Stacey’s 30th Birthday Extravaganza

Name: Hotel Bambu

Location: Canoa, Ecuador

Address:
North end of the beach
Canoa, Ecuador

Telephone: (593) 052 616 370/ 099 263 365

E-mail: none

Website: http://hotelbambuecuador.com/

Review: This is a beautiful hotel on the north end of the beach in the small surfing/fishing village of Canoa. There are a wide array of accomodation options ranging from camping on the beach and using the facilities ($4) to private rooms with balcony and hot water ($20). The grounds are gorgeous…a beautiful (and tasty) restaurant right on the beach, plenty of hammocks for lounging and a well-stocked bar (though it closes fairly early at around 11pm). There is a nice open-air common area with tour information as well as a book exchange, couches for relaxing and a ping-pong table.

While the grounds and the hotel amenities are great, I wasn´t in love with my single room with bath ($16 per)…room #3. There was a very persistent chemical smell that made for uncomfortable sleeping. The water was only occasionally hot so next time I might opt for the single room with shared bath. Room #3 is also right next to the bar and the ping-pong table so if you´re a light sleeper this might be a problem…it wasn´t for me but just an FYI.

The food is good at the hotel but there are several other places to eat as well including Cafe Flor (south end of the beach but several blocks off of the beach). There are also numerous bars open along the main road in town if you´re interested in partying a little later than eleven. It´s pretty quiet in Canoa this time of year (November) though Sundays are especially popular with the locals and is the time you´re likely to see the most activity on the beach. There is also paragliding and Rio Muchacho tours…inquire at the desk (which is actually the bar).

Would I stay here again: Yes, though I would opt for a room other than #3

So, I was cleaning off the memory card in my camera last night and realized that I have several photos I haven´t posted yet…so this post is going to mostly be a random collection of pictures and their descriptions.  A poor excuse for a post of substance but oh well…I never promised the Extravaganza would always be substantive.   Bueno…

Above is a picture of my friend Karen (who you will be seeing again sometime around Christmas) playing the extremely intellectual game of “Try not to be the last person to blow the cards off of the bottle of vodka” game.  OK, I don´t know the real name but here in Ecuador they are crazy for their shots of vodka.  Now anyone who has been with me when I´ve had vodka knows this is a very bad thing for Stacey.  Fortunately, I´m quite skilled at this game…the object of which is to blow off only a couple of the top cards because the person who knocks them all off has to do a straight shot of vodka.  And we keep playing until the bottle is empty.  Dios mio!

Here are Ben and Nadine…an adorable couple from Germany who are here studying Spanish and in Ben´s case…planning to stick around for the rest of the year at which point he hopes to get into a University in England.

As you might´ve guessed from the first photo, fish (specifically tuna) is a significant export of Manta.  Above is a picture of the fishermen´s harbor with some of the larger fishing operations´ boats… 

…and across the bay…a picture of some of the smaller operations.

Here´s a picture of my favorite teacher, Christina.  Normally you switch teachers every week but I got lucky and had Christina two weeks in a row which is fortunate because this last week´s grammar was the subjunctive mood…a concept that barely exists in English and has no translation.  Fun times.

My family in Ecuador.  The lady in front is the grandma (whose name I never quite caught) but she comes to have lunch with us everyday since we have a maid that cooks.  Abuela (grandma) is 71 years old and has had 8 kids.  Camila is my Ecuatorian mom…she´s 54 and the man next to her is her son Gino, age 23.  Sorry about the bad light in the back…we took another picture without the background light but it wasn´t as cute so I´m leaving this one in.

And here is a picture that pretty much sums up why I stick out here in Ecuador so much…I´m blonder, whiter and taller than pretty much everyone else here.  The woman next to me is Nelly the maid…oh my god is she short.  One day, I was standing in the bank and I realized that I was taller than every single one of the other 30 people in the bank.  But poor Wyatt…he´s  6´3″…the poor thing had a crimp in his neck all week from when we had to stand on the bus last weekend coming back from Crucita.  You see, the ceilings in the buses are a little lower than we´re used to…everyone on the bus had a good laugh about poor Wyatt´s plight however.

