to person. It was probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen. This cute little anteater was chillen there too so we got to pet an anteater! Who does that?¿!¡

After that we were completely ready for bed. In our wooden huts. In the middle of the jungle. There was very little running water there and only electricity in the kitchen so everything was by candlelight or flashlight. The bathrooms were also outhouses. Cleaner than I excpected though (but I mean I didnt have high expectations)! So then we woke up and we went for a 5 hour jungle hike (Meg Greg and I chose the long/hard hike). We literally treked through the jungle going uphill, downhill, over trees adn plants and under them, once in awhile stopping for lessons on the medicinal and edible plants that we passed. There were tons of different guides and I´m 100% confident we had the coolest. For one thing, he takes this leaf and it has two little sacs that he tells us taste like lemons when we suck the juice out. We all try it and he makes sure we tasted the lemon (offering more if we didnt). Then, he opens up one of the little sacs. I swear like 20 ants crawled out of it. HE MADE US EAT ANTS!

We were all glad he tricked us. The other groups all had to lick ants off their own hands. I liked not knowing. After that we did a ton of other things-- including taking something for a stuffynose that hurt realy bad but cleared all of our sinuses! At the end of the hike was this huge hidden waterfall that we had to swim through an alcove to get to. We jumped of a tree towards it and dove through it. Then we took another hour hike home where we scafed down the ecuadorian tacos they made us!

So then we went to this artisan shop (where I dropped 20 bucks on presents-- which is like buying 98 waterbottles here because everything is so cheap). Then we canoed to the next jungle huts we would be in.

I´m going to skip a lot and just go to the cool part here. WE JUMPED OFF A BRIDGE!

We went puenting off of a 100ft drop. Greg went first. We all screamed for him (he screamed too haha). Meg greg and I went backwards. Probably the weirdest feeling ever. We all felt funny because usually you are talking someone down from jumping off a bridge, whereas we were screaming for everyone to go. pushing yourself away from solid ground into nothing, and plummeting down towards trees and a rapidly flowing river is the weirdest thing I have ever done. I almost wouldnt believe it if I hadnt gotten it on tape. It was insane.

Apparently jumping off a bridge isnt cool enough for one day, so we had to go waterfall repelling too! BEAUTIFUL and an amazing feeling. We went for about 4 hours yesterday and I could do it for 8 more today. I cant even describe how cool it was to lower yourself through a waterfall with water pounding against you. We went over 4 waterfalls repelling, ziplined down one and slid down 3 more.

Today we are resting at a spa day with isv. An additional 25 dollars for a 60min stone massage with all the extras.... I love Ecuador.

Best Bruises Ever

So Megan and Greg are sleeping and everyone who was awake just left for morning surfing lessons. I'm regretting the coffee now.

Yesterday we went whale watching and snorkling. Megan and I got to go on the top of the boat, and we took some pretty cool pictures. (Well, as many as we could seeing as how megan was getting soaked with water and my camera died.) It was different than the whale monotoring because we were farther away, but the whales were soooooo active! I have no idea why, but they were jumping everywhere!

After that we went snorkling. The water was kind of choppy and slightly cold, but it was fun anyways. We saw some really cool fish and some blue starfish--who knew?

Meg and I had a nice two hour nap when we got home (and accidently locked our roommates out because we had the key--oops). Then, we dropped laundry off to be done and walked around town. We all settled on this nice sushi/anything restaurant, and it was delish! The most interesting people worked there and we had a good time getting to know them.

Today we are going for our second surfing lessons around noon! So Excited! We all still have our massive bruises, (I found two more yesterday. ouch!) but its way too fun to pass up!

¡Surfs up!

I´m getting a lot better with this spanish keyboard!¡!¡ :) I guess it probably has to do with the fact that these keys are actually intact and the symbols make sense instead of little fading stickers trying to change the function of the keys. but anyways...

So we are now on our adventure tour! After two weeks of work with cilantro filled food and cold drips, supposedly called showers, we have earned our nice stay at a hotel. It's extremely pretty here! We are right on the beach, and from our room we can see the surfers showing off their moves!

