My family had a big party for my birthday on Tuesday. I was relaxing in the hammock in my room, when I got the usual *Emily, dinner is ready* call, but of course in Spanish. I came out of my room, and they put on this music and started singing some birthday song and clapping. There were about 15 people there...all of the usuals, plus some other people who I am not sure live in the mystery rooms or not. There was a big pink cake on the table, with a fat dinner candle stuck in it. (I later found out this is not normal...that they do use normal cake candles here, but I guess they didn´t have any.) I wasn´t sure what I was supposed to do so I just kind of bobbed my head. Sadly Mitch wasn´t there because he was pretty sick that day and couldn´t take the smell of food.
After the strange birthday song they sang Happy Birthday in Spanish, and then again in English. It was really nice. I wasn´t sure if I was supposed to blow out the candle or not, because a) this was all happening before dinner, and b) it was so big, I thought maybe it was normal to just let it burn in the cake while you ate, like the cake was a big candle holder or something. Finally I figured out I was supposed to blow it out. I think they might have had to sing one more time until I managed to grasp that concept.
My mom made a really fancy dinner...Rice with shrimps, and chicken and salad. And we got pop for dinner! Which we never get. The little kids were really happy. And Alejandra was as thrilled as I was with the cake, because it was pink. We all ate together for a change, and it was really fun.
After dinner I went out with Hamilton and some of his friends, and met up with some school friends. It would have been better of course if Mitch were there, but I made a new friend, Jose Luis who is really nice. So that was mi cumpleaños!
In other news, I am getting sad that it is almost time to leave Montañita for the Galapagos. As amazing as I am sure they will be, I really really like it here. We have today and tomorrow, and then it is time to pack up Saturday and take the 5pm bus to Guayaquil. We will stay the night in Guayaquil and catch a morning flight to the Galapagos for our cruise!
Before we go, I am trying to cram lots of things in! Tonight I am supposed to go with Jose Luis to a nearby town, about 30 minutes away, on his motorcycle. Last night he tried to teach me how to drive it on the beach, but I didn´t really pass lesson 1, so I will just be a passenger! It was really hard, because you have to shift gears. Isidro also said maybe we can go snorkling around the reef near the Point tomorrow, because the waves are supposed to be smaller.
Right now Mitch and I are going to walk up to the top of the point to take some pictures of the Church there. Gotta cram that in before class in an hour and a half!
No time to post any birthday pictures now, but will have to have something saved up to show you all when I am back!
Miss everyone...see you soon!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
A Note From Miguel
The last few days have been busy with class, travelling and fiestaing...probably the highlight of the last few days was travelling to salinas, le lebertard, and chocolatera. Stephan and I met a lady named Lucia who´s house is above one of the clubs cana grill...she lives in guyaquil during the week and montanita on the weekend, and she also travels all over south america and has a place in miami..anyways she told us shed tour us around a couple citys near montanita so we went with her and two other local guys that are her friends...took the bus from montanita to le lebertard where the two guys lived...went to the habour and had an amazing seafood meal...it was all fresh because we could se e the fish and shrimps being brought in, la lebertard has a lot of buildings and is like a mini toronto, she said a lot of money is made there, she didnt like it because it was too busy, too many people and cars..i agree. then we went to salinas which is basically a long stretch of beach with hotels all along it...also a yacht club near by so thre were some nice boats. The interesting thing about this trip is that i had no clue where we were going because they would speak in spainish so every destination was a surprise for me...then we started walking not sure where but the guy we were with hailed a car over i think it was a cab and it drove us to chocolatear...i had no clue what this was, i thought itwas a chocolate store or something but i was wrong haha...on the way to chocolatera it was a beautiful drive...all along the water, but the police stopped us on the way, was kind of scary..we had 4 people in the back seat so thought we would get in trouble, then the police asked for our identification but stephan nor i had any..after a few minutes of the locals talking to them in spainish they let us go and laughed that we fit 4 big guys in the back seat...i thought we were going to have to go to the station because we had no identification on us but it was all good...anyways we keep driving and enter this military base with soldiers with guns guarding the front...after speaking to them for some time they let us through and we drove through many military men marching, and doing drills...finally we hit chocolatera...it is the most western land point in south america so that is why they are guarding it....it was cool to be on the most western piece of land though...the waves here were huggee, i took a ton of photos and videos but having trouble uploading them..all the tides meet at the point making it impossible to swim as well as the big waves...all the rock we were standing on was from an inactive volcanoe which was cool..we then continued on to a hotel on another point which had an amazing view...it was where lucias had her honeymoon with her ex husband..it only costed 40 a night and it must have been a 5 star hotel...anyways we watched mostof the sunset then droveback to salinas to grab the bus back...the guy driving us around only costed 10$ for 2 hours of driving and waiting, and the bus was only a dollar so for under 15$ say some pretty cool stuff...then we came back and had some drinks at lucias place and went down to the club after...had class on friday, then emily went to guyaquil but i was too tired, going to have some dinner now then probably head out to town....
that is alll for noww
mitch
that is alll for noww
mitch
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Los Animales
Just a short note today to tell you about all of los animales here in Montañita. You have already heard about how los gallos wake me up (and sometimes start their singing before I go to bed, if I am having an especially fun night), and that we went horseback riding, and that the perros rule the streets. Here are a couple stories about them.
The perros are EVERYWHERE. You can´t walk more than 3 feet without seeing a new one. They are sleeping, wandering, mating, sitting everywhere in the streets, sidewalks, and beach. What I couldn´t believe for a long time is that almost every perro has an owner. Every family owns one or more perros, but because they are almost never on leashes it is impossible to know whose is whose. Perros tend to casually follow their owners wherever they go, and so I have gotten to know the perros of my friends here. One of the teachers, Erica, has a perro that comes to class with her, and when she teachers outside lies nearby. The perro isn´t allowed in the school (although he sometimes sneaks in) so waits outside for her when she is in the building. Isidro also has a perro, named Toda (I think is how it is spelled) that sometimes comes out with him at night. Many dogs, such as Toda, here are named after famous surfers. Other popular names are those like Roxy, after the surf brand of clothing. Erica also has a three legged perro. I am not sure what happened to the fourth leg.
