Hello, Old Friend

This weekend I went to Montañita, a surf town on the coast of Ecuador, approximately 7 hours away from Cuenca. There were about 14 teachers who went, although we didn`t all go together, and did a lot of different things, so it wasn`t like there was a whole group of gringos walking around together all the time. Montañita is a town that doesn`t sleep. Parties go from dawn until dawn, though I did not really witness this strange phenomenon (I got sick...more on that later...). We took a night bus to Montañita, leaving Cuenca at 1am! First leg, from Cuenca to Guayaquil, was a little rough. I sat right in the front, with a mother and a son smushed up next to me. The son peed on me, I`m pretty sure. Either that or my leg leaked a little bit. When we got to Guayaquil (at 4:30am), we had just missed the direct bus to Montañita, so we got tickets to Santa Elena, about 2 hours away. That ride was a little better, but I had just fallen asleep when it was time to disembark...Thankfully, we got on a bus to Montañita about 5 minutes later, and arrived at around 8:30am. After trekking around from hostel to hostel for about an hour, we finally found one with hot water, ocean view, enough beds so no one had to share, with enough natural sunlight to please everyone, and in a quieter (but not quiet by any means!) area of town. El Centro Del Mundo. After ridding ourselves of our backpacks, and claiming bunks, we set off for the ocean, which was right outside our doorstep. However, it was raining (misting), so it wasn`t exactly WARM (warmer than Canada, for sure, though!). The waves were huge and we played in them for about an hour, after which we ate lunch and everyone had a nap. Alicia and I napped pretty much the whole entire day, which I justified by telling myself I was on vacation, and naps are okay on vacation. That night we had everyone over to our hostel for some "pre-game" (which means drinking before you go out in American), and some creepy Columbians started hitting on us...Erin overheard one of them saying "where are all the drunken chicas? Where am I going to sleep tonight?!" The rest of the crew decided to go off to a night of dancing and drinking, but since I was feeling kind of funny in my tummy, I opted to stay home and chillax. The creepy Columbian tried to break into our room, and at one point grabbed my keys away from me, but I gave him a cheemo chop to the head and grabbed them back. Actually, he was drunk, so it was easy...but it scared me a little, and I locked myself in my room and didn`t even go out to brush my teeth. At any rate, it was a good idea that I stayed in, because my roommates stayed out till 5:30am, which is far to late for my granny-self. I woke up at 8:30 the next morning and chilled on a hammock, reading my book, watching the crazy surfers. Did I mention it rained the ENTIRE weekend? The streets were mud up to your ankles, and it was hazardous to your health to go anywhere! I watched at least 15 people wipe out in the mud, some down stairs even! Anyways, when everyone else got up, they took one look at me and asked me what happened to my face, which had broken out in red dots. At first I thought they were bed bugs, but they`re not itchy, and got worse over the course of the weekend, so I`m not exacly sure...they kind of look like chicken pox, but again, they`re not itchy, and I`ve already had chicken pox, so I dunno...

Since I had missed out the previous night`s festivities, I was determined to live life to the fullest, despite the fact that I was feeling kind of pooey. I swam in the ocean, went "shopping" at all the cool little beach stalls selling crafts and jewellery and stuff, had a piña colada, explored the town and the beach as much as the mud would allow, and laid in the hammock for awhile. However, by nighttime, the evil feeling was back, so again I "pre-gamed" at the hostel, but stayed back when everyone else went out. Plus, we were catching the 5am bus back to Guayaquil, so I didn`t really want to stay out all night anyways.

Today I am feeling worse, and am slightly freaked out about these stupid dots on my face. I`m pretty sure I`ve contracted some tropical disease, but no one can tell me what is wrong. Tomorrow I`m going to go to the doctor, because all my students tell me that I`m contagious (I don`t THINK I am...), but it means missing Spanish class AGAIN, and I`m already confused. ARGH! I hope he doesn`t make me poo in a cup. I don`t think I could handle that.

I`ve finally uploaded some photos on facebook. I think you can access it through the link below, even if you`re not a member. If not, let me know, and I can email you a link that should work! Cheers! http://uvic.facebook.com/album.php?aid=67441&l=2b264&id=779435523