"La Costa" weekend trip

So...life and internships continue. I am now waiting for several things on my research: 1) universities to get on it and send me a simple list of emails of a specific group of medical students, 2) students to answer the online survey I've sent them. The problem seems to be that the universities are good about saying they're willing to help, but don't really prioritize it at all, thus, six weeks and MANY pleading emails and calls later, I'm still waiting for six universities. They also seem to have forgotten to tell the students to check their email...so it's taking awhile to get the responses. Longer than I expected.

Now that I only have three weeks left the worrier part of me is coming out at times...what if no one answers? What other project could I do? How can I salvage this if it really does go downhill? that kind of thing. I think it will really be fine, but it's concerning. I've been doing some personal visits at the universities to try to get things moving, so that's required some traveling lately.

Like I've said before, Ecuador has 3 VERY different areas...the coast, the mountains, and the jungle. I managed to visit two of the three in the last 9 days, and only missed the jungle by about 30 minutes. I had to visit two universities on the coast last Monday and Tuesday, so I asked if I could schedule my flight for Friday afternoon and I wandered the coast for the weekend.

I arrived in Manta in the evening, just before dark, so I got to the bus station and had to find a bus that went to Puerto Lopez, about two and a half hours to the south...Up until now I've been mostly in Quito or traveling in a car, so this was my first large scale introduction to public transportation in the pueblos and country. I think the bus was about 5 feet tall inside, so I had to hunch to get to a seat which I then really didn't fit in. The headrest hit my back at about shoulder blade level, and the poor guy in front of me had my knees jammed in his back the whole way. Then the guy next to me fell asleep and kept resting his head on me- not a big deal except it's hot there so he was all sweaty... It was a great adventure. I actually was smiling most of the way just looking at the rickety old bus as I thought about how that was more what I was expecting of my time in Ecuador than living in a big city and working in a 15 floor glass office building. They just cram you in, too...live chickens with heads sticking out of potato sacks along with all other bags and several yard long bunches of plantains that people were taking home.

Puerto Lopez is a now touristic fishing village, so it was easy to find a hostel- I splurged. $10 per night was a pretty high price (nice, huh?), but it had hot water AND a mosquito net. I didn't dare use the blanket though, for fear of fleas (I sprayed the sheets down really well with bug spray, but still managed to get a few flea bites). I should have taken a picture of the way I slept since it did get chilly at night since it's winter here...I put my feet into the arms of my wool sweater, wrapped some pants around my stomach, and wore a couple of extra shirts to keep my arms warm. I couldn't move much without something being exposed to the cold, but it worked.

I was taking a tour the next day, and as we walked down the beach toward the boats we walked through the fishing boats that were selling their catch...One guy dragged a shark across the sand right in front of me. Another was skinning a Manta Ray. Not your typical Idaho fishing catch!

We set out into the open water on my first real ocean experience as we headed to la Isla de la Plata, an island that's about 35 km west of the Ecuadorian coast. It's called the "Poor Man's Galapagos" since it has some of the same rare bird species as the Galapagos Islands. We did a hike around the island and saw some really amazing birds- like the Blue Footed Booby.
They are born without any pigmentation in their beaks and feet, but the fish they eat contain a chemical that acts as a pigment that accumulates in their bodies over time...so their feet and part of their beaks turn a brighter blue with age. We also saw a rare species of albatross that tried pecking at us as we passed, and several sea lions that just decided not to continue migrating south about 4 years ago.


The island was Sir Francis Drake's pirating base as he launched his raids on the Spanish ships carrying gold from the America's to Sevilla. It's still strange to me that a pirate was knighted...but history is always different depending on which side you're on! The story is that he was being chased once, and had to dump part of his cargo of silver in the coral reef in the bay to get more speed, thus the name of the island, the Island of the Silver.


We went snorkeling in the coral reef (my first experience swimming with tropical fish), and I got stung by mini jellyfish. It was more annoying than anything since they're so small you can't even see them. On the way back to the mainland we did some whale watching. July and August are the months that the humpback whales from the Antartic area come to the equator to birth and mate, so there are hundreds of them in the area just of the coast of Ecuador and Columbia in the warm water there. We ended up following one male (he was about 14 meters long- or about 45 feet) who was really active. Every 20 to 30 seconds he would jump out of the water. We tried to stay at least 100 yards away, but he would get further away, then come really close. He jumped once about 30 yards away and we got a little of the splash. He then bumped the bottom of the boat before he came up on the other side of us. We followed him about 45 min and it was incredible. I took tons of pictures, and some turned out pretty good. The videos didn't work though. It was straight off the Discovery Channel or out of National Geographic- definitely one thing I thought I would never get to see in this life.

And that's the short version of day one...

Sunday morning I caught a bus back toward the north, and ended up finding a church in a pueblo called Jipijapa. The members were amazing...much more welcoming that I have ever seen in any ward or branch anywhere I've traveled. Usually there will be a couple of people that come up and introduce themselves to make sure you know where to go, etc, but these people were lining up to come introduce themselves and welcome me, even the teenagers and primary kids. They made sure they included me in the discussions in the classes, asked me to lead the music, and gave me a copy of the Liahona when I left so I would have something good to read that sunday afternoon. It was cool to see these very humble, very loving, and very dedicated saints who had nothing that the world considers important, yet the single mother has white ironed shirts for her three little boys even though they have old worn out shoes and pants and they all are just HAPPY. All they have is their family and the gospel and it is enough. It was a good reminder.

I wandered around the next few days, spent Monday night in another coastal pueblo listening to the ocean just outside ($7 at this place!) because the city of Manta is more expensive and I'd rather be in small communities anyway. My university visits went well, so all was good. I decided that it's a lot more fun to travel with someone else, though...there's no one to share it all with when you go it solo! I got back to Manta with a few hours to wait before my flight back to Quito, so I wandered down the beach for awhile. They make fishing boats and yachts by hand in the port there, so even though it stunk like rotten fish I hung out there watching for awhile.

The ironic thing was that I had just spent 4 days out with the people who make up the large majority of the population of the country...the poor who live in small cities and just barely survive, so when I was sitting in the airport I was really annoyed with everyone. The contrast was amazing...everyone with their portable electronic devices, wearing expensive clothes, talking or texting on their blackberry. I realized that I had felt more safe and much more comfortable on the incredibly crowded bus. All the poor people were friendly and welcoming, going out of their way to help me and make me comfortable...all the wealthy people were "cold" as they would describe it here, and totally self-absorbed. It made me wonder if that's how I am, too...

I'll have to write Part II tomorrow...to be continued are the descriptions of volcano lava eruption sightings, diving off a bridge, etc.