OK, that´s it for now…off for some post-class R&R in the beach village of Canoa.  I´ll be traveling for the next 6 weeks or so straight so hopefully I´ll be getting some good, blogworthy material.  Stay safe and warm!!

Yesterday was a national holiday here in Ecuador…Day of the Dead…where nobody went to school or went to work and instead lined up at the grocery stores to buy roses to lay on the graves of loved ones.  Since we had no loved ones to deliver flowers to we decided to take Karen´s recommendation and head back to Crucita for a little paragliding.  As always, we found Raul to be helpful and friendly and he took me, the Swedish girls Hanna and Clara, Eugenia (Bulgarian who lives in New York) and Wyatt up to the top of the cliff.

Yep, that´s me.  Flying high above the village of Crucita and the Pacific Ocean.  Cool picture huh?  Luckily Eugenia has a great SLR camera with telephoto lens so she was able to get these close-up shots despite the fact that we were pretty far away.  The little black smudge in the lower left-hand corner is one of the many sea birds that cruise around all over Crucita.  As it turns out, paragliding is not at all scary.  I didn´t even notice when we stepped off of the cliff as I was too busy trying to remember everything Raul told me to do.  Once you´re in the air it is extremely relaxing…you sort of just float around up above the ground and the water.

Clearly I was just going for a ride but Raul and some of the other pilots offer 4 day classes on learning to paraglide.  He says that on the second day of class you are able to fly by yourself and sure enough, we saw one guy successfully glide down to the beach on his second day of class.  I also asked Raul if he´s ever had anyone completely freak out once they were up there and apparently a girl from California had an absolute meltdown and nearly crashed them.  He also had one guy pass out into complete unconciousness which proved difficult for landing as the rider needs to be able to stand up at the right time.  The big pack on the back of Raul is not counterbalance weight as I first thought but is a reserve parachute and other safety equipment in case the glider fails.  Raul says that, thankfully, he´s never had to deploy the parachute…and they´ve never had an accident at Crucita.   After all of us had taken our turns it was off to one of the many seafood restaurants along the beach where I had, quite possibly, the best thing I´ve eaten since arriving here in Ecuador…here´s a picture for the foodies in the crowd.  Yummy butterfly prawns with a roasted garlic sauce.  Yummy.  I very nearly want to go back to Crucita for a third weekend in a row just to eat this again.

OK, that´s it for now.  We´re having a graduation party at my house today so I´ve got to be brief so I have time to mentally prepare for all of the spanish I´m going to have to speak this afternoon.  I´ll leave you with a couple more pictures from the trip to the beach and will type to you soon. 

Name: Hostal Crucita

Location: Crucita, Ecuador

Address: Big white building south end of the beach/Malecon.

e-mail: flyraul2005@hotmail.com

website: None

Review: Hostal Crucita is a lovely place to stay on the south end of the beach (past the end of the paved road) in the little fishing/resort village of Crucita.  Many of the rooms have a balcony view of the water and there is also a terrace on the 2nd floor with beach chairs for lounging.  The hostal has spacious and clean rooms (cold water only) as well as a pool and a restaurant.  A friend and I recently paid $8 per person, per night for a spacious triple-bedded room (though there were only two of us). 

Raul, the owner, is an expert paraglider/hanglider and he takes people for tandem rides as well as gives lessons on flying solo.  Raul is extremely helpful and friendly and speaks very good English (though only if he can´t stand hearing any more terrible Spanish).  The cost of a 15 minute flight is $20 though a little extra tip for Raul is appreciated as he drives you to the top of the cliff in his car.  The best times to paraglide are between about 11 am and 1 pm so be sure to arrive around then for the best flights.

Also, be sure to check out Raul´s brother´s restaurant Marumbo about halfway down the beach.  Both David and Raul have lived in the U.S. so speak good English and are knowledgeable people to ask about Crucita and surrounding areas.

Would I recommend this hostal: Yes, definitely.