Yesterday, four hours after we arrived, we had surfing lessons! They were a lot of fun and meg, greg, and I were all able to get up on our boards. The waves were rough and today we all compared bruises and aches (I have a lovely black and blue blob on my side, thanks surfboard!). Still, we decided to rent boards for the day, and we went on our own! (Well, not really. The surfboard maker/instructor/owner/artist/chef?! actually watched us from the beach to make sure we didnt kill ourselves--so sweet!)


We hung out in the town as well. Yesterday, we went to this cute discotech for some salsa! They had a random pool there too? Idk. But everyone ended up getting thrown into the pool at some point during the night! We went back to the discotech this morning and had breakfast (yeah it's a restaurant too?) after that we went impulse shopping! I got a pearl bracelet for 5 dollars! Real pearls too, I checked! We also found this adorable boutique where this woman handmade all the clothes, purses, shoes, ect. Megan and Lisa both talked with the artist and put in orders for these fun unique bags to be made. For handmade designs, the prices were really good too!

Tomorrow we are going whale watching and snorkeling in Puerto Lopez (one of our hangout spots when we were in Machallia) so we are going to have an early night tonight! Ciao!

Hammock Man

Hammocking is a way of life here, and i am converting to it. Megan already bought a hammock and i am so in the market for one.

We have this guy that lives on ours at casamama's house. he is there all day and then sleeps somewhere else at night. we have no idea who he is. sometimes they feed the hammock man, and sometimes we see him on other hammocks (meaning he must be a hammock hopper). one morning he came in while we were having breakfast, put a dead seahorse on the top of the fridge, and then walked out of the house. he is the anigma of our household. we plan to get a picture of him in his natural habitat... on our hammock.

Ecuadorian treatment for Maldeojo (Greg is sick)

Okay so its way hard to get over here to update the blog. but ill try to put in the interesting things that have happened.


Last week greg was really sick after he played soccer. We all thought he was tired then he started really being sick. Meg and i went over to the house to see him and as we came in, the family in gregs house wanted to know what was goign on. they saw how sick he was and they left his room. we thought they were giving us privacy.... yeah, no. five seconds later gregs family comes back and our house family is with them and talk to daniel (we are all outside of gregs room) megan and i are dying laughing because literally everything we do they come over and watch like its some big production. Daniel, who can barely keep a straight face himself without meg and i craking up, sends us into the bedroom while he tries to get them away. Good try daniel. five seconds later we hear daniel telling them ´'absolutely not' he wont let them do 'that' and that 'its not going to happen.'

(these people dont ever take no as an answer)

so then the door opened and an old man came in and ordered greg to take off his shirt. meg and i were literally rolling on the floor at this point as was daniel. the old man then proceeds to give greg a rub down with an egg. a whole egg. not hard boiled or anything. i swear to god i almost died laughing and i really really wish i had a camera because it was sooooo funny. after greg got the rub down he was sent to bed and everyone left. you would think thats the end. but no, they come back with the whole egg cracked in a glass. at this point daniel is freaking out and starts telling them that he is completely serious and he will not be allowing greg to drink that. they all laugh and say no no no its not a drink, we wanted to show you the evil spirits!

reasoning for the egg: greg's illness was maldeojo (the evil eye). he got this from everyone laughing at him on the soccer field earlier that day when he and daniel had played (which they really had been laughing at him hahahahha). the egg was rubbed on his body to draw out the evil spirits that were making greg sick. when they cracked the egg in the glass they explained that the white part (which was weirdly floating) was the evil spirits in greg.

megan and i cried we were laughing so hard. even daniel couldnt stop laughing. they werent offended by this thank god, instead they were glad that it entertained us.


greg threw up one more time and started feelig better. HE IS COMPLETELY HEALED NOW :)

moral: grigos (tourists) should not play soccer because they will get evil looks making them sick hahahah

