Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I went to a small town near the coast called Porto Viejo to stay w/ my friend Freddy's cousins, Sandy and Nancy.It was nice spending time w/ his family.The first day I spent time working w/ Diana, Sandy's daughter on her English - teaching her actions for the vocab like I do in school.She did really well and it felt good to teach again.I went out dancing that night for the first time my whole trip and it was a lot of fun!The reggaeton music was actually very good there and they had videos playing.I got to meet one of Sandy's friends, Gabriel Marquez Velez, who is a singer in the local group Contra Punto.I even got to see him in the video on the screen in the club which was pretty cool.Also, I got interviewed by a local station that was asking people what they thought of the area and it turns out that they showed me on television a few days later.Unfortunately I did not get to see it myself nor did anyone tape it - oh well, my few seconds of semi-fame!
The next 2 days we went to two different beaches.On Saturday we went to a beach town called Bahia de Caraques and on the way we had seco de gallina for lunch & platano maduro w/ this delicious sal prieta peanut dip.We visited for a bit w/ Freddy's dad then walked on the beach, but didn't go in.Sandy bought some morcilla (blood sausage) for dinner and I tried a bite but didn't like it.Sunday we had Tongas (rice & chicken in a peanut sauce w/ maduro wrapped in a banana leaf) for lunch then went to Ciudad Alfaro - a monument and little museum dedicated to the president who created the Ecuadorian railroad.He was later killed and dragged in the streets of Quito, one of the big regrets of the country.He also worked to free slaves and gave rights to women.We got to the beach & I did some jogging which felt good after not running in so long.I also went into the ocean and tried to cool off w/ a granizado Rosado (snowcone) that tasted like roses - not great but at least it was cold!That night we had no electricity so Nancy picked me up and I slept at her house.
Monday, I went to Puerto Lopez alone and went on an amazing whale tour during which I got to see a male humpback whale jump up completely out of the water!I was left almost breathless!It was so amazing and only about 30 feet away!The males do that during mating season to attract the females.There was 1 male & 2 females and they were even going right under our boat.One jump got us & our cameras all wet!!It was sooooo awesome and I was happy not to have gotten seasick especially w/ some of the rough bouncing.Tuesday, my last day in Porto Viejo, was pretty uneventful.
- comments