Hola chicos.  For those of you still with me after the financial lecture from last week, this post should hopefully be much more entertaining (well, maybe not) and will certainly have better pictures as I found an Internet cafe yesterday with faster uploads.  Ok, so here we go…

While Manta itself has a very nice beach and pier area, my friend Karen and I thought it would be fun to get out of town for a while so after doing some research we selected the small fishing village of Crucita…about an hour´s bus ride ($1.20) from Manta.  This is Karen:

Karen is from NYC…she´s a nurse who will be working in Arequipa, Peru for the next year.  I´ll likely spend the X-mas/New Year´s week with her as my sister is returning to Colorado on December 23.  Anyway…Crucita is a cute little pueblo whose mainstay is fishing but it is rapidly becoming a resort and tourism area because of the ideal conditions for paragliding, parasailing and hangliding.  What is the difference between the three, you might ask?  Funny you should wonder as Karen and I had the same question.  Ok, here´s the deal:

1. Paragliding – A paraglider is a free-flying, foot-launched aircraft. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing, whose shape is formed by the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing.
2. Parasailing is a recreational activity where a person (two or three people may also ride at the same time) is towed behind a vehicle (usually a boat) while attached to a parachute. The boat then drives off, carrying the parascender into the air.
3. Hangliding is an air sport in which a pilot flies an unpowered and light foot-launchable glider aircraft known as a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminum -or composite- framed fabric wing which lacks moving control surfaces. The pilot is mounted on a harness hanging from the airframe and exercises control by shifting his body weight.

So jumping off of cliffs into anything isn´t really my cup of tea…though I do love to fly so I should have known that I would ultimately want to try one of the three.  Since the pickpocketing incident in Quito, however, I´ve been a smidge paranoid and have thus only been carrying enough money for whatever it is I think I´ll be doing.  This proved to not be the best plan…more on this later.  At anyrate, I wasn´t planning on para-anything and I don´t think Karen was either.  Until we met Raul.

View from our hotel room

Raul is the owner of the hostal where we ended up staying…appropriately named Hostal Crucita…Raul is Crucita´s resident expert in all things para.  He will take you to the top of the cliff and will paraglide with you in tandem as well as offering lessons in paragliding by yourself and hangliding.  OK, so Raul thinks we´re nuts for not wanting to paraglide (en español…volar de parapente) but no matter, we´re off to the beach. 

On either end of the beach are row after row of fishing boats like these:

On Saturday the beach wasn´t too busy as it seems many people in Ecuador work a 6 day week and only have a day off on Sunday.  The weather was warm and breezy though not especially sunny on Saturday which is probably OK since we´re pretty much sitting directly on the equator (or rather just south of it).  I didn´t get in…but Karen informed me that the water felt chillier and the current stronger in Crucita than in Manta.  I took her word for it.

By Sunday morning, we were convinced by Raul (and his brother David as well who owns the restaurant that we coincidentally ended up eating dinner at) that volar de parapente was certainly the thing to do.  Unfortunately, neither had planned for this extra expense so between the two of us…we had only brought enough cash for one flight.  Karen was much more into the idea than I was and is leaving presently for Peru so we decided she should be the one…and at $20 for a 15 minute flight…she reports that it was well worth it. 

Sunday morning brought excellent, sunny weather (and a bit of sunburn for Stacey) and we enjoyed ourselves on the beach with significantly more people out and about.  Now, one topic I have been neglecting here in Ecuador is that of food.  I´ve mentioned the existence of ceviche (sea critters in lime juice)…but we also had an awesome seafood paella at David´s restaurant Marumbo (David, incidentally went to school in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin some 30 years ago).  And on Sunday before returning to Manta we enjoyed the following Concha Asada (roasted clams):

Here in Ecuador, one doesn´t have french fries (I´ve yet to see a potato.  Actually, I´ve yet to see many vegetables at all.)…we have deep-fried bananas and in lieu of potato chips we have plantain chips.  I´m not sure if either is any healthier but they sure are yummy.  The clams were also yummy though unfortunately I was a bit too anxiety ridden to enjoy them as much as I should have.  You see, after paying for Karen´s flight we had only just enough money for lunch and our bus tickets back to Manta…but we weren´t paying attention to the cost of what we ordered.  We figured we´d be pretty close (like, within a dollar) until they brought out an extra plate of plantains and fried bananas…mistakenly thinking that we wanted more when in fact we were simply trying to ask the name.  At this point I´m in a mild panic and feverishly trying to figure out how to say “We don´t have enough money…can we wash dishes?” in Spanish when they brought the bill….after adding in the tip…we had 35 cents to spare.  It has been quite some time since I felt that poor.  Fortunately this situation was temporary as we simply hadn´t brought enough cash to Crucita, but in light of this…now may be a good time for my tips on money while in a foreign country.