June 15 1:07pm

Apparently in ecuador ´to plan a lesson for english class´ means to move huge things of heavy rocks for an hour. yeah. that was our morning. i mean its one thing if we expect it, have work clothes on and sneakers. we were dressed up! (well as much as possible for ecuador) but yeah after that we were thrown to the wolves where the kids were all screaming and the teachers were yelling at them for yelling and it was a mess. after pretending to teach for 15 minutes they had dance lessons? haha it was really cool to watch but really random. there was this guy in a huge dress in the front dancing and showing them what to do while the little kids tried their best to follow. then suddenly it was back to english lessons! we had quickly made a game of bingo and so they were all excited to play-- even though they all totally cheated haha. but after that we had lunch.... megan and i no longer eat but pick at the rice, and pretend to eat the soup. after we got back to the room we shoved a cliff bar (the reason we are still alive) into our mouths and got on a bus to puerto lopez. after we had a discussion and briefing with daniel, we had a pineapple smoothie there and a grilled cheese (slightly more appealing than lunch but still not that good because its made with goat cheese). now we are biding our time before dinner... yay. < 3

Holes

We are on the set of the movie holes. i swear. there are lizards and everything! we totally dug holes all day while the ecuadorians watched and laughed at us. we had to use pic axes too because the ground was so hard. after lunch, we split into groups (mine and megs was still digging holes) and so we tried to use the pic axes. again the ecuadorians laughed at us for awhile until one of them seemed to feel bad enough for us and grabbed it. i swear he used it for like ten straight minutes and did about 10x the work of all of us together. then he let us dig it out and another ecuadorian came and pic axed for awhile. they always let us try while they made fun of us, but in the end, they would help us haha. honestly it needed to be a meter deep.... im pretty sure we wouldnt have gotten past a foot without them!

June 13th 2:30pm

So after my fiasco, meg had a lovely time with our host mother abou the phone. i knew it would be a problem, but i figured id let her just go for it. anyways meg basically was paraded around town with daniel, nothing was accomplished, and, as usual, the whole town watched. from now on we are using the cell phone.... or finding some sort of internet cafe in this town.
So anyways we went snorkling and kayaking! the waves were really huge and we were kayaking to an island so we had to get out really fast while the waves were lower. greg, carrie, and i made it out just fine and beasted with our awesome kayaking skills. poor megan though got stuck on the beach for like ever. so eventually we all made it out and had a lovely time snorkeling and taking pictures underwater! we ate ceviche that ceasar made for us and then went back home. unfortunately the waves were just as big and as greg and i were kayaking in we got hit by a giant wave and got knocked upsidedown! it was awesome! after lunch, we went to a national park 'agua blanca' this natural sulfur spring that we thought would be hot but was really cold. (i dont think daniel listens to us very well because he def told us it was hot) but we had a good time anyways and we soaked up all the aroma and mud of the sulfur spring. yummmm :P

OMG LETS ALL STARE!

June 13th 7:37am

I had to go to the bathroom. I went downstairs to the bathroom and two little girs said hi. I was literally like 2 minutes and i came out. oh hey entire town!!! Honestly daisy, her sister, the two girls, luigi, and like 10 other people i had never seen before were standing outside the bathroom just waiting for me to be donw so they could watch daisy ask me about breakfast (which meg and ginny were still sleeping). so i Mind you, im still asleep and cant think of the simple words to say that no one else is awake so i just start babling aout sleeping and how meg and ginny arnt here to the entire town in my livingroom while they all just stared at me... in my pjs. still half inside the bathroom. yeah. awesome.

