Back in the good ol’ USA… I arrived back in the States last
Wednesday afternoon, and have since been trying to get things in order here – I
still have some researching/writing to do for my final paper that’s due in
September, and have also been trying to squeeze in visits with my friends in
Indianapolis before I head back to Bryn Mawr on the 29th.
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| Sunset in Quito |
My last week in Ecuador was pretty great, as it included a
trip to the beach! After some ticket drama and some bus-sickness (I thought I
was going to be sick because of the curves and how fast our bus was going), we made
it to Manta at 6am on Friday morning and from there caught a bus to Puerto
Lopez. There were 6 of us in total, so it was a bit difficult to find a hostal
because a lot of Ecuadorians are on vacation this time of year, but we
eventually found a place, went out for breakfast and then rented some bikes to
go to a nearby national park/beach.
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| Puerto Lopez |
No more than 3 minutes en route to Los Frailes (the national
park/beach), my bike got a flat tire. I’m pretty sure that something was wrong
with the bike to begin with because one of my friends also had problems with her
bike. Luckily, there are motorcycle taxis everywhere in Puerto Lopez, so Sandra
and I took a taxi with our bikes to the beach and waited for the boys to arrive
pedaling (I think my friend underestimated how long of a bike ride this was).
The beach was gorgeous! The waves were quite large, so we didn’t really get to
do much swimming, but we enjoyed hiking up to a lookout point and eating ice
cream.
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| View from the lookout point at Los Frailes |
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| The group! |
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| Los Frailes |
Back in Puerto Lopez, we returned the bikes and went back to
the hostal to rest a little bit. Galindo and I enjoyed piña coladas while
watching the sunset and then all of us went out to dinner. I had some kind of
good fish (no idea what it was, though) and everyone else had breaded shrimp.
The waterfront in Puerto Lopez is lined with small little huts selling drinks
and sandwiches, so we went back there at night for drinks and dancing. The
weather was perfect – not too cold, yet not too hot – so we enjoyed ourselves
there, but went to bed rather early in preparation for our whale watching
adventures the next morning!
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| Watching the sunset in Puerto Lopez |
I had my heart set on visiting Isla de la Plata (Island of
Silver – it got its name because of the guano on its cliffs that supposedly
glows in the dark at night), an island about an hour away from Puerto Lopez, so
I left at 9:30am on a tour to go there, whereas my friends only went
whale-watching closer to Puerto Lopez. There were about 16 other people on my
tour, and we bonded over trying not to get seasick on the rather choppy ride
out to the island. The journey was well worth it, however, as we got to see
blue-footed boobies and frigates and enjoy gorgeous views from our hike to the
highest point of the island! The blue-footed boobies are so used to tourists
that you can literally get within 1 foot of them! We probably could have
touched them, but nobody wanted to risk being bitten with no medical facilities
around! They do a little dance as part of their mating process, and the males
give the females little twigs and stones as presents. So cute!
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| Doing their little dance |
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| A blue-footed booby egg! |
We saw a sea turtle while eating lunch on the boat, and then
went snorkeling for a little bit. I saw a couple of colorful fish, but it was
hard to see much more because the water was a little sandy, so we didn’t stay
around for very long. On the way back to Puerto Lopez, we got to see humpback
whales! They’re there from about June-September, but August is prime viewing
time! Originally we were watching a male and a female, but then another male
joined the group, so we got to watch 3 whales swim around for about 20 minutes
or so. We all had our cameras out during that time, but of course we put them
away once we resumed the journey back, so we missed the prime picture
opportunity which was a huge humpback whale jumping out of the water in the distance
about 15 minutes later! It was incredible to see – they’re huge creatures, so
seeing one jump out of the water was just amazing.
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| Isla de la Plata |
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| Humpback whale |
I met up with my friends in the nearby town of Montañita
after I got back from my tour and after some kind of shower fiasco at our new
hostal (the water came out of the electric showerhead black and with an
electric current – I passed on showering until they fixed it), we went out to
dinner. I had the best shrimp with coconut sauce ever! It was probably one of
the better meals I’ve had in my life, so I was a pretty happy camper. Montañita
is a big party town, so we went out that night, although in retrospect, I think
we enjoyed the more laid-back atmosphere of Puerto Lopez better.
I’d never had ceviche before, but we ate some on the beach
the next morning for breakfast and it was delicious! The boys went
body-boarding, and Sandra and I enjoyed laying in chairs under an umbrella on
the beach with our fruity drinks and newly purchased sunglasses. We stopped for
incredible fruit salads on the way back to the hostal from the beach, and then
caught the bus back to Puerto Lopez in the afternoon in order to eat dinner and
catch our bus back to Quito.
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| Ceviche on the beach |
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| We bought the sunglasses, but not that hats! |
The bus ride back to Quito was hair-raising, to say the
least. I’d taken motion sickness medicine because of my experience on the way
to the beach, so I was quite drowsy, but could still feel that we were going
rather fast. My friends were in disbelief about how fast this bus driver was
going, especially with all of the curves on the road! You know it’s bad when
the Ecuadorians themselves complain! We had left Puerto Lopez at 8pm, and the
bus was supposed to take 10 hours to arrive in Quito, but instead, we got there
in 7.5 hours at 3:30am. We all slept at my apartment for a little bit, and then
my friends left to go back to Yunguilla in the morning.
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| Body-boarding in Montañita |
I spent Monday sleeping and doing laundry, and then on Tuesday
I cleaned the apartment and packed. Galindo came to go out to dinner on Tuesday
evening and then we went to the airport after lugging all of my luggage down to
the street (a very steep walk) because no taxi company wanted to send a taxi to
the apartment, grrr. I was of course quite sad at the airport, and matters were
made worse when I went through customs. Before I left for Ecuador in June, I
had called the Ecuadorian Embassy in Washington, D.C. to make sure that
everything would be fine with my 90-day tourist visa taking into account how
many days I’d been in the country last summer. The woman checked my specific
dates and told me that everything was fine. False. As soon as the man at the
customs counter in Quito scanned my passport, he told me that I’d overstayed my
visa. They brought the police over and made photocopies of my passport, but
assured me that everything was fine, I just couldn’t return to the country for
9 months. I didn’t have to pay a fine, but I told them that the next time I’d
be returning to the country, it could be to live/work there, so I’d rather not
have a record of overstaying a visa. They assured me that it’d be no problem. I
probably should’ve gotten that in writing, just like my conversation with the woman
at the Ecuadorian Embassy in D.C....
I had an overnight flight to Miami, but ended up spending
most of the 4 hours crying and moping, not sleeping. Ecuador is a truly
incredible place with amazing people, and I’ve been so fortunate to call it
home for the past 9 weeks and been able to make 4 trips there over the past 5
years. I’m re-adjusting to life back in the States, but I look forward to going
back to Ecuador as soon as possible and potentially living/working there in the
future.
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| Full moon in Quito |
I’m off to D.C. with my parents on August 29th to
pick-up my stuff and visit with Ted and Nancy, and then we’re off to Bryn Mawr
the next morning to move-in and for me to attend my Spanish teaching assistant
workshop. I can’t believe it’s already my senior year! Because I was interning
in D.C. this past semester, I’m really excited to see everyone again, but know
that the year is going to be full of lots of work (i.e. thesis) and challenges
(i.e. finding a job for post-graduation). My commencement ceremony (*fingers
crossed*) is Saturday, May 18th, to which you’re all invited! Thank
you all for reading and allowing me to share my experiences with you this
summer, I hope you’ve enjoyed it!
Xoxo,
Maggie
