Observations

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Some Ecuador observations for ya...

In the states the icecream truck is the one with music. Here it's the garbage truck. People can't put out their garbage early because the dogs will just go for it, so with the music they can tell when the truck is coming. It actually kinda makes sense, but the garbage song is really annoying! We know we've been here too long when we start humming the garbage song while walking down the street...

PDA is rampant here in Ecuador, and I think in all of Latin America. I was actually kind of surprised. I expected it to not be as much since the States is always talked about as sort of more lenient (not sure that's the right word) in those areas but it's ridiculous here! I'm not a fan of PDA so it's kinda weird for me. Couples are always connected, either holding hands, or arms around waists, or the guy behind the girl hugging her as they walk (which I still don't know how that's really possible). Even around their families too! I just think that would be awkward, but I guess that's just me.

No peanut butter in Ecuador. Some of the big grocery stores in Quito have it and supposedly there's one tiny store in Otavalo somewhere that sometimes has it, but nobody here really eats it and it's hard to find. Disappointing! All us North Americans here who love peanut butter are struggling!

Fruit. Amazing. All of the normal stuff is good here and there's a bunch of other new fruits too! New ones... babaco: big (a little bigger than a pineapple), long, green and yellow, slightly tart, delicious. Passion fruit: they have this other places but I don't really ever eat it. Delicious, but kind of weird because you eat the seeds and pulpy stuff. The juice is amazing! Pepinos: small, hard, yellow with black stripes. Not a fan. Granadilla: same seed/pulpy stuff as passion fruit, but disgusting! Zapote: about the size of a grapefruit, bright orange on the inside, almost more like pumpkin texture than fruit, about 4 pits, pretty good.

It's crazy here how right when some amazing people leave, new ones show up. There hasn't been a time where there haven't been people that I get along with really well. More so than on my other trips. It's also interesting how the popular places change with different groups of people. There are about 8 main restaurants/bars/clubs that we always go to, but we rotate between them and the popularity shifts depending on the group. Kinda weird.

Think that's all for now...

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