Eso, eso, eso

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Hello all you eager readers, I'm sure you're all DYING to read what I have to write...speaking of dying, there's probably a murder in Manabí just about every weekend. I get to see them in the paper I read every Sunday. What makes them so...noticeable...is the photos. Blood, blood, and more blood. No censoring in any papers here. Let me see, the last guy I read about was sitting in a chair by the side of the road in the evening when a car pulled up and men jumped out and shot him ten times, some sort of love affair/revenge/angry ex type thing that's common here. You've got to watch out which girlfriends you pick...could be the ex of a drug dealer. But don't worry, I'm only a really tall, white, American...never attract any attention. Nothing to worry about, everyone here is really nice. I can now carry on conversations with the taxi drivers while I get transported places, and they're always really amable.



People here are really close. The standard greeting I have to perform to everyone female is a peck on the cheek. Males shake hands. You have to greet everyone when you enter a room/area where you know people. Once you've met someone and talked to them, you have to greet them everytime you see them. So, if you enter a room filled with people, you go about it kissing and shaking hands. When you leave it's the same, especially for saying goodbye to the older people. You can get by giving a collective wave to younger people if you're in a rush, but you can't forget Aunts and Uncles and Grandmas. Bad manners.



Have I mentioned the "Fiestas" here? Lots of fun. There's fiestas every weekend, and anyone is invited. There's usually about a 2-3 dollar entry fee plus drinks if you want them. They're held everywhere from big, open concert areas to the top of the local airport. There's 4 main dance types here: Reggaeton, Cumbia, Salsa, and Merengue. The most popular with the youth is Reggaeton. It's rather simple music, but works for the very suggestive "perreo" dancing style favored by the younger generation. Every song has the same foundation of: "dmm...dmm, dmm, dmm." Then there's the main singer rapping/singing/laughing, electronic music, girls saying stuff like "tocame mmmmmm" or "besame mmmmmm." Touch me and kiss me. Ahh, my favorite part of reggaeton is when some guy in the background says "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrah!"



If anyone ever decides to travel here, I´d advise them not to rent a car to travel with. Hire someone or something, probably cheaper, and a lot safer. It's not that they aren't skilled, it's the way they drive. I would go so far as to say that the only law that's really followed (usually, I've been in many cars that have broken this rule) is stopping at red lights. Yesterday we passed a police car that was driving to slow...along with about 10 other cars. Speaking of breaking rules, bus drivers are the worst. Watch out for those guys...they´re the most dangerous because they only focus on their one goal: to get from point A to point B as fast as they can while stopping to pick up passengers anywhere. Here´s how the speedbumps work here: accelerate towards it as fast as you can, stop at the last second, then accelerate as fast as you can to get to the next one, never mind all the people and bikers everywhere. Pedestrians watch out. Never try to cross the road without looking left and right about 20 times. Lines on the road might as well not even be there. The standard street has 2 lanes, but, the centerline also doubles as a passing lane. You can pass anywhere at anytime, middle of the city, no problem. A lot of the time I end up watching as we pull out into the left/middle of the road to pass a car, and sloooowwwly watch as we hurtle towards a large truck, until, at the last second, we swerve back into the right lane to repeat the same feat in a few more seconds. Of course, everyone buckles up...not. It's a bad habit that you pick up when you ride in Ecuatoriano cars. No one buckles up. Drinking and driving, a go. Litter? Hell yes. There's garbage everywhere. And when there's not, it's because they burned the garbage in a pile by the side of the road, or in their backyard, or...anywhere. Roads here are horrible. Which makes everyone's driving moves more erratic (swerving to avoid holes the lead to the sewer). There's a big hole, I mean hole, where a manhole should be down the street. Protected from drivers, or drivers are protected from it by a tire...the roads to Crucita often have patches that aren't paved, I'm not sure why...we'll be cruising, then a patch of gravel that's about half a foot lower than the road we're currently traveling on crops up.


Ah, smoking. I was just looking at the packs of cigarettes on the street today. No surgeon general's warning here. Instead there's "Fumar causa Cáncer," and "Fumar mata," in big block letters on the front of each box. Smoking causes cancer and smoking kills. When I first saw them, I thought they were a joke or fake cigarette boxes against smoking. Nope.