Oswaldo has a perro, and last night I asked him how he got it, because I haven´t seen any pet stores around. He said a friend gave it to him to adopt a couple years ago, which is how many people get their perros. Hamilton also has a perro, who is kept inside at the moment because she is in heat. She is a big fluffy dog and one of the few I have ever seen on a leash.
One perro on the street was purple for the first three weeks, but seems to be white again. We think it has something to do with a new purple building in town...
One thing I am very surprised by is that the perros never beg for food. People are eating outside all of the time, and the perros will come walk by, or under the table, but never ask for food. Also, there are no sticks here (wood is rare in this part of Ecuador) so the perros play with rocks or plastic bottles. They do beg to play with rocks on the beach.
On one of my first days here I was walking home and I saw a perro lieing in the road in the middle of the day, just relaxing. A car was approaching, and the perro wouldn´t move. I was getting a bit worried for it, but of course the car saw it (cars can´t go more than 5 km an hour on the sand roads here) and stopped and put on this siren kind of thing it had to make the dog move. As I said, perros rule the streets here. I am not sure why the carro had the siren...maybe just for the perros.
There are also quite a few gatos (cats) here. They are tiny and cute, but not as interesting as the perros.
The caballos (horses) are also really neat. Mitch and I went riding with Isidro one day last week...Mitch really hated it but I thought it was great. No helmets, galloping down the beach, into the next town, stopping at one of Isidro´s friends houses (who owns the sushi restaurant in town, and gave me some sashimi samples he was preparing), and riding back with the sunset and seeing whales in the ocean. You can just take the caballos right onto the beach, with all the people, and on all of the roads through town.
That is about it for los animales, there are some mosquitos and a couple cockroaches, but nothing at all unberable in any way. A bunch of small birds visit the electrical lines every night. I can´t think of any other notable animales here, so I will leave you with a couple pictures!
This is Mitch´s perro, sleeping outside his room this morning:
This is the three legged perro trying to drink out of the pool:
This is the caballo Isidro rode on our ride. The saddle was made of wood. He didn´t like it.
Here is Miguel and his caballo:
Miguel and I on our caballos riding from the Montañita beach to the Olon (next town over) beach:
The perros are EVERYWHERE. You can´t walk more than 3 feet without seeing a new one. They are sleeping, wandering, mating, sitting everywhere in the streets, sidewalks, and beach. What I couldn´t believe for a long time is that almost every perro has an owner. Every family owns one or more perros, but because they are almost never on leashes it is impossible to know whose is whose. Perros tend to casually follow their owners wherever they go, and so I have gotten to know the perros of my friends here. One of the teachers, Erica, has a perro that comes to class with her, and when she teachers outside lies nearby. The perro isn´t allowed in the school (although he sometimes sneaks in) so waits outside for her when she is in the building. Isidro also has a perro, named Toda (I think is how it is spelled) that sometimes comes out with him at night. Many dogs, such as Toda, here are named after famous surfers. Other popular names are those like Roxy, after the surf brand of clothing. Erica also has a three legged perro. I am not sure what happened to the fourth leg.
Oswaldo has a perro, and last night I asked him how he got it, because I haven´t seen any pet stores around. He said a friend gave it to him to adopt a couple years ago, which is how many people get their perros. Hamilton also has a perro, who is kept inside at the moment because she is in heat. She is a big fluffy dog and one of the few I have ever seen on a leash.
One perro on the street was purple for the first three weeks, but seems to be white again. We think it has something to do with a new purple building in town...
One thing I am very surprised by is that the perros never beg for food. People are eating outside all of the time, and the perros will come walk by, or under the table, but never ask for food. Also, there are no sticks here (wood is rare in this part of Ecuador) so the perros play with rocks or plastic bottles. They do beg to play with rocks on the beach.
On one of my first days here I was walking home and I saw a perro lieing in the road in the middle of the day, just relaxing. A car was approaching, and the perro wouldn´t move. I was getting a bit worried for it, but of course the car saw it (cars can´t go more than 5 km an hour on the sand roads here) and stopped and put on this siren kind of thing it had to make the dog move. As I said, perros rule the streets here. I am not sure why the carro had the siren...maybe just for the perros.
There are also quite a few gatos (cats) here. They are tiny and cute, but not as interesting as the perros.
The caballos (horses) are also really neat. Mitch and I went riding with Isidro one day last week...Mitch really hated it but I thought it was great. No helmets, galloping down the beach, into the next town, stopping at one of Isidro´s friends houses (who owns the sushi restaurant in town, and gave me some sashimi samples he was preparing), and riding back with the sunset and seeing whales in the ocean. You can just take the caballos right onto the beach, with all the people, and on all of the roads through town.
That is about it for los animales, there are some mosquitos and a couple cockroaches, but nothing at all unberable in any way. A bunch of small birds visit the electrical lines every night. I can´t think of any other notable animales here, so I will leave you with a couple pictures!
This is Mitch´s perro, sleeping outside his room this morning:
This is the three legged perro trying to drink out of the pool:
This is the caballo Isidro rode on our ride. The saddle was made of wood. He didn´t like it.
Here is Miguel and his caballo:
Miguel and I on our caballos riding from the Montañita beach to the Olon (next town over) beach:
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Mi Familla y Mi Casa
I really believe mi familla (my family) is the best in all of Montañita. I have been waiting to write about them until I had some pictures to share with you. I also really like mi casa (my house) and will tell you about that, although don´t have enough pictures of it yet. Families in Ecuador (or at least in Montañita) live together for a long time, possibly forever. Other family members are always visiting for meals, or just fun. This can be confusing for students living in families, like Mitch and me, because you never really know who lives there and who doesn´t. The houses are also confusing, as they have several stories and meandering rooms. I don´t think I have been in half of the rooms in my house...in fact, I didn´t even know they existed until last week!