June 12th 11:03pm

today was fun we went swimming kayiking , and fishing! we made our own poles too! branch, string, hook, and sinker. Then ceasar pulled us on akyaks with the boat. alex (with the help of greg, her kayaker) totally caught this huge puffer fish! it was soooo cool. after hanging out for a bit, we went to puerto lopez for a whale research introduction, and we took the local bus. this creepy guy was sitting next to meg and kept asking her where we were staying. thank god she had the sense enough not to tell him (not that either of us know the name of the street or address anyways). but yeah eventually we both pretended not to speak spanish because he was getting annoying and the guy in fron of him was cracking up because he spoke engligh and totally understood what we were up to haha. so anyways we went to this cute little beach bar and we all got these weird smoothies. actually no, greg and i got the fruit smoothie that we didnt understand and everyone else got like strawberry and normal things. Turns our greg and i got avacado smoothie! idk if i could drink one everyday, but it was interesting to try and tasted kind of like gingerbread and cinnamon. anyways not we are back hanging out by the beach and talking and playing cards. we are so cute :)

June 12th 6:42am

Oh hey culture shock! i was wondering where you went off to! this morning we were woken up by like a million roosters. no im not kidding. if webster is a suburb of rochester, we have gone into the depths of wayne county. the ride here was an adventure itself. we passed so many people just sitting next to the side of the road, chillen, trying to sell stuff. Plus there are so many animals (literally, a chicken just ran upstairs at gregs house with the mom running after it) on our way here we played the 'see how many animals you can spot' game. it got too crazy to count. sheep, pigs, goats, donkeys, roosters, everything just runs around wild. Anyways, we got here and had some coke and a goat cheese and jelly sandwhich (i will never take peanut butter for granted again.) It honestly tasted like a goat smells. Everyone ate the whole thing. EW. But yeah besides the gross cheese this town is really cute... in a 'idk if its creepy or adorable' kind of way. Its a super safe little community where the kids all play on the street, the parents all chill on the poarch, and everyone watches out for everyone else. Last night, they even set up a projector for us to watch this lovely spanish movie that we couldnt really understand that well but it was a nice gesture. After we hung out for awhile, we went to bed with our lovely mosquito nets. In the morning we were awoken by the lovely sound of the pavers outside and the roosters screaming in our ears. Meg came back from taking a shower and goes 'julia, i think there is more water coming out of the faucet then the shower head.' yeah. she wasnt kidding. Anyways, today we are going fishing, im excited to be on the boats. Oh yeah, we can see smell and hear the ocean from our bedroom. its literally a street away. beautiful : )

Part 2--- sorry its not that interesting im just trying to catch stuff up

okay, so we made a ton of good food and we had a cute is\ecole family dinner, and then meg and i went home. we had dinner and then decided it would be nice of us to do the dishes for our host mom and the family! as we were doing the dishes thre was tons of commotion and they looked like they were packing stuff up.. so meg and i were like ummmm are we supposed to leave? oh no, dont worry, they got a babysitter for the cute little gringos staying in there house. so they went on vaca and we got a babysitter... at nineteen years old. yeah... she sat with me while i wrote postcards, watched tv while meg and i packed, told us to go to bed for a good nights rest, and then woke us up, fed us, and called us a taxi to school. what a nice lady. so then we went to school for like an hour and left for the airport to head over to guyaquil for our next adventure. let me just say... flights in ecuador are NOT like flights in america. we literally took off, went STRAIGHT up, had a ton of turbulance, went straight down, and landed. I have never gotten sick on a plan. our ENTIRE group was woozy. we recouperated while we waited for greg and our new friends flights to arrive. once everyone was there we split into our groups and went our separate ways. Can you say 4 hour bus ride to manchallia? fun fun funnnn

down and dirty past few days

So yeah i forgot my journal at the house so this is going to be a down and dirty version of what meg and i have been up to... sooooo wednesday. yeah i guess im a little behind on my blogging. wednesday we went to spanish cláss in the morning and we had a ton of fun because our teacher played spanish question spin teh bottle haha and then that went into us teaching him teh ten finger game and it went perfectly with our lesson cuz we were learning the conditional. but anyways then we went home and had lunch with our family and we went to salsa lessons after who knew that in two lessons we could be partner dancing and spinning. anyways then we went to red hot chillie pe´ppers with everyone and it was delish i split a quesidilla with carra yummmmm. then thursday we woke up and had a really light breakfast and then went to spanish class. it was really short and because we went to this aweseom fruit market and tried 15 different kinds of g´fruit ´most of them were soooooo good. soem were gross but it was ok. we looked around the market for awhile and we found this one person selling love potion for a dollar hahah so naturally we all bought some its this really good smelling perfume. then we had cooking lessons back at schoolo and we made a ton of really good food. but yeah i will finsh this later because meg and i are late for dinner... oops

