Atacames was quite enjoyable, although I ended up going alone since my housemate got really sick =[. Traveling solo was a good experience, although it was really sketch being asked by almost every single male who talked to me whether I had a boyfriend and if I was traveling alone (and being the naive--and probably foolish--traveler that I am, I said, yes, I was traveling alone).
It was exceedingly humid in Atacames, and I was trying to figure out if Houston was worse or not (guess I will figure it out soon haha). It's a pretty touristy place, not just for foreigners, but also for Ecuadorians and other Latin Americans. Actually, at the hostal I stayed at, there were TWO Colombian families with kids who were on vacation in Ecuador. Both of them were from Cali, and both of them were very kind to me and took me in as part of their family when we met at the hostal (Hostal Chill Inn, with Yolanda, the Swiss owner who was very kind and made a great breakfast of eggs-in-a-hole, which is a cracked egg cooked in a hole in the middle of toast, with seasoning--soo good). One of the Colombian moms even gave me an orange kanga with white palm trees on it! (A kanga is one of those sheets you see girls wearing at the beach...you can tie it in different ways over your swimsuit--as a dress, skirt, etc. Very useful!)
We (the two Colombian families and I) also went whale watching in this small boat (small compared to the big, blue ocean with strong swells wayyy out there....I mean it--we were FAR from land). And we spotted whales multiple times!! I think it might have been the same ones, maybe, since it was a pair, swimming side by side. It was so awesome!! And they looked like killer whales to me, but I think it's actually humpback whales that come to that area. In any case, they were HUGE...even from the distance we were at....much, much bigger than our boat.
Other than that, I just chilled, played on the beach, ate ceviche, did some souvenir shopping, and read my book (Dark Watch by Clive Cussler--only about 50 pages in. I've only ever read Sahara by him, and that only because I saw the movie first and really liked it. Hmm...I think I've only ever read Sahara by him....Anyway, turns out that he's a pretty decent adventure/sci-fi writer, right up my alley of genre interests, or one of them anyway, so when I was in Quito a few weeks ago, I picked up his book at a bookstore that had several books in English. That was in expectation of reading at the beach of course...I had to keep myself from cracking the book open till I got to Atacames).
So yes, that's my weekend in a nutshell! The 10-11 hour bus rides to and back were a little brutal, but oh well. And I am only working two more days (tomorrow, technically today, and Wednesday) before I head out to Quito! (And an Amazon jungle tour for five days before flying back to Houston.) It's been quite the adventure here...and will continue to be. Tomorrow, Rachel and I are planning on getting our hair dyed and cut, respectively (heheh, no worries, I am not dying my hair). And I think we're also planning on trying cuy, which is roasted guinea pig, specialty of Ecuador! Hahahaha...will let you all know how that goes! =D
No comments:
Post a Comment