(no subject)
If you read the last entry, you will understand why I strategically drank no water before taking the overnight bus back to Quito from Azogues. One 3am bathroom adventure was enough for me.
The very next night, Kate came! Paul and I took the last bus to the airport, which meant arriving there at about 10:30pm for her 1:30am arrival time. There´s only so much walking around, listening to music, and playing category games you can do before cold and fatigue set in, so you can imagine how delighted we were to see her come through customs at 3:00am!
It´s been fun to have Kate here. We spent 1 day with Germania and Paul here in Quito, specifically at the equator site, before crossing back into the northern hemisphere to the beaches and Don Dima´s house. Poor Kate, I´ve made her sit on so many busses. To kill time, we buy as many empanadas as we can from the vendors who jump on the busses at each stop. It´s a good game.
So we tried to head directly from Quito to a small beach town called Mompiche, but we ran out of busses and daylight before we got there, and ended up spending the night in a bigger town along the way. We found a hotel and got really excited about taking showers, but when Kate went into the bathroom and turned the handle, no water came out. It was a pretty standard hotel. We paid $8 per person per night, private bathroom, no hot water because it´s the hot coast and you don´t need it, but there should be some water. So I went down to ask the guy, and he said, "Of course, let me just go turn the water on!" And he did! So we strolled the boardwalk-like strip, ate dinner, walked on the beach, sipped pina coladas, and went to bed pretty early.
The bus to Mompiche came around 7 the next morning, and we hopped on and kept our eyes peeled for empanada vendors. There were no empanadas on the first bus, just a lot of gangster rap piped through the sound system, but when we changed busses at la Y, jackpot! Pastelitos of chicken and pineapple, and yuca con queso. Mompiche was not far down the road, past a few dusty clusters of houses, clothes lines, walls painted with political propaganda, people hanging out watching the street, and the requisite chickens, pigs, cows, dogs.
Mompiche was not much bigger than my little Estero de Platano, but it is something of a tourist destination. When we got off the bus we were followed by a cluster of young boys who tried to help us find a hotel. We declined their help and found one on our own. It was the second floor of a restaurant, 8 rooms, bathroom down the hall. We were shown one with two beds and a mosquito net, a working lightbulb and some candles, told that it would be $5 per person for the night, and we took it. We went right away to walk on the beach, which was beautiful. We walked away from the town, toward the rocky part where there were surfers, and stayed out until we got hungry. Lunch was shrimp with rice, lentils, patacones (fried green plantains) and salad. Oh, and at the comedor where we ate, the mom washed our shrimp in a basin of water, and then the daughter came along with the baby, who she bathed in said basin. Really good food, actually. By then the clouds had cleared a little and the temperature had heated up, so we grabbed our swimsuits and a juice-filled coconut and went back to the beach. The water is so warm and easy to get into!
Imagine if you will what had happened since the last shower: bug spray, sweat, sunblock, sweat, sunblock, bug spray, sweat, sunblock, sea water, sweat. So then you get back from the beach, grab your shampoo (which you now use as soap also, since your last thing of soap ran out and now it just seems excessive to carry two things to the shower), walk down the hall, close the bathroom door by attaching the little string on the door to the nail on the wall, undress, turn the lever on the shower, and then no water comes out. Imagine the feeling! Hehe. So you re-dress, give your sister the news, and walk downstairs to the kitchen where you tell them that either you haven´t figured out how to turn the water on, or there isn´t any. And then imagine waiting for a few minutes while the lady who is cooking goes to find the guy who knows about the water. And then he comes and you follow him back up to the bathroom and he does exactly what you did and announces that the water tank on the roof of the building must be empty. Just imagine! It´s fun!
Basically, I was told to wait while the tank filled up again, and then I could shower. So I waited a while, tried again, found no water, and gave up. But then the electricity went out. Which, I guess, is why the candles were there. So, dark and dirty, we had a candlelit dinner at a restaurant where the only other people eating were the family who got up from their meal to make ours. Then they served us and went back to their dinner. They explained that the electricty goes out for about an hour every night at 7pm. Ah. It was funny. My cleanliness scale has certainly been recalibrated since I got here. But everything was back on and running the next morning and we left for Don Dima´s house clean and full of breakfast and tree tomato juice.
