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ENTRIES FROM THIS CATEGORY
- The Ups and Downs of Air Travel
- The Ecuadorean-Looking Gringo - Back to School - Old School - Class Trip, Road Trip - Shopping Spree - Money Matters - Shit Happens - When You're Sliding Into First and You Feel Something Burst, Diarrhea...Diarrhea... - My Big Fake Gay Wedding - The Secret of My Success - Virgin by Day, Witches by Night - Erik Vs. The Volcano - Pee On The Trees - Mallrats - La Gripe - Everything That Has A Beginning Has An End - Ecuadorean Jedi - Movin' Right Along - Hot Bath - The Gorge - Liquid Hot Magma - Crossroads of Ecuador - A Trainful of Tourists - For The Better of Humanity - A Day "On" in Cuenca - Defending Guayaquil - Line of Hope - God Vs. Darwin - Alone in the Dark without Jesus - Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood? - A Day at the Beach - Idiot on Wheels - Ships Ahoy, But Not The Beer - See Crabs and Sea Lions - The War With Portugal - The Dating Game - The Land of Land Iguanas - The Bird Slut - Postcards From A Weirdo - I Love Boobies - Escape from Paradise - Adventures in Border Crossing |
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October 21, 2003
The Ups and Downs of Air TravelDAY 1: After a crazed morning of last-minute packing, a run to the Home Depot for luggage locks and some Dunkin´ Donuts bagel sticks, I had a final lunch at Chili´s with my parents and brother, who all took the...Read this entry The Ecuadorean-Looking GringoDAY 2: I actually slept for a good nine hours, three times more than my usual back home. Outside I could hear the pitter-patter of rain and cars and trucks whizzing by. I just laid there for a while until...Read this entry October 22, 2003
Back to SchoolDAY 3: Yigal managed to leave for his 3am flight in the middle of the night without waking me or Judy. The only thing that woke us up was the sun blaring through our window around 8am. Judy and I...Read this entry October 23, 2003
Old SchoolDAY 4: I woke up an hour before class and was off to take a shower, when I ran into Anna, this girl from Nebraska that I met in the TV lounge the night before. "Wanna get some breakfast?" she...Read this entry October 24, 2003
Class Trip, Road TripDAY 5: I checked out of the hostel room around 8, managing not to wake up Lars, who was pretty much out cold anyway since he drank half a bottle of rum the night before in front of the TV....Read this entry October 26, 2003
Shopping SpreeDAY 6: A rooster crowed around 5am and wouldn't stop until we had no choice but to get up. Navid sat in his bed all groggy-eyed. "I hope that rooster ends up in a cock fight today."...Read this entry October 27, 2003
Money MattersDAY 7: I learned a new expression in Spanish today: "Su banco es està fuera de linea." Translation: "Your bank is off-line." I have decided this is my least favorite Spanish expression so far....Read this entry Shit HappensDAY 8: I checked out of the Crossroads Hostel while everyone was still asleep and brought all my gear to class. Class was more of the same -- more verbs and vocabulary, and conversations with Rosa that went off in...Read this entry October 28, 2003
When You're Sliding Into First and You Feel Something Burst, Diarrhea...Diarrhea...DAY 9: "El domingo pasado, miré una pelicula divertido sobre una abuela que tener una casa, pero ella le va a perder a menos que gana $250,000. Entonces, su nieto juga golf -- pero dice muchas malas palabras en el...Read this entry October 29, 2003
My Big Fake Gay WeddingDAY 10: In South America, I've noticed that most of the hot showers are electric. A pipe runs to a shower head which is connected to two electric wires, which run a power switch. As water enters the shower head,...Read this entry October 31, 2003
The Secret of My SuccessDAY 11: I think that I'm learning Spanish a lot quicker than the other students in school. I don't know if it's because I took French in high school and the language is very similar, or because I come from...Read this entry November 01, 2003
Virgin by Day, Witches by NightDAY 12: Spanish class with my tutor Rosa was going pretty normal -- we reviewed some more helpful verbs -- until she mentioned a card game called Cuarenta, which is Ecuador's national card game -- so much that every year...Read this entry November 02, 2003
Erik Vs. The VolcanoDAY 13: "Did you go out partying for Halloween last night?" a Danish blonde asked me in the back of a truck at 8:03 in the morning. She saw that I looked pretty exhausted. "Yup," I answered all groggy-eyed, waiting...Read this entry November 03, 2003
Pee On The TreesDAY 14: After breakfast, I updated The Blog at the German computer nerd's internet cafe around the corner. Outside, all the stores were closed for Sunday and even in GringoLand it looked like a ghost town. Arne said it reminded...Read this entry November 04, 2003
MallratsDAY 15: My morning started as always: getting out of bed to take a piss. However, this day it was different. In the center of the bathroom, atop a small drain gate, were three turds....Read this entry November 05, 2003
La GripeDAY 16: I woke up at about 3 a.m. feeling a little feverish. I popped a couple of ibuprofen and went back to sleep. I woke up around 7 with the sun feeling better, but still a little feverish, but...Read this entry November 06, 2003
Everything That Has A Beginning Has An EndDAY 17: For the past week and a half, I had fallen into a routine in which I'd wake up, shower and have breakfast with Arne and Blanca. Things were different this morning. It was Arne's last day in the...Read this entry November 07, 2003
Ecuadorean JediDAY 18: Back in the days when I had a 9-5 American corporate job, I was only alotted the miniscule vacation time of two weeks. Two weeks, compared to other countries, is an embarrassingly short period of time and I...Read this entry November 08, 2003
Movin' Right AlongDAY 19: I had my last breakfast with Blanca in the morning, which was a good and bad thing. A good thing in that I was getting fresh food and a lot of it served to me on a ceramic...Read this entry November 09, 2003