The ¨father¨in my house owns a store which makes custom board shorts for surfing. This store is on the street level. Behind the store are the sewing machines, where 2 or 3 women work. I am not sure if they are family or good friends, or if they stay in our house (in those mystery rooms) or not. Behind these machines I believe is the room where my mom and dad (Jolanda and Alejandro, which I have likely spelled wrong) sleep. There is also an area for hand washing of clothes (my mom is always washing my clothes) and line drying.
It is difficult to get from this main floor to the ¨first floor¨of the house...there is a ladder, but people usually go around outside and up the normal stairs. These stairs are steep and narrow. It is kind of cool. They take you to what I will call the first floor of the house. There is a living room, with a balcony overlooking the street. The grandkids have tons of toys here, a tv, and a playstation 2. Coming off this room are the mystery rooms. I looked in the first one and it had bunkbeds. Don´t know if it is still used, or what lies beyond!
Off the living room, going up a few steps is the kitchen and dining area. The kitchen is very similar to our kitchens, but they do not have microwaves. Jolanda has a very nice stove. The one and only bathroom is off the kitchen, between two bedrooms. One of these rooms is mine. It has some open windows high up onto the street, and one big window that overlooks the living room and down to the shop. This can make getting dressed a challenge. But I have mastered it after years of changing on a soccer field! The other room is for another student, but right now I am the only one, so they use this as a room to watch TV, or for the little kids to have naps. They don´t nap very often at all though. Up a very steep circular staircase is an openair room where the oldest son in the family, Hamilton, sleeps. Hamilton is 27 and a professional surfer. He is sponsored by a salt company, and has shown me the ads he does for them, etc, in surfing magazines. Kind of cool. Hamilton also has a dog, but I can´t remember her name. She is in heat right now so she has to stay upstairs in his room for 2 weeks. This is because no dogs are fixed here and they all get very friendly on the beach.
There is another in the family, Saul, who is maybe 21. He goes to university for graphics design. I think he must sleep in one of the mystery rooms, but I´m not sure. He plays soccer a lot as well. Although they wear cleats, I don´t think there is grass here. I saw a couple soccer fields and they seemed to just be dust. There is also a daughter in the family, Grace. She is the oldest and married to the mayor of the town, Joni. They have 3 kids. Their youngest, Alejandra (likely spelled wrong) is 3, and my best friend here. We play together a lot. She is super patient and repeats things for me all time and sometimes teaches me new words. I think it might be a problem for her when I leave. Her brother Belfour is 4 or 5, and is totally loco (crazy). He is one of those kids who does crazy things because he knows it will make people shake their heads and laugh. The oldest son is Frekson (spelled wrong for SURE) who is maybe 8 or 9. He is a bit too old to want to play with me, but sometimes we play cards.
Last weekend I took the three kids to the piscina (pool) at the hotel owned by my school. They don´t have a pool in town, and they are too small for the ocean, so this is a big treat. Then on Sunday the family (Grace, Joni, and the kids) took me to Guayaquil, the big city 3 hours away. We went to a fair with a bunch of rides, which was the first time any of them had been on a rollercoaster, so that was nice for them. Not too thrilling for me! The next day we walked around a restored part of the city, near the river. (Guayaquil is the main port in Ecuador). There were a ton of playgrounds there, which the kids loved. Although there is a very small playground in Montañita it is old and not very nice. Joni and I also climbed 444 steps (all numbered) up a recently restored hill to see the view. The path up the hill is lined with restored homes and restaurants, which were really cute to see. Each building has a picture on it so you can see what it looked like before.
My family has really made my stay here fantastic. Every morning Jolanda makes me breakfast (I know I will have to write to you about the food soon, but today it was a big bowl of papaya and peaches with yogurt and granola, toast, and a cup of milky coffee type stuff), and every night she makes me dinner. She will also feed me lunch if I happen to be around when they are eating ... I had a great lobster soup on the weekend! She is super patient talking to me in Spanish (she speaks no English) and really really cares about her students. She would worry to death if I didn´t come home one night. I don´t see the father a lot because he is busy at work, but he also is happy to try to talk when we are at the table together.
Hamilton is a good friend of Mitch´s and sometimes I hang out with him too. Last night we watched a movie, in English, with Spanish subtitles. I knew almost all of the Spanish words, and learned a few new ones and ways to use old ones. For example, tranquillo can be used about a thousand different ways, as can claro, which means right, or light, or got it, or yes. Grace´s family live in a different house, which I visited last weekend. However, she is a teacher at the kids school, and he works too, so the kids are almost always at our house when they are not in school. They also often come for dinner. We don´t eat dinner together, but are served one at a time, as we come to the table.
Okay I think that is enough rambling for now. Today the sun is out for the first time in a long time. I need to go have a nap on the beach! Here are a few pictures first though!
Here is my whole family, as well as the other student who lived in our house for 2 weeks (she has gone home now). Starting with the red and white striped shirt and going around, there is Grace, Me, Tony (the other student), Jolanda, Alejandro, Frecson, Saul, and the kids Belfour and Alejandra. Hamilton and Joni are missing.
Here are Alejandra and Belfour in Guayaquil. You can see why I love her so much!
Here are Hamilton and Alejandra en la playa (on the beach). One day I took her to make sandcastles and watch the surfers (like Hamilton)
The ¨father¨in my house owns a store which makes custom board shorts for surfing. This store is on the street level. Behind the store are the sewing machines, where 2 or 3 women work. I am not sure if they are family or good friends, or if they stay in our house (in those mystery rooms) or not. Behind these machines I believe is the room where my mom and dad (Jolanda and Alejandro, which I have likely spelled wrong) sleep. There is also an area for hand washing of clothes (my mom is always washing my clothes) and line drying.
It is difficult to get from this main floor to the ¨first floor¨of the house...there is a ladder, but people usually go around outside and up the normal stairs. These stairs are steep and narrow. It is kind of cool. They take you to what I will call the first floor of the house. There is a living room, with a balcony overlooking the street. The grandkids have tons of toys here, a tv, and a playstation 2. Coming off this room are the mystery rooms. I looked in the first one and it had bunkbeds. Don´t know if it is still used, or what lies beyond!