More later,
Gen.
The very next night, Kate came! Paul and I took the last bus to the airport, which meant arriving there at about 10:30pm for her 1:30am arrival time. There´s only so much walking around, listening to music, and playing category games you can do before cold and fatigue set in, so you can imagine how delighted we were to see her come through customs at 3:00am!
It´s been fun to have Kate here. We spent 1 day with Germania and Paul here in Quito, specifically at the equator site, before crossing back into the northern hemisphere to the beaches and Don Dima´s house. Poor Kate, I´ve made her sit on so many busses. To kill time, we buy as many empanadas as we can from the vendors who jump on the busses at each stop. It´s a good game.
So we tried to head directly from Quito to a small beach town called Mompiche, but we ran out of busses and daylight before we got there, and ended up spending the night in a bigger town along the way. We found a hotel and got really excited about taking showers, but when Kate went into the bathroom and turned the handle, no water came out. It was a pretty standard hotel. We paid $8 per person per night, private bathroom, no hot water because it´s the hot coast and you don´t need it, but there should be some water. So I went down to ask the guy, and he said, "Of course, let me just go turn the water on!" And he did! So we strolled the boardwalk-like strip, ate dinner, walked on the beach, sipped pina coladas, and went to bed pretty early.
The bus to Mompiche came around 7 the next morning, and we hopped on and kept our eyes peeled for empanada vendors. There were no empanadas on the first bus, just a lot of gangster rap piped through the sound system, but when we changed busses at la Y, jackpot! Pastelitos of chicken and pineapple, and yuca con queso. Mompiche was not far down the road, past a few dusty clusters of houses, clothes lines, walls painted with political propaganda, people hanging out watching the street, and the requisite chickens, pigs, cows, dogs.
Mompiche was not much bigger than my little Estero de Platano, but it is something of a tourist destination. When we got off the bus we were followed by a cluster of young boys who tried to help us find a hotel. We declined their help and found one on our own. It was the second floor of a restaurant, 8 rooms, bathroom down the hall. We were shown one with two beds and a mosquito net, a working lightbulb and some candles, told that it would be $5 per person for the night, and we took it. We went right away to walk on the beach, which was beautiful. We walked away from the town, toward the rocky part where there were surfers, and stayed out until we got hungry. Lunch was shrimp with rice, lentils, patacones (fried green plantains) and salad. Oh, and at the comedor where we ate, the mom washed our shrimp in a basin of water, and then the daughter came along with the baby, who she bathed in said basin. Really good food, actually. By then the clouds had cleared a little and the temperature had heated up, so we grabbed our swimsuits and a juice-filled coconut and went back to the beach. The water is so warm and easy to get into!
Imagine if you will what had happened since the last shower: bug spray, sweat, sunblock, sweat, sunblock, bug spray, sweat, sunblock, sea water, sweat. So then you get back from the beach, grab your shampoo (which you now use as soap also, since your last thing of soap ran out and now it just seems excessive to carry two things to the shower), walk down the hall, close the bathroom door by attaching the little string on the door to the nail on the wall, undress, turn the lever on the shower, and then no water comes out. Imagine the feeling! Hehe. So you re-dress, give your sister the news, and walk downstairs to the kitchen where you tell them that either you haven´t figured out how to turn the water on, or there isn´t any. And then imagine waiting for a few minutes while the lady who is cooking goes to find the guy who knows about the water. And then he comes and you follow him back up to the bathroom and he does exactly what you did and announces that the water tank on the roof of the building must be empty. Just imagine! It´s fun!
Basically, I was told to wait while the tank filled up again, and then I could shower. So I waited a while, tried again, found no water, and gave up. But then the electricity went out. Which, I guess, is why the candles were there. So, dark and dirty, we had a candlelit dinner at a restaurant where the only other people eating were the family who got up from their meal to make ours. Then they served us and went back to their dinner. They explained that the electricty goes out for about an hour every night at 7pm. Ah. It was funny. My cleanliness scale has certainly been recalibrated since I got here. But everything was back on and running the next morning and we left for Don Dima´s house clean and full of breakfast and tree tomato juice.
More later,
Gen.