Hot BathDAY 20: Baños is a town in a valley surrounded by lush green mountains, one of which gets really excited and ejaculates liquid hot magma every so often. In 1999, the Volcán Tungurahua erupted, causing a major evacuation of the...Read this entry November 10, 2003
The GorgeDAY 21: When I ran into Dutchman Hugo on my first night in Baños, he told me about his adventures since he left Quito, one about the time he and his friend Alberto were threatened to be beat up by...Read this entry November 11, 2003
Liquid Hot MagmaDAY 22: Navid had moved to my hostel since his other was too noisy, so it was easy to find him for breakfast. We played a quick game of generic Jenga before looking for the other thermal baths of Baños...Read this entry Crossroads of EcuadorDAY 23: Whenever I'd walk around with Navid on the streets of Baños, newly arrived backpackers would always stand out with their big packs strapped to their backs and their smaller daypacks strapped in front. This is like trying to...Read this entry November 13, 2003
A Trainful of TouristsDAY 24: Once upon a time in Ecuador, the railway system was the fast way to go north or southbound through the Andean countryside. Over the years, this railway system was replaced by the faster and cheaper bus network. But...Read this entry November 14, 2003
For The Better of HumanityDAY 25: Being in Cuenca, Ecuador's third largest city, is like being in Old Spain. With its well-preserved Spanish colonial houses and cobblestone streets, it's no wonder it was declared a World Heritage Site in 1999. The red-roofed houses, the...Read this entry November 15, 2003
A Day "On" in CuencaDAY 26: In modern life, the "norm" is to work most of the time, with a day or two off to "smell the roses." Well, as I've been "smelling the Ecuadorean roses" all this time (as well as the bus...Read this entry November 16, 2003
Defending GuayaquilDAY 27: "You know what I heard?" Anita said at breakfast. "What's that?" I answered. "That the train derails, for the tourists, so they can take pictures." I had met Anita in Spanish school in Quito, and we had both...Read this entry November 17, 2003
Line of HopeDAY 28: In Spanish, the verb esperar translates into two things in English: "to hope" and "to wait." This is especially noteworthy when you are waiting on the "Linéa de Espera" for a standby seat to open up for the...Read this entry November 18, 2003
God Vs. DarwinDAY 29: Andre and I were lounging out on the hotel terrace, watching the sun rise over the bay as the sounds of ocean waves crashing into rocks filled the salty sea air. Nearby, three seals were lazily sitting in...Read this entry November 19, 2003
Alone in the Dark without JesusDAY 30: Andre was up by six to get the 7:15 shuttle bus & ferry back to Isla Baltra (where the airport is), to hop on his boat from there. I assumed he got on the same bus as Chris...Read this entry November 20, 2003
Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood?DAY 31: When Andre moved out of our hotel room with a view of Pelican Bay, I was switched to a single which cost me $15/night. However, this newer, more expensive room wasn't worth its view of a brick wall,...Read this entry November 21, 2003
A Day at the BeachDAY 32: Three kilometers west of Puerto Ayora lies Bahia Tortuga (Turtle Bay), with a white sand beach open to the public. During the high season, I can imagine it being crowded with beachgoers and surfers, but it being the...Read this entry November 22, 2003
Idiot on WheelsDAY 33: Rosa, the old woman that ran the Los Amigos hostel, let me use the big sink in the yard to do my laundry. We chatted for a bit while I scrubbed my underwear, about this and that in...Read this entry November 29, 2003
Ships Ahoy, But Not The BeerDAY 34: To kill time before my 8:00 pm boat tour departure, I went back to Turtle Bay to chill out and read. On my way down the winding path, I ran into Chris who was on his way back...Read this entry See Crabs and Sea LionsDAY 35: The Galapagos Islands attracts many kinds of visitors, from retired American couples and their funny-looking beach hats and Bermuda shorts, to scuba divers and their funny-looking everything if they ever walked out on the streets with all their...Read this entry The War With PortugalDAY 36: I was up on deck at sunrise before the others. Manuel was there doing morning chores and I rapped with him for a bit. We exchanged English and Spanish words until he saw something off the starboard side....Read this entry The Dating GameDAY 37: There was a knock on the door at 5:45 in the morning. It was Mauricio waking everyone up for an early sunrise pre-breakfast land excursion on North Seymour Island, land of frigate birds and blue-footed boobies, birds whose...Read this entry The Land of Land IguanasDAY 38: Manuel was tidying up the lounge area in the morning while I was waiting for the first diving group to return. He poured himself a drink and told me it was his wife's birthday back at home. "Salud,"...Read this entry The Bird SlutDAY 39: Each island of the Galapagos archipelago has its share of endemic species -- species that are not found anywhere else. Sometimes we'd be treated to a new animal, sometimes it was the same old marine iguana, sally lightfoot...Read this entry November 30, 2003
Postcards From A WeirdoDAY 40: For my fourth and final scuba dive, I went underwater around Enderby Rock, a popular dive site off the coast of Isla Floreana. It was a very good ending to my series of dives; I saw two Galapagos...Read this entry December 01, 2003
I Love BoobiesDAY 41: Birgit and I were so used to the early morning wake-ups on the ship that we were both lying in bed awake at 6:30. Birgit had developed a fever, so I lent her some of my medicine. La...Read this entry Escape from ParadiseDAY 42: I had a 9:30 airport shuttle to catch back in Puerto Ayora in the morning, which would have been an easy thing if I was there. I woke up with the sun as always around 6:30 wondering how...Read this entry December 02, 2003
Adventures in Border CrossingDAY 43: Navid and I were out of the hostel in the Guayaquil suburbs before eight and caught a city bus to the main bus terminal. A fake Christmas tree stood in the center of the main hall and for...Read this entry |