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I last left off just before I headed off to the coast which was over a week ago now so there is a little bit to catch up on. On Tuesday afternoon I stocked up with supplies of bread, nutella and juice for what was going to be a near enough 20 hour journey, and then headed to the gym to knock me out before getting on the bus. As I expected the gym was tough, and another guy called Alex (that´s 3 now) pushed my triceps to the max, I could barley feel them that night. Desperate for a drink post gym I fell for the trap that is Malt Coke- never ever try this as it was truly disgusting. That evening at around 9 I got on the bus, which had reclinable seats (makes a real difference) and braved the 8 hour journey to Quito with ipod in hand, whilst trying to spread nutella onto bread with a survival knife: needless to say both the knife and my jeans got more nutella on that the bread.
We arrived in Quito at 4:15 am, wahey! Luckily for us, the chilean girls flirted with the bus driver and managed to convince him to let us sleep on the bus until 7:30, I was so so cold. To my delight we hopped onto another bus for 8 hours heading for the coast. For the first time I got to see the whole of Quito from up in the mountains and realised what a messy sprawl it is. After enduring 6 hours of bumpy roads and ´´white Chicks´´ the film being played on TV, we started to travel through banana and sugar cane planatations. We soon entered the much feared Esmeraldas and the bus was stopped for a drug search. dogs were released and everything possible was given a good sniffing. They are trying to crack down here due to it´s `proximity with Colombia. The actually city of Esmeraldas was horrible and scared me considerably so I was glad when we pulled out of there. Arriving at Atacames, men in motorbike powered ´´rickshaws´´ (i can only describe them in that way) assured us of a decent hotel by the beach and so took us there. To my surprise they weren´t lying: it was both ok and about 10metres away from the beach.
It was $28 for 4 nights so pricey as far as Ecuador is concerned but we were happy. All 6 of us were staying in one room, which was absolutely boiling, but at least it was a room. I rapidly stripped to my swimwear and left our wooden ramshackle hotel for the Pacific Ocean. This was my 1st meeting with the Pacific and it went very well. The water as easily as warm as a bath and the waves were huge. I spent hours diving in and out of the waves before finding myself a long way out, due to the silent but deadly undercurrent. Next thing I know I was surrounded my 3 black surfers trying to sell me weed. Unamused by my lack of interest he assured me it was very easy to drown out here-quite what he was getting at I am still unsure. Luckily for me, my English blood went down a treat and so he let me use his surf board. On my first try I managed to catch a wave perfectly and ride the board. They put it down to beginner´s luck, I beg to differ. However I didn´t try again for fear of tempting fate! Back on shore Tony and I played football for ages with two locals and then managed somehow to start what turned out to be a very long volleyball game. Quite a crowd gathered and they pitted Tony and I against each other at the net as we are the 2 tallest men in Ecuador (or so it seems so far)!
The street that our hotel was on was basically night-life central. The whole beach was lined with large beach huts pumping out music and cocktails 24/7. The constant blaring out of music turned out to be a real nuisance, especially at 4 in the morning, or 8 in the morning or 3 in the afternoon... That evening, post spaghetti and shrimp we had a few cocktails. I don´t like cocktails at the best of times but these really were horrible. We moved on from Jamaica bar to one wherethere is a central bar with swings around to sit on, this turned out to be the watering hole for the rest of the holiday. Now this is where the fun begins. I decided to head back but had some food off the street first: i.e. shrimp which had been cooked on the street and left in a large metal dish to fester for a while (not intentionally). I have never had such a hellish night in my life. I sprunf up suddenly at 3 in the morning and within 2 seconds I was emptying the entire contents of my body in a projectile fashion. To paint the picture for you all: the place we stayed consisted of 2 rooms and a bathroom however the partions were only about 10ft high and then there was one ceiling covering all of them. This means if you were me in the top bunk you couls see both into the other room and the bathroom. In my moment of glory during the middle of the night, there was no way I was going to make it to the bathroom the normal way so over the wall I went. I spent 2 hours balancing on that wall vomiting into a dark bathroom from about 10ft. I went into to assess the damage and to hide my traces cost me a further 2 hours in the early hours of the morning. I won´t go into any more detail but it was horrible.
Thursday I was in purgatory. In the evening I felt slightly better and went out to have some soup and to watch policemen abusing drunk men......I really missed home. It was the first time this trip that I have but it hit me hard (that´s the horrible thing about being ill).