Un día mas interesante

Okay. So today megan and i were essentially running late for life. the alarm was set for six fifteen in the hopes of a warm shower... therefore we woke up at seven ten. just in time for me to take a luke warm shower (no complaints, it was bearable) and for us to have our seven thirty breakfast.... which occured at seven forty five... (jello, bananas with yogurt, bread, cafe de ecuador! aka instant coffee haha) then we needed to go to school and be there by eight. we just made it with enough time to grab water and tea at school and head to the classroom. today in my class we did the past tense which i have always sucked at and basically mi professor juan was like omg this girl is hopeless because i either asked him questions or pretended to understand and then got caught in the lie when i couldnt answer a follow up question. then we walked home for a quick lunch (green soup with some weird cream in it which was good, and she had us put popcorn in it. at first i was like uhhh okay, but it was actually really awesome. then we had this awesome fish-and i usually hate fish- and rice as usual) then we took a taxi back to school and went on a tour of the city. it was sooooo beautiful. we went to the basillica or however you spell it and we walked around the central square and visited la casa del presidente! aka the white house of ecuador. hay mas membros de la policia! (lots of police there) there were also those guards that stood like statues and you could take pictures with them and they couldnt laugh or make a face or anything lol therefore all of us gringos took tons of picturs. we also tried some home made candied nuts and hard taffy that this store on the street made (maiz? mais? maze)idk what it was called something like that (she is making it behind me). we also had some local bread that was delicious of course (megan is eating some in the picture :) ). what was funny was that everywhere we went people stared. i mean i cant blame them but they literally circled us like vultures about to feed on their prey. like seriously, we understand, we are gringos (tourists) but you dont need to pounce on us and eat us for dinner! anyways we carried our bags on our fronts as Julio the school director told us to, and we were fine. anyways then meg and i went to an internet cafe again and came home for dinner (left over soup, and then a pasta dish with broccoli) after we hung out with the kids for a bit we uploaded pics and now we are doing our homework... and studying.... because we suck at spanish.

megan estudia los numeros para su clase de español. she literally counted to one hundred. then she tried to do it again and i told her she was going to be sleeping outside con peluchin, the family´s dog.

June 7th... again... 9:42 pm

Today was the crappiest day of my life! Haha not really, but Pablito (or Andres as he likes to tell us his name is) literally laid on meg and i and pooped in his diaper! i think meg and i almost died right then and there laughing so hard. But anyways... today was the longest day of my life. literally i feel like i have been here for a week already. we woke up and had breakfast with isabel y pablo. it was really good, an interesting egg thing that looked like an omlett but flatt and all in the same layer. oh and it was nothing like an omlett in anyother way haha. then isabela made us this juice--fresh squeezed out of some huge froot that she compared to a guava but i swear it looked like a huge watermelon on teh outside and something white but watermelon textured on the inside. but it was AMAZING. then we all walked to school. isabela and pablo took us for the first day. she made us remember street names as we walked. so we got to isv(school) took a test for placement and went to class. i think i learned more spanish this year than i have my entire life. my teacher barely speaks english (oh ps no one in our house speaks a word of english) so basically we are 100 % forced to speak the language and use different words until we remember the word or they understand our explanation and expressive hand guestures. so after class we went home for lunch and had this amazing soup! idk what it was though but it was really good. we also had red cabbage in vineagear and something else and rice. there was also this weird meat that megan and i wouldnt touch... we feel bad about it now and have vowed to try everything put in front of us from now on. but honestly at the time i was extremely grossed out. then isabela took us to this gorgeous park on the top of a mountain with a glass building. the view was increadible it overlooked the entire city!