Everything is pirated here, BUT, with good reason, I assure you. I asked how much a CD cost, maybe a new release of a pop star; it's fifty dollars. Soooo, the lesson to be learned here is, buy the one-dollar pirated version. Everyone watches TV here all the time too, there's just about anything you want on cable. I've been seeing a lot of Nicholas Cage lately, which got me thinking about how much I like his acting. I was never a big fan of him before I left, but the day before I left I watched Adaptation along with Being John Malkovich. Also, Uncle David, if you're reading this, I thank you profusely for recommending those two to me! Love you. I thought Adaptation was the better of the two. Also had Meryl Streep in it. Loved Nicholas Cage as the twins.



Went to the beach in Crucita two days ago because we had no school. Luckily there were hardly any people there because it was a Monday. Very fun. We ate ceviche, which I can't get enough of. What could be so appealing about raw fish? I think it's the copious amounts of lime juice, salt, cilantro, onions in lime juice, and fried banana chips that we pour into each bowl. The food here is always good, and very inexpensive. That's what keeps Manabí running: the food. Everything tastes good. Really good. We have everything from Ceviche to Parrilladas (BBQish style meats). Then there's all the produce from the "campo." Bananas, coconuts, mangos(soon), papaya, granadillas (sort of like passionfruit), oranges, guayaba, mandarins, pineapple, strawberries, blackberries, the list goes on (didn't even mention the vegetables). You can buy fruit just about anywhere in the city. There's a large market in the center that runs just about all day, or there's individual fruit sellers everywhere. My favorite sellers are the green coconut men. They have these carts loaded with green coconuts, then, they take a machete, and chop off the top until a tip of the edible flesh is exposed, then you stick a straw in and suck out the milk...mmmm. Then, if you ask, they´ll also cut in in half and scoop out the meat for you, really, really good. What else, oh, freshly slaughtered chickens. There's these chicken rotisseries everywhere (please mention this to Andrew, Jen, Sue, and Bev at the deli Jenny), but the rotisserie chickens are amazing, not a lot of fat, not overmarinated, probably survived the barnyard by scratching in the dirt for food, how chickens should be. The soda here is really good, I love real sugar, makes everything so much better. Water is plentiful, though, straight out of tap is not good. Everyday we boil big pots of it and fill big bottles. Soya is an inexpensive drink my uncle makes that's amazing. My favorite thing to drink so far. Also, I just had some pan con helado, bread with ice cream...soooo good. Homemade icecream on bread. Rich.


Elections are this Sunday. Congressional assembly. Politics here are crazy. There's probably 1000 candidates, each with their own platform. Party 10 is the party of a former Ecuatoriano President who was exiled to Panama or something. Posters and murals cover every wall in the city. Party members also have groups of cars that drive through the city blaring music. "Vota todo treinta y dos."


Oh, security guards. Outside of every decent store stands a contracted security guard. Nothing too bad about that, can't be too careful right? They all have big automatic/power weapons strapped to their chests. Large pistols holstered to both sides of their legs, knives in their belts, kevlar all over...kind of creepy. Makes me think of Blackwater...oops.


Tomorrow I head to Quito, so when I get back, hopefully there'll be plenty of photos and interesting tales to tell. Hope you enjoyed all my random observations of life in Portoviejo. Love you all. Ciao.

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Photos

Crucita
Up on a cliff.

Baile de Gala
All dressed up and no place to go. Me with my parents before the Baile de Gala. There's lots of fiestas here. I think you could equate the Baile de Gala to Prom.

Psychedelic
Yes...Grace Slick and Jack Casady trippin' out.

Smoking
Really cheap here too. God help the exchange student that gets addicted.

A block of gold
Acapulco gold. Honey taffy sprinkled with peanuts. A delicious confectionary treat from the mountains. We have a peddler who stops by the house every week. Addictive stuff. Be careful.

Favela
Never go up there. Danger, danger Will Robinson.

Comments

[Sonja]

Hi
So fun to read your updates! Yes, I bet you do get noticed down there as you 'tower' over the other people. I hope you brought a full supply of shoes because I doubt that any store will be able to outfit you with your size!!! Glad to hear you have so many things going on. I look forward to the next entry!!! Sonja

[Coralee]

Nicholas Cage? That's upsetting Nat^^ However after reading about crime where you are it made me feel much better about crime in dallas especially after I compared them both with Vancouver and their 4 murders per 8 months