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Published: June 30th 2008
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Hey everybody,
Thank you for all of your encouraging messages and emails. It is nice to know that I am not alone here and that people are praying for me at home.
Things are going pretty well here. I had a really fun weekend. Planet Drum took Friday off because this week is going to be crazy. There are 40 Canadians coming to Bahia to volunteer at the Genesis school and Planet Drum. It is gonna be crazy. There will be Canadians everywhere haha. Clay also wanted to take Friday off because there was good surf coming in.
So Friday Clay and I woke up really early and took the bus to Canoa where we picked up two of Clay´s closest Ecuadorian friends who also surf. From there we hitched a ride in the back of a truck to a really small fishing town up north. It was fun riding in the back of the truck for a couple hours. Plus it was way faster and cheaper then taking the bus! The small fishing town is called La Cabuya and it has a fun point break. Once we got there we surfed it for a couple hours. It
El Almuerzo
Haha I thought I would take a picture of my lunch. This is the almuerzo special I eat everyday. All of the local restaurants have an almuerzo special for 1.50. For 1.50 you get a big bowl of delicious thick soup. Usually it is a fish or cheese soup with vegetables. Sometimes it is a viche soup with peanut butter balls. Then you get a segundo which is a plate with salad, rice, beans, and either fish, chicken, or steak. Mmmm it is so good! was really fun surfing some place new with nobody out except my friends. We got any wave that we wanted. The wave was a little slow and soft but it was still a lot of fun. After we surfed we were really hungry but since La Cabuya is so small there are no restaurants. We waited for a fishing boat to come in and bought some squid and shrimp off of the fisherman. We then asked around until we found a woman who was willing to cook for us in her house. She cooked us a big lunch and we all ate in her kitchen. It was great! You could never do that at home. Also, it was interesting being in a home in a rural community. It was a cool experience. After lunch we walked down the beach until we found a good spot to camp where the high tide wouldn´t get us. We set up our tents and got the camp site ready. The beach was so beautiful. There were also nobody to be seen or heard. I got to surf while the sun was setting. For dinner we cooked sausages and plantains over a little fire. We
My host dad and I
This is a picture of my host dad Leo and I. It is from the night that I went to that formal party for my host brother´s daughter. also made a gigantic fire to keep the mosquitoes away. It was a really fun relaxing night hanging out with Clay, Marcelo, and Leo. Those guys are really funny. It is good because Clay is fluent in Spanish and they mostly speak Spanish so I can still learn some new things but when I don´t understand something Clay can translate for me. Leo and Marcelo are pretty good friends with Clay. They like to make fun of him a lot. It is really funny. After this weekend I have become friends with them too. They call me fish because I have a fish surfboard and a fish tattoo on my foot haha. Sometimes they call clay Mr. Clay and me Mr. Fish haha. So anyways that night Clay and I shared the tiniest tent haha. I had a horrible sleep. I woke up and my ear was hurting really bad. It felt stuffy so I thought maybe it had water in it. I tried to sleep on my side all night but I kept waking up because my ear hurt so bad. In the morning I used some of Clay´s swimmer ear stuff and it didn´t work. Anyways it turns
My host mom and I
This is a picture of me with my host mom Gulnara. out I have an ear infection. So that kinda sucks. I bought some antibiotic drops though so I am hoping it will clear up in a couple days.
So the next day we had to wake up and pack all fast and run back to La Cabuya because the tide was coming up. It was pretty intense. A wave would come and we would all run up onto the rocks with our backpacks and surfboards. Then we would jump off the rocks and run really fast before the next wave came in haha. I got pretty wet. We got back to La Cabuya and the left point break was looking great. We surfed great waves all by ourselves for a couple hours. It was so much fun. We were all stoked on each others waves and laughing and having a great time. I had never surfed a left point break before this trip. it was great!
After surfing for a couple hours we decided to head back to the Bahia/Canoa area. We hitched a ride in the back of a pickup truck and sped all the way to Canoa. We didn´t take a bus a single time during
Passion Fruit
This is a passion fruit farm. It is a small pretty farm behind Fanca. The site we macheted and watered is above this farm. the whole trip. Once we got to Canoa I bought some eardrops went to a hostal and slept until morning. I must have slept for like 15 hours haha. On Sunday I woke up, had an amazing breakfast, hung out with Clay, Marcelo, and Leo, and surfed for about an hour. This weekend there was a big festival in Canoa. People from all over Ecuador were there. I actually slept through the whole thing but it sounded like it was a lot of fun haha. In the evening Clay and I went back to Bahia exhausted from our weekend. I grabbed some dinner, took a shower, and went to sleep. Even though I got sick I still had a great weekend. I made some new Ecuadorian friends and got to spend a lot of time getting to know Clay. He and I actually have a lot in common and after this weekend we have become friends. Hanging out with him is cool because he has been here for a while so he has insights into the culture, he introduces me to his Ecuadorian friends, and he knows a lot of great places to surf, visit, and eat. It is funny
Farm
This just a picture of a section of the farm from above. You can not really tell from my bad picture but it is a really pretty place. though because I eat a lot of food that the other volunteers and even Clay will not eat. For example I like to eat these delicious burgers from a street vendor that opens ever night. It is called Big Boy Burgers and they fry an egg and put it in your burger. It is delicious but nobody will ever go with me to eat them haha. They are too scared.
I think this weekend was just what I needed. I surfed a lot, made friends, ate great food, traveled. It was fun.
Today I started work again though. We macheted behind a farm near Fanca. I didn´t know this but Fanca is a town that was created because of the devastating mudslides that happened in the late 1990s. A lot of homes were destroyed so the government built a bunch of cheap homes in one area for everyone to move into. Now it is one of the poorest communities in the area. I had never known that until last week.
Well I am posting a couple of random pictures. Thanks again for encouraging me. I will keep you posted as soon as I can. I love you guys and miss you.
Bye.
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Nana and Papa
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Great Weekend
Thanks for the pictures they were just great. The campsite and ocean looks beautiful. Nana got a little upset cause I wondered why she didn't fix me any good lunches like that. So she says don't send any more pictures of all the good food you are eating. haha How fun riding in the back of a pickup with the wind blowing through your hair sounds great and better than the bus. Let me know if those Canadians tell as good Canadian jokes as I do. haha Be careful with that ear infection and you take of it. Your lucky you Nana isn't there she probably wouldn't allow you to go surfing for a couple of weeks. We have been thing of you and praying for you this past week so was really glad to get your blog, it was great and glad you had such a great time. Love and miss you Nana and Papa