Off the living room, going up a few steps is the kitchen and dining area. The kitchen is very similar to our kitchens, but they do not have microwaves. Jolanda has a very nice stove. The one and only bathroom is off the kitchen, between two bedrooms. One of these rooms is mine. It has some open windows high up onto the street, and one big window that overlooks the living room and down to the shop. This can make getting dressed a challenge. But I have mastered it after years of changing on a soccer field! The other room is for another student, but right now I am the only one, so they use this as a room to watch TV, or for the little kids to have naps. They don´t nap very often at all though. Up a very steep circular staircase is an openair room where the oldest son in the family, Hamilton, sleeps. Hamilton is 27 and a professional surfer. He is sponsored by a salt company, and has shown me the ads he does for them, etc, in surfing magazines. Kind of cool. Hamilton also has a dog, but I can´t remember her name. She is in heat right now so she has to stay upstairs in his room for 2 weeks. This is because no dogs are fixed here and they all get very friendly on the beach.
There is another in the family, Saul, who is maybe 21. He goes to university for graphics design. I think he must sleep in one of the mystery rooms, but I´m not sure. He plays soccer a lot as well. Although they wear cleats, I don´t think there is grass here. I saw a couple soccer fields and they seemed to just be dust. There is also a daughter in the family, Grace. She is the oldest and married to the mayor of the town, Joni. They have 3 kids. Their youngest, Alejandra (likely spelled wrong) is 3, and my best friend here. We play together a lot. She is super patient and repeats things for me all time and sometimes teaches me new words. I think it might be a problem for her when I leave. Her brother Belfour is 4 or 5, and is totally loco (crazy). He is one of those kids who does crazy things because he knows it will make people shake their heads and laugh. The oldest son is Frekson (spelled wrong for SURE) who is maybe 8 or 9. He is a bit too old to want to play with me, but sometimes we play cards.
Last weekend I took the three kids to the piscina (pool) at the hotel owned by my school. They don´t have a pool in town, and they are too small for the ocean, so this is a big treat. Then on Sunday the family (Grace, Joni, and the kids) took me to Guayaquil, the big city 3 hours away. We went to a fair with a bunch of rides, which was the first time any of them had been on a rollercoaster, so that was nice for them. Not too thrilling for me! The next day we walked around a restored part of the city, near the river. (Guayaquil is the main port in Ecuador). There were a ton of playgrounds there, which the kids loved. Although there is a very small playground in Montañita it is old and not very nice. Joni and I also climbed 444 steps (all numbered) up a recently restored hill to see the view. The path up the hill is lined with restored homes and restaurants, which were really cute to see. Each building has a picture on it so you can see what it looked like before.
My family has really made my stay here fantastic. Every morning Jolanda makes me breakfast (I know I will have to write to you about the food soon, but today it was a big bowl of papaya and peaches with yogurt and granola, toast, and a cup of milky coffee type stuff), and every night she makes me dinner. She will also feed me lunch if I happen to be around when they are eating ... I had a great lobster soup on the weekend! She is super patient talking to me in Spanish (she speaks no English) and really really cares about her students. She would worry to death if I didn´t come home one night. I don´t see the father a lot because he is busy at work, but he also is happy to try to talk when we are at the table together.
Hamilton is a good friend of Mitch´s and sometimes I hang out with him too. Last night we watched a movie, in English, with Spanish subtitles. I knew almost all of the Spanish words, and learned a few new ones and ways to use old ones. For example, tranquillo can be used about a thousand different ways, as can claro, which means right, or light, or got it, or yes. Grace´s family live in a different house, which I visited last weekend. However, she is a teacher at the kids school, and he works too, so the kids are almost always at our house when they are not in school. They also often come for dinner. We don´t eat dinner together, but are served one at a time, as we come to the table.
Okay I think that is enough rambling for now. Today the sun is out for the first time in a long time. I need to go have a nap on the beach! Here are a few pictures first though!
Here is my whole family, as well as the other student who lived in our house for 2 weeks (she has gone home now). Starting with the red and white striped shirt and going around, there is Grace, Me, Tony (the other student), Jolanda, Alejandro, Frecson, Saul, and the kids Belfour and Alejandra. Hamilton and Joni are missing.
Here are Alejandra and Belfour in Guayaquil. You can see why I love her so much!
Here are Hamilton and Alejandra en la playa (on the beach). One day I took her to make sandcastles and watch the surfers (like Hamilton)
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Miguel's Perspective II *PG13 Rating*
Mitch wrote this a couple days ago but it has taken me awhile to post it. Sorry!
As I am writing this i am also itching a million mosquito bites that i have received since my last post...i think it is from at night wearing sandals and shorts so i have now switched to pants and shoes, i counted over 20 bites on one foot so ive had some crazy itching attacks...ive had some good adventures the past few days...
i went training with one of the surfers here (entranada) and we started at 9 am...we jogged down the beach with his dog, but soon anotherdog started following his dog, in montanita none of the dogs are snipped, so i was jogging behind a massive set of dog balls, which come into play later...so we jog for about15 minutes and the dogs are about 100 meters ahead of us, all of a sudden hamiltons dog stops which is a female and the other dog, with the big balls, starts humping hamiltons dog...hamilton does not want his dog to have babys so he sprints to get the dog off his dog, luckily he does in time..but then both dogs continue to run and continue the festivities...therefore my job was the scare the male dog away while he was protecting his dog...so most of our training was seperating the dogs...it was pretty interesting.....
another confusing moment i had was in my house...in montanita there are always people comign and going in the house, so i am still not sure who even sleeps there and who doesnt..anyways one of the house daughters who i thought was very young was talking with me at the dinner table...there is a little baby in the family who is 3 months old and i thought it was the older sisters baby or the mothers...i found out the hard way it wasnt....as we are talking she pulls out her "teet" and the baby starts sucking away....just as i am sucking on a big shrimp this happens...i dont know what i was more shocked at that the baby was hers, or that her teet was right infront of me as i was eating...but i ate as fast as i could and off i went
good news and bad news also happend this week...i graduated from the big board to the small board in surfing so that is pretty cool...but i switched spainish classes from the one im in to the one iw as in last week for the next two days...im with one of the teachers i like so that is good, then nextw eek i will start my private lessons one on one with a teacher...
