Katelyn Visits Ecuador!

This post is long overdue but hey...better late than never right? Last month, Katelyn Bleach (my best friend since kindergarten), came to visit for my birthday! I didn't think I would be super emotional when she arrived but when I saw her walk through Customs, I cried. I blame the high altitude. We hugged for about a minute and I can't explain how nice it felt to be able to share my "new life" with someone from back home. 

We arrived back at the Center around 11:00 pm so everyone else was already asleep. I gave her a quick tour of the house, warmed up some leftover llapingachos, and then it was time for bed. We woke up early the next morning and I gave her the grand tour of the Center. It was surreal having someone from back home seeing what I see every day. Since she arrived during a weekend there weren't any kids around but I had fun showing her where I teach and introducing her to the other volunteers. 

Since all of the volunteers had a long vacation for Fall Break, Shemesh, Janie, Katelyn, and I decided to take a trip to the coast. Shemesh and Janie decided to save some money with a nine hour bus ride (KILL ME) while Katelyn and I chose to fly. I am so glad we did because apparently, the winding bus ride through the mountains was merciless, and Shemesh ended up puking six times. "He chose...poorly..."

Katelyn and I weren't sure how bad traffic was going to be since most of the country also had vacations planned for this particular week so we left early and arrived at the airport about two hours before our flight. The flight lasted about 45 minutes and we arrived in Esmeraldas around 4:00 pm. Luckily, Michael had decided to fly home to the United States for break so I was able to borrow his local phone. I tried calling Shemesh and Janie but they weren't answering their phones (always a good sign) so we hopped in a cab and headed toward the hostel. 

Knowing the cab ride would be about 45 minutes, I was relieved when the driver told us he knew where we were staying (he didn't). The drive through Esmeraldas was...how do I put this gently...interesting? According to Lonely Planet "Esmeraldas is ugly, dangerous and dirty, and there's really no reason to stay here. Most tourists just spend the night (if they have to) and continue southwest to the popular beach destinations." Nailed it. We too were planning on going to a popular beach destination, Atacames. 

I wasn't sure how much of what we saw was due to the recent earthquakes and how much of it was just Esmeraldas, but I was growing increasingly anxious and I could tell Katelyn was too. The beautiful sunset slowly descending behind the mountains merely served as a reminder that it would soon be dark and the cab driver was clearly lost. We drove for what felt like forever through the dilapidated city, at one point passing a front lawn that was literally on fire, and we each took turns "finding the humor" in the situation while the other person silently freaked out. I was too nervous to take my phone out so I don't have any pictures, you'll just have to trust me on this one. 

Luckily, I had the number for the hostel written down so the driver was able to ask for directions. About halfway through the ride, Shemesh called and very nonchalantly stated "you should still come to the hostel but it's not where we're staying. Don't freak out. It's a long story. I'll explain everything when you get here." Click. Katelyn and I looked at each other in disbelief. I reassured her that Shemesh was more than capable of finding a solution (she seemed mildly convinced) so we continued our journey with our breaths held and our fingers crossed. 

When we arrived at the hostel where we had originally planned to stay, Shemesh told us the manager had tried e-mailing him a few weeks prior to get partial payment. Despite providing a local phone number where we could have easily been contacted, since Shemesh never responded to the e-mails the manager gave our room away. If you are an intelligent, rational human being, you'll understand why this makes absolutely no sense so I won't bother explaining how angry we were. 

To make a long story short, the manager's wife had a friend who owned a "hostel" a few blocks away and they happened to have a room for us for the low, low, price of $30 a night. Shemesh and Janie hopped in our cab and we drove to our new "hostel" at the corner of "Someone Has Clearly Been Murdered Here" and "Abort...ABORT!" Mr. and Mrs. Bleach, if you are reading this...I apologize. 

What had been described as a hostel was more accurately a temporary low-income apartment complex. There was no sign, no lobby, bars on the doors, and bars on the windows. Despite being one block from the ocean, it felt like we had walked onto the set of Zero Dark Thirty. On the bright side, there was an outdoor pool, it really tied the whole place together. 

 (The abandoned alley where our "hostel" was... what could possibly go wrong?)

 (A room with a view)

 (Zero Dark Dirty)

(Murder free since 2003)

As soon as our door was locked, we all pulled out our phones and began looking for other options but since it was a major holiday, everything was showing up booked. By that point we were all tired and hungry so we decided to walk down the beach toward a more popular area to try to find some dinner. As we were walking, we literally saw someone get robbed. I wish I were kidding. About 15 steps in front of us, someone grabbed a woman's purse that had been sitting on her beach towel, and took off running. The woman's family witnessed this happen and began chasing said robber down the beach and our day continued to get better and better. 

