Our first bad experience and the best i·ve ever had.

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Right at this very moment, I am in Biah de Caracas, which is the beginning and end of our costal excursions, with lots in between. 4 nights ago? we got on the bus from Otavalo to Quito, a mere 3 hour ride, but it was awful...we were kinda shoved on the bus, which meant we had to keep our big backpacks on our laps, and put our little bags up overhead. to make a long story short, when i got off the bus, my little bag was open; my fanny pack had been stolen, and in it was my camera. this was probably the 3rd worse thing that could have happened on the bus, and very unlikely, seeing as it was right above my head and i checked on it every time someone walked by. but there is nothing i can do. there couldnt have been a worse time for camera to get stolen, because the 3 nights we just spent on the coast were incredibly beautiful. anywho, after waiting in the bus terminal for 4 hours in quito, we got on a night bus to Biah de Caracas, where i am now. we arrived in this skeleton of a city (el niño hit and nothing got built back up) 7 terrifiyingly bumpy, swervy, fast, and beautiful hours later, at 6 in the morning, had breakfast, and got on a little boat that goes across the water to san vincente. Once on the shore, we immediatly got on a beautiful old bus to Canoa. the bus was ancient, with quilted pleather hanging off the ceiling, red and blue valore seat covers on all the seats except for the drivers seat, which had been ripped out and replaced by a lawn chair. by 8 in the morning we had checked into Bambu, a very popular and beautiful hostel right on the beach. as soon as we got into our room, i jumped into my swimming shorts and we headed out, stopping first at the bar, thinking it was a perfect time to relax with a margarita and go for a swimm, but when someone finally came to the bar and we asked for 2 margaritas, they just looked at us in dismay. we turned to eachother and had what was now a ussual conference to make sure we had used our bad spanish correctly, when we realized that it was 8 in the morning! we thought it was around 5, becuase we had already done so much. we scrapped that idea and just went for a walk on the beach, and what a walk! when we came up over the sand dune, what we saw was 10,000 little fish dead on the shore, all the way down the beach as far as we could see. we didnt find out why till alonzo told us, at midnight on next night, by a bondfire at low tide under a full moon, while drinking firewater, but we will get there. anyways, we walked along the beach stepping carefully around the little fish, to the massive cliffs at one end. the cliffs here are very pale, and very tall, and stick out into the water almost every mile. so we spend the night in this little town of canoa with dirt roads and wild dogs and chickens and fishermen, and leave the next morning for Punta Prienta, which was really the highlight of our trip so far.
the bus ride is about an hour of standing in very close proximity to little women with sacs of chickens at their feet. Punta Prienta is a very private hotel with a private beach, every guest gets there own little villa with a beach vista, and the whole shabang is 200km up ontop of a cliff. our villa was the nicest one, seeing as we were the only guests, but we bargained it down from $60 dollars to 30. after a day in the ocean, we had dinner, which is in the house of the owner, Alanzo. Alanzo is 62 and moves like a monkey, because he has a pet monkey. he also has a galapagos tourtise (HUGE), very massive dogs, a liquer museum, a vast collection of ancient artifacts, a 36 yr old wife, and very endearing english skills. pretty much, he is very very interesting. he greeted us for dinner and his wife brought us dinner of massive shirmp, platanos, rice, white chilean wine, vegtables, and fruit. it was very good, and when we were done he came over and talked to us, slowly refilling our glasses of agua-fuego until we said we had enough, at which point he said ¨"ok we have more on the beach, yes?!!, we make fire, the moon is big (full) and the water is low (very very low), we must make fire!" so we all (his friends son now joins up) go down to the beach and make a fire and drink. we talk and talk and talk, we talk in spanish, always asking for help, and they do the same in english. finally, around midnight, we decide we are tired, but first we must walk on the beach, so we say goodnight, and go on our merry way, which was very merrry. the next day we went for a walk in the rainforest (a dry rainforest) and then back to canoa for another night and now we are here, about to catch a bus to Ambato!
i miss you all alittle, but i am seeing so much there isnt room for many distant thoughts
safely
Antone

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Comments

[yogenie]

the 10k fish?
What happened to the fishes?

[rocco]

yoyo
awesome, playas. im sorry about all though poor baby fishies and your camera. damn. sounds awesome. though. simply. i like the wife steez and the beash and moon and low and alcohol and everything, so exciting. everything from your say seems in my head like a tatoine in star wars or something like that, like out the world, power and large objects, obelisk. so amazing love you guys, be safe.

[Antone]

10k fish
alonzo said that the fishermen throw all the fish back that arnt big enough but that get caught in their nets! the locals buried some of them so too many birds wouldnt come, but they looked tasty to me.

[anonymous]

uhhh I hate that thing about those poor little fishes. What kind of monkey was it? If it was a capuchin I hope it was female because the males get pretty feisty once they reach sexual maturity. Capuchin's are organ grinder monkeys if you don't know what I'm talking about.