Ecuador

I know it's been over a month since I've written, but hey, who wants to write in their blog while they're enjoying 35 degree weather on a beach? ..That's what I thought.

Ecuador was purely amazing. We had a great time...when we actaully got there. Our flights got all messed up, which meant five flights there and five flights back, and over 30 hours of travelling each way. It was awful! But the trip made up for it.

On the way down we had an 8 hour layover in Costa Rica. Since we'd been flying since 4:30 p.m. the day before, and it was now about 9 a.m., we decided to head out into the community to get a hotel and shower. Bad idea. We got the worst, creepiest, sketchiest hotel ever. I wouldn't even use the bathroom (which only had a curtain, I might add!). We were there about half an hour, to shower, and get out! I was even afraid to sit on the beds!

So we headed back to the airport because we had no idea what was safe in Costa Rica and it appeared that we were in the wrong area. Since I had tourist written all over me, we decided to go back. So there we were, in the Costa Rica San Jose airport for about 8 hour with no internet. Thank you, airport.

Off we were to Peru and then finally to Ecuador!

We got in really late (or early, depending on how you look at it) just a few minutes in to my birthday (April 21). As soon as we walked out of the airport, my lungs filled with what felt like glue. The air was so hard to breath for the first few days, it was so humid. Especially coming from the north pole and all. It took a few days of getting used to, and then it was pure, joyous warmth.

We were busy just about every day, and thankfully spanish people use a lot of enthousiasm and body language so communication wasn't that bad with the language barrior. I went shopping one day with Chris's aunt July and his friend, which was interesting with knowing little to no Spanish and them little to no English, but it was definitely one of the best days! Chris spent the day with his mom, grandma, and siblings.

We did just about everything: horseback riding on the beach, pub crawls, climbing all 444 stairs on the cerro santa ana: a bunch of houses, pubs and restaurants on the side of a hill with stairs to the top), swimming in the ocean (lots of that!), shopping, zoos, fruit markets, etc. etc. the list goes on. It was amazing! There were so many fresh fruits (which I soon learned were my enemy, especially juice). However, I sure missed Canadian food after about 4 days of banana.

The triffic, however, was terrible. And to make matters worse, seatbelts are not even an option in the back seat. And there were usually about 7 of us stuffed inside this jeep/SUV thing as we were weaving in and out of traffic, forcing six lanes into four lanes of traffic. And they don't even stop at stop signs! They just honk and keep going, so whoever honks first (or I guess has the bigger vehicle..) gets to go.

There is so much more but I will have to post pictures for you, as my lunch hour is jsut about over.