Stacey´s Best Tips for Not Ending up Homeless and Starving in a Foreign Country

1. Always bring both Mastercard and Visa credit cards.  In every foreign country I´ve been in it seems that frequently a store or hotel will only take one or the other.  Or sometimes, one or the other network has been down at a time so if you only have Mastercard and that network is down you could have a problem.  On this trip I brought two of each and keep them separate in case of theft.  This proved to be fortuitous after I was pickpocketed.
2. Call your credit cards and ATM cards before you leave the country.  Always call the CC and ATM companies to let them know you´ll be traveling and to not shut your card down.  Sometimes even then the card won´t accept charges but it´s worth a try and it is certainly easier to call from home than somewhere foreign.
3. Traveler´s checks are obsolete.  I haven´t carried a traveler´s check in more than 10 years and the reason is because they´re a pain-in-the-ass to convert into currency and frequently fetch poor rates.  With the advent of world-wide ATM networks it´s much easier to just take cash from the ATM machine.  The one time I would recommend TCs is if you need to pay for something fairly expensive in U.S. dollars and don´t want to carry a large amount of cash (eg. paying for a deposit or rent on a vacation rental in Argentina).  TCs can be replaced if lost or stolen whereas cash clearly cannot.
4. E-mail yourself the phone numbers for your credit and ATM cards.  The access phone numbers that you need are printed on the back of your cards though if you lose the card or it is stolen…no number.  Compile the list of phone numbers and e-mail it to yourself…fortunately I did this and it was much easier to deal with the stolen cards.
5. Get PIN numbers for cash advances from your credit cards.  Even if you think you will never do this (eg. you´re using your ATM card) get the PIN numbers for your cards several weeks in advance.  In an emergency you can get a cash advance from the CC though the interest rates and fees are substantial.  Unfortunately, I did not do this so was unable to get cash via the ATM machines after my ATM card was stolen.  But no worries….here´s Plan B:
6. You can get a cash advance from any bank without a PIN.  I did not know this until I arrived here in Ecuador that a person can walk into most any bank with their passport and a credit card and get a cash advance.  The limits vary and the fees substantial (eg. my fee to pay for my Spanish classes was $27) but in an emergency who really cares.
7. You can send yourself money via Western Union on a credit card.  I did not try this but it appears from the WU website that you can essentially wire yourself money by putting a certain amount of money on your credit card via the WU website and you can then go pick up the cash at a WU office (widely available worldwide).  Fees again are substantial…to wire myself $500 would have cost about $50 dollars plus cash advance fees on my CC.
8. Carry U.S. dollars in small denominations and in good condition.  When traveling in most places outside of Europe (especially in 2nd and 3rd worldish places like Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, etc.) always carry a supply of U.S. dollars in good condition in low denominations ($1 and $5) as often cab drivers and some small shops will accept both currencies.  Also, when carrying cash in South America to convert to the local currency…always bring money in U.S. dollars in bills no larger than $20 due to problems with counterfeiting.

We don´t know what this is, but we took a picture anyway.

Name: Academia Surpacifico

Location: Manta, Ecuador

Address:

Avenida 24 y Calle 15 – Edificio Barre – 3er Piso
Manta, Ecuador
Telefono: (05) 2610838

e-mail: info@ecuadorspanishschools.com or surpacifico@easynet.net.ec

website: http://www.ecuadorspanishschools.com/

Review: Academia Surpacifico is a private Spanish language school based on the coast of Ecuador in Manta. Manta is a seaport of about 250,000 people whose main exports are tuna and other seafood. Surpacifico is in a safe part of Manta and is within a 10 or 15 minute walk of most (if not all) of the host families. As seems to be the case in much of Ecuador, classes are one-on-one with a college-educated teacher and cost around $5 per hour. It is possible to have group classes only if you arrive with and are studying with a person at your same level of Spanish. In this case the classes are slightly cheaper. There is a well-equipped student apartment above the school but most students seem to stay with host families. Most people have good things to say about their host families though in one house they are reported to be a bit stingy with food and I seem to be the only person living in a host family who has hot water. The cost per day of a host family including laundry service and three meals a day is about $18. The student apartment is slightly cheaper but obviously does not include meals.

Manuel, the owner and manager of the school is extremely, extremely helpful and runs things very efficiently. He was able to change my arrival dates with very little advance notice after I was pickpocketed in Quito. I was also able to have my new credit/ATM cards sent to the school securely via Fedex. The school is small (about 10 students is a full house) and because of this, many of the planned activities don´t take place because we don´t achieve the 6 person minimum very often. There are special “Spanish+Surfing” and “Spanish+Kitesurfing” programs available as well as others (eg. medical Spanish, etc.) Surpacifico is probably best for someone looking to get away from the Gringo Trail and live in a non-touristy Ecuadorean city rather than a location (like Quito or Cuenca) where tourism is the mainstay. Manta is safer and friendlier than Quito though it lacks a bit in things to do. The beach and Malecon area are clean and safe though don´t bring anything of value with you to the beach. There are also many potential daytrips and weekend trips from Manta including paragliding/hangliding in Crucita (1 hour away), Puerto Lopez (the starting point for Isla de la Plata, 3.5 hours south), the eco-city of Bahia de Caraquez (about 3 hours north) and the nicer northern beaches of Canoa and Esmeraldas (north still of Bahia de Caraquez via a ferry).

Would I recommend this school: Yes, definitely.

First up: a housekeeping item. For those of you joining the Extravaganza from the Bootsnall website, be sure to check out the newly added section of “South America Reviews” under the Categories heading…I´ll also be posting the same information under “Trip Info” in the Pages section. I´ll be adding reviews of various accomodations, tour operators, language courses, volunteer programs, etc. as I experience them. I´m not one for restaurant recommendations really but if I eat somewhere truly amazing I´ll add it. For my “normal” readers (and I use that term very loosely as some of you are far from normal)…feel free to skip any post that starts with “Review” as you probably won´t find much of interest in it. Also…still sucking on the picture taking but there´s not too much that´s scenic here in Manta so there will be a hodgpodge of pictures in this post. I´m headed to the beach tomorrow morning for the weekend though so hope to do better with the camera this week.

Vamos a ver…dinero. Money. Cash. An issue on the minds of most people at any given point in time and here in Ecuador an issue of some confusion so I´ve decided to devote this post to explaining some issues surrounding the current financial situation. I realize that I´m one of the very few who find macroeconomic principles to be interesting so I won´t be offended if those who are not interested just skip right over this post. I´ve received several questions about this though so I think it´s worth mentioning what I´ve come up with for an explanation.

Back in the comments of Ecuador – 2, Faye did us a favor (thanks Faye) and gave us a brief synopsis of what happened when Ecuador started using the U.S. dollar as their official currency, a process officially referred to as “dollarization” (though the term dollarization is not only applied to usage of the United States dollar, but also generally to the use of any foreign currency as the national currency. As of August 2005, the United States dollar, the Euro, the New Zealand dollar, the Turkish new lira, the Russian ruble, the Swiss franc, the Indian rupee and the Australian dollar were the only currencies used by other countries for official dollarization.) As Faye mentioned, the U.S. dollar was introduced in Ecuador in response to a major financial crisis. Excellent. What does that mean exactly?