its amazing the mountains are completely covered in houses and churches. our mom pointed them out and told us little stories. then we played in the parks with the boys and found a little medicinal garden with some cool plands and one was used as an antiseptic. then we came across this huge sun dial that was apparently built to remember the indiginous people. there were tons of symbols and it was extremely beautiful. then we went back home and just ans we were leaving it started to rain. sooo then we had to go back to school for las clases de SALSA! but first we had to get there... on our own. and we were late. and it was raining. yeah. so we hailed a taxi and meg found the street intersection in one of our books. so the taxi takes us there and before he is actually at the stop meg and i think we found it! ummm no. we got out of the taxi and he drove away before we realized it. we are dumb. so yeah we tried our hardest to find our way but we really had no idea and so we were trying to hail another taxi, its raining and we are even more late than before. finally we see some guy getting out of a taxi which he had just hailed (first sign) so we were excited and we get in. then we tell the guy the intersection and he looks at us and is like yeah idk what that (second sign since the first guy knew that exactly) is so meg and i tell him its the ecole school of spanish (cuz we are stupid and desperate!). he thinks and slowly is like oooooh yeah ik where that is. then he starts going the opposite direction(third sign. meg noticed this and we were nervous) so then i look in the window and there is no taxi registration. final sign. I flippppppppped out and made him pull over immediatly! he pulled over and demanded a doller (mind you he only drove us 3 seconds and it costs 1.50 for like a ten minute ride) which megan was all too happy to hand over as our exit fee haha. but yeah. we were smarter about our taxis from then on and we are extremely lucky that happened and we got the heck out! so then we look around where we are. lost. we cant pull out a map because that screams IM A TARGET MUG ME! so yeah haha we just walked with a purpose and thank god our host mom made us remember those street names because thats literally the only way we found our way- we saw a street and got there safely. so we went to salsa lessons and it was really fun and we did soooo much haha. but after that we all went to an internet cafe and our for drinks and appetizers at a cute resturant. So then we got a legit taxi and had dinner at home and it was left over soup, weird but good marinated chicken and some cool potato tortillas... but they were thick and she said they had cheese in them. they didnt look like tortillas at all but they were really delicious! oh and she made us this warm banana milk that was soooooo good! so yeah then i turned the shower on... WARM! but i didnt want to take one at night so i was like oh it will be warm in the morning too! yeah. no. but it wasnt as bad this time.... but yeah im sick of blogging mayble ill do it again later..... but overall... amazing day!

June 7th-- 7:02 am (from my journal)

The biggest issure right now that megan and i are having is whether or not to brush our teeth. We both feel disgusting but we dont have any filtered water and we are nervous to use our water bottles with filters..... ahhhh i dont want to get sick!! well... we feel too gross... i think we are just going to have to take the plunge!!


(dont worry... we brushed our teeth... and we are fine... so far... : ) )

The Beginning-- June 6th

Oh Ecuador! Well this was an insane day. Today meg and I went all over airports, slpet on planes, met tons of people, and spoke more spanish than i have spoken over my 6 years of spanish classes combined.

So we get out of miami on the plane and instantly its like whoa, no more america. Everything is in spanish and i know i realize i know nothing. like at all. haha . which is really bad because meg knows less than me because she took german in school so that makes me translator... aka my bad spanish plus megs no spanish equal disaster!! Our host mom is really sweet though. she gave us tea and spoke iwth us for awhile. she is an extremely patient person. isabela y patricio are the parents and tehy have two kids pablo(3) and nicolay(7?). I had my first ecuadorian shower too..... can you say FRIO!? its was freeeeezing... i hope it gets better because otherwise im going to be smelly for this entire trip. too bad for megan :P although she might be too neither of us were shower fans. anyways 4 hours plane sleep, serious dehydration despite insane amounts of water, plus altitude sickness are making me go insane.


ps this is typed on an ecuadorian keyboard. just so you know.... because the keys are different and this takes forever to write and so there will be no frills. it takes me like an hour to find the at symbol and remember each time how to get it to sign into this thing hahah soooo yeah i prob wont be doing much more than small letters and periods haha lo siento!!