On a whim, Shemesh decided to stop into a hotel he thought looked nice, just to see if they had any openings that weren't currently posted online. By some incredible miracle, another group's car had broken down earlier that day so they had to cancel their reservation. We almost screamed in his face "YES WE'LL TAKE IT" when the owner asked if we were interested in the room. At the time, we didn't have enough cash on us to pay the deposit, so we told him we'd walk back to our hostel and come back with our payment in 15 minutes. His response? "Don't get robbed."

Since we had already partially settled into our original room and it was getting dark, we didn't want to lug all of our stuff back down the beach, so we decided to stick it out for one night and move our stuff early the next morning. Once we walked down the beach towards the touristy area, it was actually quite nice. The main street was filled with restaurants, tiki bars on the beach, and an active night life. We ate dinner, had some drinks, headed back to the hostel, took a late night swim, and promptly fell asleep. 

We woke up early the next morning to the gentle call of 1,000 roosters and packed our bags for the new hotel. The new place had clean rooms, a restaurant, a pool, a balcony with hammocks overlooking the ocean, and best of all, there were no bars on the windows. Our room overlooked the pool and the beach and we all sighed a breath of relief that we were no longer "in immediate danger."

We spent our first full day laying by the pool and swimming in the ocean. The ocean felt like bath water it was so warm and we were finally able to relax and start having some fun. We walked down the beach past vendors selling fresh ceviche and tour guides promoting parasailing and whale watching. There were tons of families relaxing on the beach and playing in the waves. We walked to a tiki bar that had swings instead of chairs (so hipster) and cooled down with some blended frozen drinks. 

 (Now we're talking)

 (The view from our new room)

 (Mountains)

(I spy with my little eye...someone getting robbed)

(Obligatory pano)

For dinner, we decided to go to a pizza place on the main street, and the meal was definitely worth writing about. First of all, we were the only people in the restaurant. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because apparently, there was only one person working there. We each ordered a personal-sized pizza and about an hour later, the first one arrived. Katelyn had ordered cheese but wasn't feeling well so the rest of us devoured what she didn't eat. When the plate was empty the waiter/host/bartender/cook/owner took the wooden pizza pan away and about 20 minutes later, Shemesh's pizza arrived. He had ordered pizza with shrimp on it and it was delicious. Again, once the plate was empty the same man came out to collect it and it became very clear that THIS RESTAURANT ONLY HAD ONE PIZZA PAN! Janie and I were so hungry we were ready to eat our own arms. We had ordered what we thought was pizza with peppers, mushrooms, onions, and potatoes but 20 minutes later our pizza arrived covered in hard boiled eggs. OK Spanish...YOU WIN! At that point we didn't even care. We ate the rest of our pizza and got the hell out of Dodge. 

Apart from hanging by the pool or going to the beach, there really wasn't a whole lot of "tourist" things to do. We all needed to stop at an ATM but apparently, the closest ATM was at a bank 15 minutes away - typical Ecuador. We jumped in a "cab" and rode to the bank. I put "cab" in quotation marks because it was more like a rickshaw. The front part was a motorcycle and the back part looked like it was once part of a car/wagon. Was it entirely safe? Who knows? Then again, this whole trip was already an episode of "Missing Abroad" waiting to happen so we just went with it. 

(No seat belts? No problem!)

 (Some photos from our trip to the ATM)

That night, we sat on the balcony and rocked in the hammocks, as we listened to the ocean and laughed about this ridiculous trip. The next day we played in the ocean (I'm not-so-secretly awesome at bodysurfing) and set out to find an Italian restaurant we had passed on the way in. Shemesh and I share a birthday so we didn't mind splurging on a fancy dinner and I'm so glad we did because it was awesome. The restaurant was on a side street about 5 minutes from the beach. It was mostly an outdoor patio with trellises covered in grapes, a brick oven for pizza, and a chef from the United States who had spent many years learning to cook in Italy. We treated ourselves to pizza, pasta, gelato, and wine. Tired and full, we rode back to the hotel with a fresh bottle of wine and ended up playing cards on our bed until we fell asleep. We woke up early the next morning and packed our bags before we made one last stop at the beach. The four of us flew back to Quito and I am proud to say, WE ARE ALL STILL ALIVE! What an adventure. 

 (Boarding the plane like royalty)

(Andes Mountains)

Katelyn still had one more night in Quito so we went to the market in Plaza Foch where we each bought some Christmas presents and then we headed to my favorite craft brewery. Camino Del Sol is one of very few places in Quito that offers beer other than Pilsner so we like to go there as much as possible. Most of the volunteers were still on their own vacations so we ate dinner at home, watched the movie "Sisters", and then talked until we could no longer keep our eyes open and it was time for bed.

(Not Pilsner)

For her final morning here, we took the teleferico up Pichincha (volcano) but we could only stay for 30 minutes because Katelyn had to catch her plane back to the states. We made it back home just in time and Katelyn was able to make it back safe-and-sound-and-Malaria-free. 

 (Pichincha) 

(Teleferico)

(Miss you already!)