With significant apologies to Alan Greenspan for oversimplifying the economics behind this, I have discovered there are three major reasons that a developing country might want to dollarize:

1. Rampant inflation caused by excessive printing of a national currency can be stopped by introducing a stable currency with sound economic policy (exit Ecuador´s sucres…enter U.S.$)
2. Stabilized inflation leads to a stabilized general economy which in turn sustains the buying power of the Ecuadorian people and allows the nation to experience economic growth without the added worry of currency value fluctuations.
3. Long-term economic planning is easier to do (eg. taking out long-term business development loans) because a interest rates and currency values are less likely to fluctuate.  An example: a hotel-owner is able to obtain a loan for a new van and thus expand his touring business.  Also, foreign investors are more likely to invest in a place where inflation risk is lower and economic and monetary problems are lessened.

OK, so I don´t think it´s much of a strech for us to understand why Ecuador might want to adopt the U.S. dollar (or rather the government would….it´s up for debate if the people of Ecuador are for it).  But why in the world would the United States government ever agree to this?  Here are a couple of answers to that question:

1. 1.  It is estimated that 55-70% of the $480 billion in U.S. currency in existence today already circulates outside of the U.S.  So, most of the money isn´t even in the U.S. in the first place…the U.S. Treasury barely notices when a country dollarizes as the dollar has likely already been in heavy circulation in that country anyway.  For example, most bank deposits and investments in Peru and Bolivia take place in U.S. dollars even though those countries have their own currencies.  Peru´s ATMs even give you the option of dispensing dollars or Peruvian soles.
2. 2.  As it turns out, the U.S. Treasury also doesn´t mind printing extra money because they make money every time they print a new bill (that is not used to replace an old one).  Here´s everyone´s (including my) new word for the week:  seigniorage.  For the United States, dollarization means foreigners will demand even more dollars than the large amounts

   

   they use now.  The United States would have to print more money to meet the increased demand but would benefit from increased seigniorage.  Seigniorage is the profit a government makes from printing money.  For example, it costs three cents to print a $100 bill but that bill buys $100 worth of goods.  When they dollarize, countries allow the United States to earn seigniorage rather than earning it for themselves.  Now of course, Ecuador is also giving up its ability to institute their own monetary policy as they are now at the mercy of the Fed thousands of miles away in Washington, D.C. 

One thing that is still a little hazy to me is the logistics of the switch. I highly doubt the U.S. Treasury said “Hey, sure Ecuador. Hand over your worthless Sucres and we´ll give you millions of dollars in return.” One source I read said the following happened:

“When Ecuador made the switch–it did notify the United States of its intention–the country swapped $400 million in U.S. Treasuries and other assets for cash through a Miami bank and had the whole caboodle flown down.  Most countries that switch continue to mint their own coins, however.  Coins make up less than 10% of circulating currency, and shipping costs of U.S. coins are prohibitive.”

Another source said Ecuador had to hand over all of their gold reserves…still another said Ecuador exchanged their oil reserves.  Who knows really?   

This might be a good time to clarify that Ecuador prints its own coins (though you can still use regular U.S. coins) with its own dead famous people…and while Ecuadorian coins have the same value as a U.S. coin they are still only legal tender in Ecuador. The picture above shows what I´m talking about (I didn´t have a quarter)…the Ecuadorian coins are the same size and color as U.S. coins but with different people on them. Note the existence of the Sacajawea golden dollar? Those have almost ceased to circulate in the U.S. but after the initial minting, 500 million of them were shipped to Ecuador where they are in heavy circulation.

Yikes, this got a little longer and more complicated than I intended so I guess I´ll leave out the rest of what I had planned for today. Lots more time here in Ecuador (and the rest of the continent) so we´ll get to it all in due time. I hope that helped slightly.  If anyone´s dying to learn more and wants the list of links I used…send me an e-mail.  Hasta luego…

Pictures:  (1) The girls are Hannah and Clara…Swedish girls I met in Quito who were also planning to come to Manta.  They´re learning to kite-surf…hich is exactly as it sounds…surfing while attached to a kite. (2) Wyatt, from Alaska…college student in Utah.  He´s getting the international experience he needs for his degree here in Manta.