met two locals who had a 4 x 4 off road vehicle so they let me drive it up and down the beach which was prettycool, except that the dogs chase after you which is kind of scary. anyways they took me to the look out point, and on top of it is the church of santa maria which overlooks the other city and beach, it was very nice, here is a picture of the point from afar:
we then came all the way back across town via road, which was interestign because the vehicle was made for sand, so the traction on the cement wasnt too good, and the drop off the road was pretty large so got scared a couple times...we entered into the city nextt o montanita which doesnt have the tourist income that montanita does...i wanted to see one of the houses so they took me to one and they werent living in t the best condition, their stove consisted of one burner, and the kitchen table was a peace of wood, and the seats were bricks with a plank of wood ontop...made me thankful that i was living with a more well off family in montanita, and a better one at home! but it was interesting the see the different types of culture...all the people in the city were just as happy as the ones in montanita.
did some salsa lessons last night, im sure emily will put pictures of this up...i had the suave movements going and then we grabbed some mojitos on the beach and continued to salsa with some of the locals and other students...surfing this week is at 8 am so not too many fiestas durign teh week...surfing hungoveris not so much fun.
anyways i am off for now
sorrry for all the typos but this keyboard is shit.
hope all is well in torontooooooooooooooooooo
adios
chow
Em and Mitch during the salsa lesson:
Mitch and Savana dancing during the salsa lesson:
Emily and Oswaldo (Mitch´s brother) dancing on the street after the salsa lesson:
As I am writing this i am also itching a million mosquito bites that i have received since my last post...i think it is from at night wearing sandals and shorts so i have now switched to pants and shoes, i counted over 20 bites on one foot so ive had some crazy itching attacks...ive had some good adventures the past few days...
i went training with one of the surfers here (entranada) and we started at 9 am...we jogged down the beach with his dog, but soon anotherdog started following his dog, in montanita none of the dogs are snipped, so i was jogging behind a massive set of dog balls, which come into play later...so we jog for about15 minutes and the dogs are about 100 meters ahead of us, all of a sudden hamiltons dog stops which is a female and the other dog, with the big balls, starts humping hamiltons dog...hamilton does not want his dog to have babys so he sprints to get the dog off his dog, luckily he does in time..but then both dogs continue to run and continue the festivities...therefore my job was the scare the male dog away while he was protecting his dog...so most of our training was seperating the dogs...it was pretty interesting.....
another confusing moment i had was in my house...in montanita there are always people comign and going in the house, so i am still not sure who even sleeps there and who doesnt..anyways one of the house daughters who i thought was very young was talking with me at the dinner table...there is a little baby in the family who is 3 months old and i thought it was the older sisters baby or the mothers...i found out the hard way it wasnt....as we are talking she pulls out her "teet" and the baby starts sucking away....just as i am sucking on a big shrimp this happens...i dont know what i was more shocked at that the baby was hers, or that her teet was right infront of me as i was eating...but i ate as fast as i could and off i went
good news and bad news also happend this week...i graduated from the big board to the small board in surfing so that is pretty cool...but i switched spainish classes from the one im in to the one iw as in last week for the next two days...im with one of the teachers i like so that is good, then nextw eek i will start my private lessons one on one with a teacher...
met two locals who had a 4 x 4 off road vehicle so they let me drive it up and down the beach which was prettycool, except that the dogs chase after you which is kind of scary. anyways they took me to the look out point, and on top of it is the church of santa maria which overlooks the other city and beach, it was very nice, here is a picture of the point from afar:
we then came all the way back across town via road, which was interestign because the vehicle was made for sand, so the traction on the cement wasnt too good, and the drop off the road was pretty large so got scared a couple times...we entered into the city nextt o montanita which doesnt have the tourist income that montanita does...i wanted to see one of the houses so they took me to one and they werent living in t the best condition, their stove consisted of one burner, and the kitchen table was a peace of wood, and the seats were bricks with a plank of wood ontop...made me thankful that i was living with a more well off family in montanita, and a better one at home! but it was interesting the see the different types of culture...all the people in the city were just as happy as the ones in montanita.
did some salsa lessons last night, im sure emily will put pictures of this up...i had the suave movements going and then we grabbed some mojitos on the beach and continued to salsa with some of the locals and other students...surfing this week is at 8 am so not too many fiestas durign teh week...surfing hungoveris not so much fun.
anyways i am off for now
sorrry for all the typos but this keyboard is shit.
hope all is well in torontooooooooooooooooooo
adios
chow
Em and Mitch during the salsa lesson:
Mitch and Savana dancing during the salsa lesson:
Emily and Oswaldo (Mitch´s brother) dancing on the street after the salsa lesson:
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Miguel´s Perspective, Part I
It has been about one week in ecuador and I am writing to you all to update you on what has happend, first off Emily will probably be doing most of the blogging but I will be adding my two cents in so you can get an idea of the trip from my end. Secondly grammar, spelling etc will not be edited because there is no time for that, the keyboards are spainish, and we are in montanita where everything is laid back...thirdly my blog will be jumping all over the place, whatever comes to my head i will be writing about.
So i am living with a family here, there is a mother and father and 6 brothers and sisters but only 3 of them live at home. the two girls both have little babys 3 month old and 3 year old, and the son is the number 1 surfer in ecuador which is pretty cool. oswaldo, norma and fabiola are their names...the first night we arrived at 3 am and had to wake up for class at 730. just as i went to sleep the roosters woke me up at around 4, and then ifell back asleep again to be woken up by dogs at 5 am, so lets just say i was late for my first day of class...not beecause i overslept but because my mother fed me too much food in the morning and was talking too much and i didnt want to be rude and leave....
class is good, 4 other students, two hours in the morning, two in the afternoon...we have a german in our class who is pretty funny and has become a good friend his name is stefano...he also has a friend called sven so they are cool guys. not a big fan of the grammar and rules of the spanish language..i would prefer to learn just by talking to people. so i have become friends with emilys brother hamilton as well as oswaldo so they teach me words that i need to know to get around and talk with the locals...which at this point is more important then some boring grammar rules, its not like im going to become an ecuadorian political leader.
