No Shame: My Adventure in Ecuador: Christmas and NYE vacation

I'm sorry this took me so long to write about what I did for Christmas and NYE, but as some of you may know, I'm currently working on getting over being sick. I've had a cough since the beginning of December and since it has not gone away on it's own, I finally went to the doctor here. (Technically the ER since the English speaking doctor that WorldTeach recommends doesn't see a lot of patients anymore.) Anyway, they diagnosed me with laryngitis - awesome. So now I have lots of medicine to take, and I have to go back to the clinic for the next few days to get more nebulizer treatments. This wouldn't bother me, except it ruins my travel plans for this weekend. I was planning to visit Mindo - a small, but beautiful town in the mountains here that is really famous for birdwatching - with Galo. But I guess it'll be better to not be sick anymore, so oh well.

Anyway, on to my holiday trip. I left for Esmeraldas the afternoon of Dec. 23. Stupidly, however, I bought a bus ticket for Esmeraldas, not Atacames. (They're close together, but buses between the 2 don't run late at night when I got in.) Luckily, a security guard got me a taxi to Atacames where I met up with the other WorldTeach ladies I was spending the week with. By that point, it was 1 am, so I took a mototaxi (motorcycle taxi) to Sua (5 minutes away) where the hostel was. Here's a map, so you kind of get the idea of where all these places are in relation to each other.

Because I got in so late, I slept pretty late on the 24th and then spent the rest of the day lying around on the beach. On the 25th, the other WT ladies (Iris, Nina, Jessica, and Tara), Tara's friend from the PeaceCorps (Jen), and I cooked Christmas dinner. I can't remember everything we made, but it included chicken with Cajun spices, macaroni and cheese, green beans, potatoes - regular and sweet potatoes mixed together - pasta with shrimp, empanadas, carrot cake, and sweet potato pie. We used the kitchen of a family that Jen knows (she knows everyone in Sua, since it's so small) and then just hung around their house for the rest of the night.

The rest of the days were spent lying around on various beaches. Twice I went to Same (it's on the map above). We also went to Atacames - either to lay on the beach during the day or to go out to the tiki bars at night. It did rain quite a bit for being on the beach. On Wednesday, Iris, Nina, and Jessica went to Mompiche (pretty sure I spelled that wrong, but since I didn't go, I don't know how to spell it) and I stayed in Sua to wait for Sarah to arrive from Quito. On Thursday, the others came back, Nina returned to Machala, and we continued lying on the beach all day.

On Dec. 31, the Machala girls' (that would be Iris, Nina, and Jessica) boyfriends and other assorted friends came up for NYE. Later that night, my friend Israel also came up from Quito with his brother and mom. We went out to Atacames that night to celebrate. It was a lot of fun; lots of music, fireworks, and burning of effigies on the beach.

Finally, on Sunday night, all the Machala people left to go back. (Sarah and I would've gone back on Sunday, but the bus tickets were sold out when we went to look.) Sarah and I took a bus back on Monday morning. The ride was a lot longer than it should have been - about 9 hours when it should've been about 7. As soon as I got back, I threw all my clothes into the laundry since 11 day vacations tend to deplete a really small wardrobe.

Overall, it was a lot of fun. Now I am really tan, even if my Ecuadorian friends don't believe me. (Considering their skin is darker than mine naturally, I guess it makes sense.) The rest of this week I have just been lying around, recuperating. Funny how that happens after long vacations; you're not nearly as relaxed or well-rested as you should be. But classes start again next Tuesday, so soon I will have more things to do. And our Mid-Service conference is at the end of January. And then many more things up until my birthday, so I guess the next couple of months will be busy.

Anyway, here are the pictures I know you've been waiting for of the vacation. Again, thank you to everyone who gave me travel money for Christmas. I still have a lot of it left, so plan to see more pictures of trips around Ecuador. My next big vacation is in March. The upcoming cycle ends on my birthday, and I think Kristen will be coming down from the States to visit me, so hopefully a fun will adventure will be worked out for that 1.5-2 week time span. :-) I hope all of you had a merry Christmas and an awesome NYE. Hopefully it the world won't end and make it the last one ever. :-P

View from the door of our room in the hostel.