a weekend at la playa... ecuadorian culture 101

so this long weekend was an adventure to say the least... here is the chain of events:

friday: sam, chelsey, kiley, lucy and i went to a super cool artesian market before our departure to the beach and bought some cool homemade stuff. then around 2ish, we met up with our ecuadorian amigos and set off for the beach. six hours and a million curvy roads later, we finally arrived at the beach. we quickly changed clothes and headed for a restaurant. after a nice little shrimp dinner (yes, i ate some shrimp) we found this cute little bar on the beach that had little cabana-like tables and had some cerveza. it was an excellent way to start the vacation because we all ended up dancing like crazy on the beach and having a super good time. after we decided we were too covered in sand to function anymore, we headed back to the hotel, jumped in the pool quickly, and then spent the rest of the night playing guitar and singing... ¡que chévere!

saturday: we were all up and running by about nine, so we took off for some breakfast and got ready for a day at the beach. because we're in south america, soccer, aka futbol is super big here, so all the boys wanted to do was play soccer on the beach, which was fine by me because they were intrigued by my mad soccer skills ;) even though i was super sunscreen-ed up and running around on the beach, i still found myself VERY sunburnt after our games. we hopped into the ocean a couple more times, then headed back to the hotel for a little siesta. once we were all fully rested, we got ready and headed out for another seafood dinner. everyone was still pretty tired from the night before, so we all lazily sipped on piña coladas after our dinner at another oceanside bar. every now and then we would get up and dance, but for the most part it was a pretty relaxed evening until we made a new friend, whom we called "hombre misterioso" for the rest of the trip. this man was decked out in dance gear and ready to show us a salsa move or two on the dance floor. we guessed he must have been training for dancing with the stars or some crazy dance company, because honestly, when i was finished dancing with him i was afraid of throwing up because he spun us around so much and so incredibly fast... pretty darn funny.

sunday: originally we thought this would be our last day due to the crazy traffic that we were going to encounter on our way back to Quito, so we thought we'd live it up large. we ended up going to a private beach where cars weren't allowed and laid under a little tent all day laughing with friends because we were all still sunburnt. around four, half of our group decided to leave this beautiful beach because they wanted to watch a "cock fight." so it was chelsey, kiley, lucy, pablo and i left on the beach and we continued to enjoy the beautiful weather. after awhile, some boys came up to all of us girls in the ocean and invited us to some party they were having, but after talking to pablo, we decided not to, and headed back to the hotel. after some salsa dancing in the pool (yes, this was quite interesting) we all took another little nap and once again got ready for one last hurrah on the beach. the party started in our hotel at about seven with some mixed drinks, and of course some serious salsa dancing. after about and hour or two of this, my girlfriends decided they wanted to go the beach to do some dancing and after some convincing of our ecuadorian buddies, we all left for the beach. we ended up going to some little concert with life music, which was super cool to watch and listen to. after that our boyfriends decided they'd rather carry the rest of our fiesta out back at the hotel. my girlfriends however decided they weren't really ready to go back, so after some deliberation, all the ecuadorians decided to go back to the hotel while the gringos stayed to "party." my buddies all picked up a hamburger, which i still can't make myself eat, and we stayed out for about another hour or so before deciding to go back to meet up with the rest of our buddies... this is where the drama began...

so we get back to the hotel, and our amigos are sitting around talking and my friend sam and i sat down next to our friend, pablo. pablo then informed us that they had been reminiscing about the friendships they had with each other (pablo, luis, jorge, y paul aka gordito) and the strong bonds that they all had. all four of these boys had been raised only by women, and because of this, pablo told us, they were very sensitive and emotional people. after a brief chat about friendship and relationships, pablo told us that they had all been a little disappointed in us that we hadn't followed them home to the hotel when they left. he went on to tell us, that when we're together, we should be acting as a fist, staying together and looking out for each other. he said he understood that we wanted to make new friends and that this was still all so exciting for us, but at the same time we had to remember that in their culture, their worlds revolve around each other and they're always worrying about us if they're not with us. he said it made him feel really sad that earlier that day at the beach we had been so eager to drop him and hang out with the "guapos hombres" that we had met. i tried explaining to him that it was only a misunderstanding and that in the united states if you wanted someone to do something, you had to be more upfront with them and tell them for example that you want them to come back to the hotel with you. the kicker... he said that (all in spanish of course) "oh i get it, in the united states you guys think more so with your heads, but here in ecuador, we think with our heart and souls." ouch... this chat really hit me hard and truly got me thinking about although we're still upholding our own culture within ecuador, we still need to be very observant of their culture and even more so, respectful of their culture, because they've totally open up their lives to us... planned all these wonderful trips for us, kept us safe, and most importantly have kept us very happy.. and after all that, an opportunity comes to hang out with some cute boys, and we drop them like that... since this little "charla" i have been very observant and aware of how i'm treating my new friends here and what they're expecting of me in return.. what a big lesson that was.

monday: we had originally planned to go home this day, but poor little chelsey got some sort of food poisoning from the hamburger she ate, and couldn't keep anything down. we ended up going to the hospital with her (an adventure in itself) and making sure she was okay. after about ten hours straight of throwing up, she was slowly starting to return to herself. we played a couple card games, laughed at all the drunk people, and then finally called it a day.

tuesday: tuesday came around and everyone was feeling a little better and ready for the big car ride ahead. it had rained the entire night before, which we didn't seem to think would be a problem, but soon learned otherwise. before getting on the highway, a police officer told us a bridge had collapsed so we'd have to take an alternate route. after turning around and driving an hour and a half, when we got to the other route they too told us we'd have to wait until a truck came to clean the roads, which wouldn't be for another four hours. to make a long story short, a 5 hour car ride turned into a 16 hour car ride due to the traffic and the damage from the weather. to make a long story short though, we all made it home safely, and definitely took away a lot of cultural knowledge from this long weekend in Tonsupa.

P.S. sorry this was so long and also sorry that i didn't take single picture while i was at the beach... i didn't want to get my camera sandy or stolen. love you and miss you all!