my favorite thing so far here is surfing for sure...i knew i was going to like it a lot before i came but wasnt sure how hard it was...i got up on my second try and now i have graduated from the white raft to the big waves...i surf about 3 hours every day at least...this weekend we did a surfing adventure to los tunas which means the cactus town or something, but the waves were perfect there and very big...so we were there for at least 4 hours...also took a mud bath off the beach and toured a really nice hostal....we left at 10 am and got back around 7...but on the friday night we partyed till about 4 am - yes emily too, so the wake up was a bit rough...lets just stay the first few waves did not make my stomach feel too good...after surfing all day we had an amazing meal...i had a seafood rice dish with a fish soup to start...emily liked the fish soupe more than me so it is now her go to meal...i enjoyed my seafood - shellfish, shrimp, octopus etc...will probably go back next weekend...then i came home and was so tired i looked at my bed and passed right out at 830, only to be woken up by oswaldo at 1130..he had a shot of sugar cane in his hand which he forced me to do, and then gave me some drink made out of sugar cane..they are 60 percent alcohol..so that got my night jumpstarted...i then went to the cocktail stands which is about 15 different stands by the beach all serving different cocktails..fresh fruit goes into all the drinks, probably one of the best mojitos i have ever had too...and they only cost 2 dollars..after knocking off a couple of those we threw back some cervezas costing less then a dollar each for the tall bottles..750 ml...then i ran into hamilton and he took me to cana grill which is one of the discoteques here...we partyed there till about 3-4 then people started clearing out so we went to hola ola which was packed and partyed in there with stefan and sven till about 6...at this time i dunno if i was more drunk or tired but it was time for bed, so i slept till about 2 pm today, grabbed a hambugesa, and hit the waves for 3 hours....then sat on my surf board for about an hour and watched the sunset...pictures will follow it was verry nicce...
tomorrow is more spanish classes and surf lessons, i am thinking of getting a private tutor and do spainish for 3 hours a day one on one instead of 4 hours a day in a group...we will see...i rented my own surf board so i will be doing that in most of my free time...i surf a long board right now which is about 7 feet but hamilton is going ot give me his short board probably sometime this week, so i am excited for that...
montanita is very laid back and everyone is very nice...i liked it so much that i got to talking with some of the locals about owning land here and buying a house...my surf instructor said there are houses that can be bought for 10,000 just outside of montanita and they are very nice, so im going to talk to him this week so he can tour me around a bit...might have to buy my first house in montanita! we shall see...it is growing at a very fast pace though, in the last 2 years the amount of beds and hostals have quadrupled...so the question is how long will it last for, and if too many tourists will take away from the small community of montanita...
i got myself a pair of custom board shorts, with my name written on them. i designed them myself and everything, they are definetly my favorite board shorts now..
ok i have typed enough for today...going to go say hello to my friend jose who runs the playstation center which is basically like a house with 5 playstations in it, every screen they play PES which is soccer...so i am going to show them how canadians play...then go see what hamilton and the other locals are up too...dont have class until 10 am tomorrow so a fiesta could be in order...
adiiiiiioooooooooossssssss
Emily´s Note:
Here are some pictures of Miguel. No sunset pictures yet, as I am carrying around the camera and was not with him to watch the sunset. (I had hiked way up high and watched it from the top of a montañita, which means small mountain!)
The mudmasks near Los Tunas:
Miguel and our surf instructor Isidro at Los Tunas, our day trip yesterday (Saturday):
So i am living with a family here, there is a mother and father and 6 brothers and sisters but only 3 of them live at home. the two girls both have little babys 3 month old and 3 year old, and the son is the number 1 surfer in ecuador which is pretty cool. oswaldo, norma and fabiola are their names...the first night we arrived at 3 am and had to wake up for class at 730. just as i went to sleep the roosters woke me up at around 4, and then ifell back asleep again to be woken up by dogs at 5 am, so lets just say i was late for my first day of class...not beecause i overslept but because my mother fed me too much food in the morning and was talking too much and i didnt want to be rude and leave....
class is good, 4 other students, two hours in the morning, two in the afternoon...we have a german in our class who is pretty funny and has become a good friend his name is stefano...he also has a friend called sven so they are cool guys. not a big fan of the grammar and rules of the spanish language..i would prefer to learn just by talking to people. so i have become friends with emilys brother hamilton as well as oswaldo so they teach me words that i need to know to get around and talk with the locals...which at this point is more important then some boring grammar rules, its not like im going to become an ecuadorian political leader.
my favorite thing so far here is surfing for sure...i knew i was going to like it a lot before i came but wasnt sure how hard it was...i got up on my second try and now i have graduated from the white raft to the big waves...i surf about 3 hours every day at least...this weekend we did a surfing adventure to los tunas which means the cactus town or something, but the waves were perfect there and very big...so we were there for at least 4 hours...also took a mud bath off the beach and toured a really nice hostal....we left at 10 am and got back around 7...but on the friday night we partyed till about 4 am - yes emily too, so the wake up was a bit rough...lets just stay the first few waves did not make my stomach feel too good...after surfing all day we had an amazing meal...i had a seafood rice dish with a fish soup to start...emily liked the fish soupe more than me so it is now her go to meal...i enjoyed my seafood - shellfish, shrimp, octopus etc...will probably go back next weekend...then i came home and was so tired i looked at my bed and passed right out at 830, only to be woken up by oswaldo at 1130..he had a shot of sugar cane in his hand which he forced me to do, and then gave me some drink made out of sugar cane..they are 60 percent alcohol..so that got my night jumpstarted...i then went to the cocktail stands which is about 15 different stands by the beach all serving different cocktails..fresh fruit goes into all the drinks, probably one of the best mojitos i have ever had too...and they only cost 2 dollars..after knocking off a couple of those we threw back some cervezas costing less then a dollar each for the tall bottles..750 ml...then i ran into hamilton and he took me to cana grill which is one of the discoteques here...we partyed there till about 3-4 then people started clearing out so we went to hola ola which was packed and partyed in there with stefan and sven till about 6...at this time i dunno if i was more drunk or tired but it was time for bed, so i slept till about 2 pm today, grabbed a hambugesa, and hit the waves for 3 hours....then sat on my surf board for about an hour and watched the sunset...pictures will follow it was verry nicce...