Name: Chicago Hostel

Location: Quito, Ecuador

Address:
San Blas,
Los Rios St. # 1730 y Briceno St.
Quito, Ecuador

E-mail: chicagohostel_ecuador@hotmail.com

Website: http://www.chicagohostelquitoecuador.htmlplanet.com(information only)
Book via www.hostelbookers.com

Review: This hostel is located between the Old and New Cities in Quito though it is closer to the Old City and near the Plaza San Blas. I had a single room with my own bathroom for $9 per night. The room was clean and bright with a bed, chair, reading lamp, TV and occasional hot water. Rooms were cleaned every day and sheets changed every other day. There is also a safe available at the reception desk for your valuables. The price included a good breakfast on their rooftop terrace though it didn´t vary at all and became monotonous after a couple of days: bread, scrambled egg, fresh fruit and tea-coffee. The reception area is cozy (read: smallish) but includes a bar so you can relax with a beer or cocktail and not have to worry about being out after dark. The staff was helpful though not especially friendly and the Internet computer at $1 per hour was convenient. The hostel staff can arrange tours and I saw an Englishman had arranged some Spanish courses through the hostel. There are also three small grocery/convenience store shops near by for water, snacks, etc. It´s walkeable to the Old City during the day but keep an eye on your valuables as I was pickpocketed the first day while walking down Guayquil Street between the hostel and the Old City.

Would I stay here again: Yes

Beach in the evening (we go after 5pm so as to not fry our pasty white American and Northern European skin)

Sorry, sorry…I know I´m already far behind on the blog. As it turns out, blogging from South America is a bit more work than usual for multiple reasons…the key reason being the shockingly slow download/upload speeds. So, it seems that we here at the Extravaganza (and by we I mean my faithful readers and myself since the Civvy is no more) will need to adjust our expectations slightly. Basically, it comes down to the fact that I will likely have to cut down on the number of pictures I post and am going to shoot for a goal of two posts a week. I´ll try hard. I promise.

Ok, so when I last left you I had endured a tortuous but amazingly scenic 10 hour bus ride down the slopes of the Andes from Quito to the coastal city of Manta where I will remain taking Spanish classes for a total of 4 weeks. Manta is a smallish city of about 250,000 people set on the Ecuadorian coast midway between Peru and Colombia. I chose Manta as a good place to learn Spanish as it is decidedly NOT on the gringo trail…most (English-speaking) students of Spanish choose a larger city like Quito or a more scenic small city like Cuenca to do their studies. I was looking for a place with few tourists and other English-speakers so I would be forced to speak in Spanish. And it almost worked. Well, it has worked…though I was unaware of the fact that there is a U.S. military base here in Manta that is mainly involved in issues surrounding the prevention of the drug trade. So, gringos abound…though only on the weekends and there aren´t too many so this plan has gone well so far.

I´m attending a school here in Manta with about 10 other students. Almost all of us are being taught individually which can be extremely exhausting when you´re the only person being focused on for 4-7 hours per day. It´s tough but good for me and hopefully I´m soaking up some sort of knowledge. So…classes are going well. Or as well as possible when one feels like an inarticulate, imbecile pretty much 24 hours a day. I will persevere.

My host family is great and I have my own room with my own bathroom and hot water in the morning (I´m the only one in my school with hot water. Yay me). The house is beautiful though you wouldn´t know if from the street. Ecuador (and I suspect many other 2nd/3rd world countries) is a location of great extremes. On one side of the street you may find a beautiful house with nice things and lots of servants while directly across you´ll find what can only be described as a shack. For example, I live here:

And Nelly, our housekeeper, lives across the street here:

A bit of a difference, no? My Ecuadorian mom Camila is a very nice woman in her mid-fifties who takes in students, I suspect, because she is a bit lonely…her husband was murdered 9 years ago at work by some thieves that were breaking into the business. One of her kids is studying in Spain and the other, Gino, lives with us as he just graduated from the university in Guayaquil and is waiting to hear on a job. Camila (or rather, Nelly) take good care of me though having someone do everything for you takes a bit of getting used to. Seriously.

The weather here in Manta is warm but not excessively so because of breezes that are fairly strong off the ocean. This helps to keep the climate comfortable and also the mosquitoes at bay…though one did sneak into my room this week and chew me to pieces. Don´t worry though…I´ve been taking my malaria meds and though they have caused a bit of insomnia and some crazy dreams, I should manage to remain malaria-free while here in Manta.