I woke up feeling just dandy on Friday and had a ´´de lujo´´ breakfast: just egg, ham and bread. I spent another long day submerged in the waves with brief periods soaking in that equatorial sun. By the end of the afternoon I decided t leave as there were people prancing about with toy aeroplanes which came dangerously close to disturbing the peace on that beach. In my fury, I scowled and left.....I think I was slightly delirious, if not very, from dehydration. I don´t think I have ever got so furious over such a trivial matter! I sat in the hotel with a pineapple juice wacthing excessive episodes of ¨´Pimp my ride´´ and other such MTV programs. That night I went out and danced with the Chileans for abit trying to practise my salsa, reggaeton and merengue moves, in vain I believe. In some burst of confidence coming from nowhere I strolled up to a group of Colombians and ended up spending most of the night dancing with them. They were pretty fun although the male side of the group were very touchy feely :S
How can I explain Saturday-I felt like hell again. I decided that it wasn´t going to beat me and so went swimming and sunbathing. As I headed back to the shore from a swim I looked to my left to see a young girl face down in the water fitting. My Baywatch moment had arrived, the one I have been waiting for all my life. Unfortunately I was neither sporting red speedos nor did I look remotely Hasslehoff esque. Instead I just shouted for a lifeguard and let him do the saving, my time would have to wait. Just so you know, she was absolutely fine after 10 minutes. Feeling slightly better myself, Tony, Mel and I all got on a boat to go and see an island which supposedly had blue footed boobies on (that´s a bird by the way). The boat was very unstable and ploughed it´s way through the swimmers into the ocean. We went and saw the island and yes we did see the blue footed boobies, amongst other marine birds such as pelicans and cormorants. At one stage el capitan let us dive in and go swimming which I did in a second. It was really good fun swimming about in the ocean but I noticed th eone other person on the boat aside from us hadn´t come in. She was a 20 something Colombian girl who couldn´t swim. Seeing the disappointment in her face I told her not to worry as I would help. Delighted she jumped in but held on to me like a little monkey, so tightly. I began to regret my gentlemanly heroics as I remembered that I myself am a bad swimmer. Somehow I managed to keep us both afloat for 15 minutes before heading back!
Saturday night turned out to be another night of illness, I couldn´t decide whether I was hot or cold, I couldn´t stand or see and so I sat there listening to ´´dude where´s my car´´. I stumbled outside in a brief 5 minutes of clarity only to be harrassed by a man with an iguana, so I swiftly got some lollipos and retreated to my hide out. On Sunday morning I felt great again, I didn´t know what my body was doing but I decided to take advantage of my new found health and went for a stroll. I had some breakfast and bough a wifebeater and some Cool Aloe Ice for my shoulders which were burnt. Sunday again turned out to be a beach day, chatting to randomers in the water, discussing the nights out with the group, most of which involved beach bar strip and dance contests. I have never understood why the ugliest and fattest girls decide that this is the sport for them but they were on the bar in abundance, and to give them their credit, they were better dancers than the rare good looker. At the bar with the swings (where most of this takes place) a barman called Hector decided to do some kind of dancing as well. It turns out he is a professional salsa dancer and to my relief, bar once, he decided not to dance like the girls on stage, but rather to do proper salsa, which was pretty incredible-so fast. That night we got the bus back to Quito.
Just when I though I was getting better. The night on the bus was hell and I arrived in Quito on Monday morning barely being able to stand. To make matters worse Anna got her bag stolen with her camera, credit cards and mp3 player in and then she slipped on some steps and smacked her head- she has so much bad luck. We got on the bus to Macas which was a nightmare, and i watched the Punisher with john Travolta which was rubbish. I got home and went to bed! Tuesday was back to normal, home sweet home (the house where I now live in Ecuador that is).I went to work at the hospital, chilled out with the dcotor´s, went to the Centro cultural to chill out some more and then headed home. I saw an emerald green hummingbird which was amazing and made my day. After this sighting I headed to the gym and then Wednesday and today have followed similar routines.
It has been an interesting week. Despite all my illness the coast was really good fun and it was interesting to see another part of Ecuador. The beaches were stunning and the sea was great to swim in as well. The coast was completely different to here in Macas in every way. The black population there far outweighs the white which obviously makes the place very different. There are no indigenous looking people and it feels far more tourist orientated but it is beautiful there. I met some cool people, saw some fascinating things, and above all learnt never to eat street food again!
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