tomorrow is more spanish classes and surf lessons, i am thinking of getting a private tutor and do spainish for 3 hours a day one on one instead of 4 hours a day in a group...we will see...i rented my own surf board so i will be doing that in most of my free time...i surf a long board right now which is about 7 feet but hamilton is going ot give me his short board probably sometime this week, so i am excited for that...
montanita is very laid back and everyone is very nice...i liked it so much that i got to talking with some of the locals about owning land here and buying a house...my surf instructor said there are houses that can be bought for 10,000 just outside of montanita and they are very nice, so im going to talk to him this week so he can tour me around a bit...might have to buy my first house in montanita! we shall see...it is growing at a very fast pace though, in the last 2 years the amount of beds and hostals have quadrupled...so the question is how long will it last for, and if too many tourists will take away from the small community of montanita...
i got myself a pair of custom board shorts, with my name written on them. i designed them myself and everything, they are definetly my favorite board shorts now..
ok i have typed enough for today...going to go say hello to my friend jose who runs the playstation center which is basically like a house with 5 playstations in it, every screen they play PES which is soccer...so i am going to show them how canadians play...then go see what hamilton and the other locals are up too...dont have class until 10 am tomorrow so a fiesta could be in order...
adiiiiiioooooooooossssssss
Emily´s Note:
Here are some pictures of Miguel. No sunset pictures yet, as I am carrying around the camera and was not with him to watch the sunset. (I had hiked way up high and watched it from the top of a montañita, which means small mountain!)
The mudmasks near Los Tunas:
Miguel and our surf instructor Isidro at Los Tunas, our day trip yesterday (Saturday):
La Escuela
For the first of many themed postings I thought I would write about la escuela (the school). This is the primary reason I came to Montañita, and (I presume) the secondary reason for Miguel´s (Mitchell´s new name) trip (his primary reason is the surfing).
As I mentioned before, we spend 4 hours a day in class at la escuela, broken into 2 hours of grammar and 2 hours of conversation. I have decided to add an extra 1 hour a day of one on one classes to practice more. (They only cost 9 dollars an hour!) As most of you would guess, I really really love learning Spanish and am really motivated to learn quickly because I am desperate to be able to talk to my family. There are always people popping into our house and asking me questions that I can´t understand or answer (more on these wonderful people later).
The school is owned by a gringo (white dude) who is quite the businessman. Although he brings a lot of business to the town (there are currently 30 students at the school) I don´t think he is especially well liked. I have heard that he is a difficult boss, and that he keeps most of the money he collects, as any very businessminded person might. The average wage here is only 1 dollar an hour. We had a barbeque at the school on Friday where we had tons of meat, chicken, shrimps, salad, potatos, rice, etc. The barbeque wasn´t actually at the school, but was at las cabañas which is kind of a hostel that the school owns. It is really nice, with private and shared cabañas around a common pool area.
The school itself is right on the beach. The first floor is the surf shop, where you can rent boards and get lessons. The second and third floors are the classrooms and the office. We also have some classes outside which is quite nice. When we have classes in the mornings they bring us warm bread and a milkshake kind of drink. These drinks are very popular in my house as well, and I think they are made of milk or milk powder, fresh fruit, and sugar in a blender.
Last week our class had 5 students in it...Miguel and me, an American girl who is 25, an English girl who is around 30, and a German guy who also works for McKinsey who is 27....a very fun group. I know that the German guy is not going to be in our class this week, but I think everyone else is. For my Spanish speaking friends, this week we learnt about 10000 verbs in the present tense (although didn´t learn to say "to go" until Friday which made conversations difficult), how to tell the time, about 1000 adjectives, all the posessive pronouns and stuff that we don´t even really know in English, colours, and a bunch of random words including "hangover" that come up in conversation regularly. We also learnt how to say "this" and "that" in both question and answer form, which is still confusing me, and the difference between "para" and "por". The difference between "ser" and "estoy" is something I want to master in my private classes this week.
Finally, some pictures for you of la escuela! I meant to take a picture of the front of la escuela today but ended up being to busy hiking / eating on the beach / going for a run / talking to little kids at my house that it was dark before I realized it.
This is our morning class in our 3rd floor classroom. The girl in the yellow is our professora, Ivonne. I don´t think we will have her again this week, but I liked her a lot. We took this picture with the camera´s timer so it is a bit strange looking. There is newspaper over the windows because they are doing a bit of construction outside:
Here is the view from the classroom (Other than the small garbage pile quite nice!!!) :
Here is Miguel and I with our afternoon instructor, Steffie. You can see my super cool boardshorts. (We surf right after this class) :
As I mentioned before, we spend 4 hours a day in class at la escuela, broken into 2 hours of grammar and 2 hours of conversation. I have decided to add an extra 1 hour a day of one on one classes to practice more. (They only cost 9 dollars an hour!) As most of you would guess, I really really love learning Spanish and am really motivated to learn quickly because I am desperate to be able to talk to my family. There are always people popping into our house and asking me questions that I can´t understand or answer (more on these wonderful people later).
The school is owned by a gringo (white dude) who is quite the businessman. Although he brings a lot of business to the town (there are currently 30 students at the school) I don´t think he is especially well liked. I have heard that he is a difficult boss, and that he keeps most of the money he collects, as any very businessminded person might. The average wage here is only 1 dollar an hour. We had a barbeque at the school on Friday where we had tons of meat, chicken, shrimps, salad, potatos, rice, etc. The barbeque wasn´t actually at the school, but was at las cabañas which is kind of a hostel that the school owns. It is really nice, with private and shared cabañas around a common pool area.
The school itself is right on the beach. The first floor is the surf shop, where you can rent boards and get lessons. The second and third floors are the classrooms and the office. We also have some classes outside which is quite nice. When we have classes in the mornings they bring us warm bread and a milkshake kind of drink. These drinks are very popular in my house as well, and I think they are made of milk or milk powder, fresh fruit, and sugar in a blender.
