For most of the week I was sick so I really didn't do much. Classes weren’t too interesting either but after class on Thursday Danielle and Keunae came over to watch Madeinusa, a movie we had watch for our Cine class. When I got home Guadalupe wasn’t home so I had to call her and ask if the girls could come over. She said it was fine and that she was on her way home. About an hour later when they were supposed to get here Guadalupe was still nowhere to be found. I was a little worried because the guards at the gate call the house when someone they don’t know wants to come in and I wasn’t sure where to answer the phone because there are two kinds in my house and the closest one to me is in Guadalupe’s room. When Danielle got I didn’t get a call because I guess the guard knows her now. Her guard knows me for sure. Then Keunae came over and when the guard called he told me that someone named Kunef wanted to come in. I knew exactly what that meant, so I said let her in!
Guadalupe still wasn’t home so I gave the girls a tour and we raided the kitchen. I honestly don’t know where much is in there because I don’t make my own food, but we found some suitable snacks for the movie. So we went upstairs and started watching this movie that Keunae had bought. It turned out to be really twisted and ridiculous. It was about this town that thinks during Easter (when Jesus is ‘dead’) there are no sins so they all go crazy. There’s incest and murder. It’s messed up. At one point this guy chomps on a pair of earrings- on purpose. So when we finished the movie Keunae said she was going to eat the DVD just like him because it was so bad!
Then we watched the last three episodes of season 3 of Dexter since the last disc didn’t work in Danielle’s computer for some reason. Guadalupe came home around then and made us popcorn. I was afraid she would want to join us but she didn’t. I know for sure she would not like Dexter. She thought Spiderman was too violent. Then Keunae went home and when Guadalupe came back in from letting her out the gate, she said “arigato” and did a little bow then went to bed. People here don’t understand that Asia is not one country.
Friday morning I woke up and breakfast was laid out for me as usual, except this time I didn’t have American cereal but a box of granola ‘cereal’ which I mixed into my vanilla yogurt and it was delicious! Then I walked to the university for our trip to the “Oriente.” Oriente literally means East and it refers to the Amazonian region of the country. We went to the region on the edge of the Amazon so we were in the tropical forest but not in the thick of it.
Of course we left on Ecuadorian time- 30 minutes late- and imagine my surprise when we got on the pogo stick bus! Danielle and I sat closer to the front which seemed to help a lot. Also I think the roads weren’t as bad. Anyway, the bus ride wasn’t too long but maybe that was because Danielle and I shared her headphones and thoroughly enjoyed some blasts from the past. My favorite was Say My Name, by the one and only Destiny’s Child, because we acted out the music video to a T.
We stopped about an hour and a half into our 4-5 hour drive to eat lunch. We stopped at some restaurant but didn’t eat there because Christina had bought all we needed for lunch- and then some. We had sandwiches, fruit, chips, juice, cookies and- my favorite- nutella and peanut butter! I ate two spoonfuls of each and it was wonderful. At the place we stopped there was a chick just roaming around being our buddy. It was strange.
Then we piled back on the bus and made our way to the Hostería Hakuna Matata, or at least as far as the bus could go. To get to the hostel you have to cross this bridge that the bus couldn’t so we took ‘taxis’ the rest of the way. The taxis actually ended up being pickup trucks that we rode in the back of. It was pretty fun. The bridge was creepy though because it was suspended, like those bridges on a playground, so it kind of moved up and down as we drove over it.
Once we finally got to the hostel it was amazing. Marcellina gave us a warm welcome- just like the website said!- and then assigned us to our rooms. Somehow, Danielle and I ended up in two different rooms. She left me behind to room with Chris. I was one of the last people to be assigned and since we had an odd number left one of us would have to go to the quad. I volunteered thinking that’s where Danielle and Chris went, but I ended up in the “avocado” room (our key was shaped like an avocado) with Bianca, Betty and Alex. Haha, oops. It was good to branch out, but I was afraid I wouldn’t get a lot of sleep since they had bought a ton of alcohol making our room the party room.
After we settled in we decided to get a quick swim in before dinner. The pool was shaped like a palm tree and fed by only natural water so it was super nice. After my swim I relaxed in the hammock bay for a while. On the pool deck there is a section of about 10 hammocks- they were pretty awesome. Then, after drying off and changing, we went to dinner in the restaurant. Our first course was some kind of cheese and ham thing cooked in a seashell. It was crazy. I didn’t like mine that much so I gave it to Danielle. Our main dish was ‘curry’ chicken which was just roast chicken with a tasty curry spice rub. Also we had red noodles that were delicious and some cauliflower which Emily L kindly ate for me. While we were enjoying our meal, the waitresses brought out bowls of more food for us to take seconds if we wanted to. I wish all restaurants did that. They kept the extra bowls warm on a hollowed out half log that had candles in it and a grate on top. Dessert was chocolate mousse but sadly we didn’t get extras of that.
After dinner some of us went to Danielle and Chris’ room to play cards. We played BS with Danielle’s cuss cards. Mary, who was a huge liar, put down like five cards and said, “two pieces of shit” because that’s what the one card said on it. We cracked up about that! Then most of us went over to our room for some drinking and stuff. I wasn’t too excited about drinking- plus I didn’t have a glass- so I didn’t drink. We played a bunch of games like truth or dare and marry boff kill but people left pretty early. I was glad I’d get to sleep!
Up next...more jungle fun!
Hasta luego,
Caitlin
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