One disease I am likely not going to contract while here on the coast is scurvy.  That is because we get fresh-squeezed juice for every meal…three times a day. Lemon, lime, pineapple, guava…some others that don´t have English names. The food is yummy if not a bit repetitive with the constant appearance of rice at every meal. Of course, I was overjoyed to discover that one of the specialties here in Manta is ceviche…which is, of course, sea critters marinated in lime juice, onions, and cilantro. Yummy, yummy, yummy…and those of you who were with me way back in Maine know how much I love sea critters!

Ok, that´s it for now. I´m currently lacking in decent pictures so will work on that this week. Also coming later in the week….everyone´s favorite topic…dinero. My next post will be all about financial matters here in Ecuador and hopefully we will finally get to the bottom of how Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar as their official currency. Ciao!

The Main Square in Otavalo

North of Quito about two hours by bus (and $2 each way) exists a huge market of food, weavings, hats, jewelry and much more in the little village of Otavalo. The biggest market day of the week is Saturday though the market takes place every day of the week. I decided to go on Saturday and true enough…the market is huge. Overwhelming even and for someone who now has to carry everything she purchases with her for the next 6 months…Otavalo is merely a place to “window shop.” It was fun to wander through stall after stall of everything under the sun…here are some pictures so you can get an idea of what´s for sale.

On Sunday it was time for me to leave Quito and frankly, I´m not going to miss it. Quito has a pretty significant pollution problem and merely walking down the street one finds themselves in a cloud of diesel exhaust quite often. It´s also a bit damp and chilly in Quito though the surrounding scenery of the lush green countryside high in the mountains is very beautiful…and a stark contrast to the dry and brown grass found in the mountains of Montana. Most of the sights in Quito can be seen in two days or less…though Quito does make for an excellent base of operations for the many other side trips (like Otavalo). While Quito itself lacked charm there are some very excellent things about Ecuador worth mentioning.

4 Excellent Things You Did Not Know About Ecuador

1. The people are really, really helpful and friendly. Everyone I´ve met so far has been very friendly and helpful…which is a bit of a contrast to some places in Europe where people are not especially friendly to foreigners. Most people are very curious about my life in the States…typically I am asked about things in the following order: my family, my job, George Bush and the war in Iraq…and frequently about the cost of things in the U.S. as compared to Ecuador. More on this later.
2. Ecuador´s official currency is the U.S. dollar. I totally don´t get how this works but it is true…all transactions are in U.S. dollars and while there are some special Ecuadorian coins, the majority of the cash being tendered is exactly what you´re all using at home. I´m not going to lie to you…this is extremeley convenient. Not having to change money and figure out new coins makes my life much easier. Still I don´t get it. Does the U.S. treasury just print extra money for Ecuador? Anyone with some insight…please clue me in.
3. The food is so yummy and so fresh. I think I´ve had more fresh fruit in the last week than I´ve had in the last two months. We have fresh squeezed juice of many different types (including some fruit only grown here in Ecudor) with every meal and soup (which I love) comes with every lunch. As in Spain, the last meal of the day is rather light and not as substantial as the midday meal. Typically for lunch there is soup, some type of meat, rice and some type of fruit (and juice of course). For dinner…a small sandwich is typical.
4. The people speak a very clear and reasonably paced version of Spanish that is easy to understand. Thankfully I´m able to understand more here than in Spain and certainly more than the average Mexican speaker…both of whom speak very quickly.

On Sunday it was off to Manta…a smallish city on the coast of about 250,000 inhabitants. I chose this city because it is not at all touristy and with few English speakers I will be forced to practice my Spanish. Instead of flying, I decided to take the 10 hour bus trip from Quito down through the Andes and into the tropical zone of Manta. While the trip was beautiful…it was also brutal and included some roads that could barely be called roads. And went past some houses that could barely be called houses. I arrived tired and grimy on Sunday night to a beautiful room in my host family´s house. More on this next time.