Last week our class had 5 students in it...Miguel and me, an American girl who is 25, an English girl who is around 30, and a German guy who also works for McKinsey who is 27....a very fun group. I know that the German guy is not going to be in our class this week, but I think everyone else is. For my Spanish speaking friends, this week we learnt about 10000 verbs in the present tense (although didn´t learn to say "to go" until Friday which made conversations difficult), how to tell the time, about 1000 adjectives, all the posessive pronouns and stuff that we don´t even really know in English, colours, and a bunch of random words including "hangover" that come up in conversation regularly. We also learnt how to say "this" and "that" in both question and answer form, which is still confusing me, and the difference between "para" and "por". The difference between "ser" and "estoy" is something I want to master in my private classes this week.
Finally, some pictures for you of la escuela! I meant to take a picture of the front of la escuela today but ended up being to busy hiking / eating on the beach / going for a run / talking to little kids at my house that it was dark before I realized it.
This is our morning class in our 3rd floor classroom. The girl in the yellow is our professora, Ivonne. I don´t think we will have her again this week, but I liked her a lot. We took this picture with the camera´s timer so it is a bit strange looking. There is newspaper over the windows because they are doing a bit of construction outside:
Here is the view from the classroom (Other than the small garbage pile quite nice!!!) :
Here is Miguel and I with our afternoon instructor, Steffie. You can see my super cool boardshorts. (We surf right after this class) :
Thursday, July 9, 2009
We made it!
Hola!
We have made it to Montañita! And it is wonderful! It is so different from anywhere I have ever been before it is hard to know where to start in describing the place, the people, the food, ... everything! I think the best way will be to write posts on different topics to give you a flavour for what we are up to here. In this first (well second I guess) post, I will just give an overview of what our day looks like, and go into more details and stories in later ones. Mitch or I will try to update this once every couple days, so keep checking back! (I am sure Mitch´s posts will be a lot funnier than mine, so read his for sure!)
Each day we wake up around 4am. Seriously. This is because of the roosters (los gallos). The live in the backyards of the houses and start their cockadoodledooing at this time. Way before the sunrise. We then wake up every half hour until about 7am, at the leisure of los gallos. We are hoping that we will get used to them soon. I then go out of my room, which opens onto the kitchen and get a big buenos dios (that may be spelled wrong we are mostly working on speaking in class right now) from Jolanda, my Ecuadorian mom. About 10 minutes later she has a great breakfast out on the table for me. (More about the food later...it is really good though.) I then walk about 2 minutes down the sandy street to the Spanish and Surf school for my 8am class. We learn grammar in the mornings for 2 hours, then have 3 hours off where we go to the internet, get a coffee with the other students (who are so much fun, more on them later too), have a nap, or grab lunch. Or any combination of the above.
It is then time for our afternoon class from 1 to 3. Here we practice talking. We are not allowed to speak any English in this class. Needless to say it ends in a lot of laughter. From 3 to 5 is the time of day Mitch waits for. I think it is the only thing that gets him through all the Spanish. We get to go for our surf lesson! There is lots to tell about this too. We both really like it, so much so that Mitch is going to rent a board next week so he can go more. I am not sure yet. After surfing we amuse ourselves until dinner back with our families around 7. More good food.
After dinner it is party time! Although I haven´t stayed out late enough to taste the true Montañita party scene yet, I hear it is great. Last night I had a massive piña colada for only 2 dollars. Mitch had a super strong mojita. You just can´t go wrong!
As you can imagine we then collapse into bed until los gallos start their nonsense all over again.
It´s almost time for me to head back to my familla for dinner (we are one hour behind Toronto time) so I will say adios for now, but promise to be back with more soon!
Here is a picture of our surf class, and the two girls we are good friends with. They are also in our Spanish class:
Here is a picture of one of the main streets in the town:
We have made it to Montañita! And it is wonderful! It is so different from anywhere I have ever been before it is hard to know where to start in describing the place, the people, the food, ... everything! I think the best way will be to write posts on different topics to give you a flavour for what we are up to here. In this first (well second I guess) post, I will just give an overview of what our day looks like, and go into more details and stories in later ones. Mitch or I will try to update this once every couple days, so keep checking back! (I am sure Mitch´s posts will be a lot funnier than mine, so read his for sure!)
Each day we wake up around 4am. Seriously. This is because of the roosters (los gallos). The live in the backyards of the houses and start their cockadoodledooing at this time. Way before the sunrise. We then wake up every half hour until about 7am, at the leisure of los gallos. We are hoping that we will get used to them soon. I then go out of my room, which opens onto the kitchen and get a big buenos dios (that may be spelled wrong we are mostly working on speaking in class right now) from Jolanda, my Ecuadorian mom. About 10 minutes later she has a great breakfast out on the table for me. (More about the food later...it is really good though.) I then walk about 2 minutes down the sandy street to the Spanish and Surf school for my 8am class. We learn grammar in the mornings for 2 hours, then have 3 hours off where we go to the internet, get a coffee with the other students (who are so much fun, more on them later too), have a nap, or grab lunch. Or any combination of the above.
It is then time for our afternoon class from 1 to 3. Here we practice talking. We are not allowed to speak any English in this class. Needless to say it ends in a lot of laughter. From 3 to 5 is the time of day Mitch waits for. I think it is the only thing that gets him through all the Spanish. We get to go for our surf lesson! There is lots to tell about this too. We both really like it, so much so that Mitch is going to rent a board next week so he can go more. I am not sure yet. After surfing we amuse ourselves until dinner back with our families around 7. More good food.
After dinner it is party time! Although I haven´t stayed out late enough to taste the true Montañita party scene yet, I hear it is great. Last night I had a massive piña colada for only 2 dollars. Mitch had a super strong mojita. You just can´t go wrong!
As you can imagine we then collapse into bed until los gallos start their nonsense all over again.
It´s almost time for me to head back to my familla for dinner (we are one hour behind Toronto time) so I will say adios for now, but promise to be back with more soon!
Here is a picture of our surf class, and the two girls we are good friends with. They are also in our Spanish class:
Here is a picture of one of the main streets in the town:
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