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: