Puerto Lopez & Rostro de...Semillas?

This past weekend six of us decided to travel to Puerto Lopez, which is on the coast of Ecuador and is the gateway to Isla de la Plata, which is known as the ¨Poor Man´s Galapagos¨. Mark, Tasha, Tierney, Caitlin, Jon, and myself headed out to the bus terminal early Saturday morning to catch a 5:30am bus to Puerto Lopez. We got a quick glimpse of Montanita, the infamous hippie surf town, on our way, thanks to our cab driver Watcho´s advice on taking a more ¨scenic¨ (albeit more expensive) bus route. We got off the bus and found our way to Hosteleria Itapoa by 9:15, and then were literally on a boat tour out to Isla de la Plata by 10am.



We arrived and met our hostess, Maria, who told us that yes, she arranges tours with her guide so that if we hurried, we could hurry up and get on the boat tour that was leaving. Our guide´s name was...Cherry. He was amazing haha very knowledgeable but this like spitfire 60-year-old who took us out on our 7-hour day trip. We first walked through the fish market, which was held on the beach and consisted of fishing boats (like little, rickety ones) getting close enough to shore to literally throw the fish (including 4-foot swordfish and 6-foot SHARKS) to people waiting on the beach. Talk about a nice surprise, meaning we saw sharks being thrown from boats as we were being told we´d be snorkeling in the same water within a few hours!

It took about an hour to get to Isla de la Plata, which is part of Machalilla National Park, and we saw a humpback whale and a few dolphins on our way out. Apparently, we just missed the time when you can see tons of whales, but by last weekend they had pretty much all migrated (We were actually supposed to take this trip a few weeks ago, but the attempted coup kept us in Duran). We went on a three-mile hike and saw lots of Blue-Footed Boobies (countless boobie jokes courtesy of Mark) and other birds that I can´t remember the name of. After that it was time for snorkeling. By some miracle, I had found my underwater disposable camera that I meant to use on spring break in the Bahamas, but it made my way into my Ecuador suitcases and then into my backpack for this trip, so I think I managed to get a few snorkeling and MILLIONS SCHOOLS OF FISH pictures too. I also got stung by a jellyfish, which freaked me out more than it hurt haha but now it´s a funny story to tell. We saw giant sea turtles when we were back in the boat and starting to head back, so that was awesome too.

Back on the mainland, we showered up and went to dinner. We all ordered seafood (except Caitlin) and it was just really nice to be able to act like tourists and to order a few beers with dinner. (In Duran, drinking is synonymous with being drunk and beligerent, so it´s looked upon very poorly and we consequently have to be very secretive about if and when we have a beer with dinner. We basically have to buy it outside the neighborhood and sneak it into the house). We went to a beach bar afterwards, which consisted of five brilliantly-colored hammocks with colored lanterns and a grass hut. It was awesome, and very relaxing.

The next day we headed out to Los Frailes, which is the beach within the national park on the mainland. The thing to do here to get to the beach is barter with guys with pick-up trucks to drive you there. Six gringos walking down the street screams WE NEED SOMEONE TO DRIVE US SOMEWHERE so we didn´t have a problem finding a guy that offered to give us a ride for $11 roundtrip. We tried to be friendly and asked his name and he just told us ¨no tengo¨, which means ¨I don´t have one¨. We´re still not sure if this was an attempted poke at humor or what, but we just ended up calling him that. Los Frailes is rumored to be the most beautiful beach in Ecuador, and it was gorgeous. Just picture white sand beach between two cliffs, and clear water, with maybe four or five other people on the entire beach. There was a hike up to an observation point that we took advantage of too, which was pretty fun.





We booked it back to the more bustling part of Puerto Lopez to catch the 5pm bus back home to Guayaquil. We got back around 8:30 and Watcho was great in being able to pick us up again. It was weird getting back to Guayaquil, because we switched right back into volunteer mode, meaning we refocused to speak Spanish a lot more and just knew that we couldn´t act so carefree because we were representing a foundation, and representing an idea and a mission that was a lot bigger than ourselves. We love volunteering, and even through the really low times, we all know this is where we want to be. But being away for a weekend is a nice break and a chance to really just act like tourists.

This week back has been great. I feel like I have a lot more energy, so I´m assuming the weekend of relaxing can be deemed successful. The kids at Semillas have been great, wild per usual, but absolutely wonderful. Last Friday we took our nine best behaved kids on paseo (field trip) to the Malecon (where the free concert was) because there are playgrounds and also a temporary AQUARIUM! The kids actually really like the aquarium, and they got some playground time, a chance to feed the fish (one kid also took this as an opportunity to try fish food...we stopped that immediately after we stopped laughing uncontrollably) and they each got an ice-cream. They all showed up dressed in their best clothes with hair combed and gelled all nice. They knew that this was a special opportunity for them, and for kids that usually never get out of Duran, it was definitely a treat. They were so much fun, and Jon, Kipp, Daniel, Ricardo and I had as much fun as they did.

These are pictures from this past week at Semillas...





I also gave my septimos at Santa Marianita their big exam on Tuesday, so now I have a pile of tests at home waiting for me to correct them. Teaching is definitely a challenge, but I really do like it. All of our jobs are proving to be difficult in one way or another. And we all know that that´s ok. It´s the second that you start forgetting that it´s supposed to be hard and you stop laughing at yourself that you really start to slide down a slippery slope. Volunteering for a year in Ecuador is definitely not supposed to be a cake walk.

OH! And I was fortunate enough to preview Tim´s senior pictures, which proved to be very handsome, and also ridiculous haha (why does he need to pose lying on the ground like he´s in a lingerie photo shoot?). Mom, please use extreme discretion when picking which ones to order. All in all, things are going pretty well and I´ll keep trying to keep this all updated!

Paz, Amor, y Ecuador<3