¨we are so lucky to be here. . .¨

Well, I saw that picture this weekend in real life. We went to the coast on friday night in a bus which was a story in itself. So we get on the bus, and more or less it is a tad bit cramped. Not too bad, I guess. But then the bus conductor puts on a movie. . .and little do we know that we are about to be shown 2 of the worst movies in the entire world, 12 rounds and the general (I think). If you dont know what these movies are, thank god because 1. John Cena is in them (if you dont know who that is, google him and laugh) and 2. they played the movies at a RIDICULOUS volume. I couldnt even really go to sleep in the second one because I heard no talking, just stuff blowing up and machine guns shooting. It was funny for the 1st 15 minutes but then youre like ok really this is stupid. When the movies were over, it started to go into an interview of how John Cena grew up. As if ecuadorians really care. So the bus ride to Puerto Lopez, which was 11 hours, kind of sucked. We got into the sleepy town around 7 in the morning on Saturday. The hostal didnt have room for us until 9 and served breakfast at 8, so they put out mattresses in the main patio for us to sit on. Imagine ecuadorians waking up and looking out their windows to see 15 white people, me, and our guide. AWESOME. We eat breakfast, put our things in our rooms, and head out to the beach in Puerto Lopez for a bit. The beach there wasnt too bad, a little dirty considering we saw a kid drop trou, go in the water, and proceeded to go to the bathroom. . .hussalin. We got in a bus and drove to Los Frailes, the badass beach I was talkin about before. Now this beach was absurd. Beautiful views, almost white sand, great water. . .I was in heaven. Until they packed us after about 2 hours and we dipped out. We then go to a museum to learn about the indigenous tribe around the area, with what was found in various archeological sites around the area. It was neat, but I was a little down about being away from the beach. Until they took us to a SULFER POOL. Now if you havent been in one, which im gonna go ahead and assume you havent, it smells like absolute ass for one. . .but apparently it does wonders to your skin. ESPECIALLY if you take the mud from the bottom and smear it all over your body, which is exactly what we all did. I looked like an extra from that movie apacolipto. Pretty cool, and it did actually feel pretty nice. So we get back to our hostal, shower up, and head out to eat dinner. I proceed to pound 2 big brewskis and a huge plate of seafood which came out to a whopping 8 bucks. We took our party to the beach, where we drank more and played the animal game. Finally, we went to a karoake bar where Garrett and Eamon became instant celebrities with their singing. All the ecuadorians were buyin em beers and askin em over and over and over what we thought of their city. After all of us busting out hotel california, we dipped out for sunday. . . which by far was the best day. After waking up early, we ate breakfast, got on a boat, and headed to La Isla de La Plata (which is considered the poor mans galapagos). We walked along incredible trails along the island offering views of the ocean, where we saw whales doing what essentially was a mating dance in the water. We also saw blue footed boobies, including one male tryin to get on a female, getting pecked at, attracting and getting another female close by, and getting hammered by the 1st female again. Finally, we ended on the island by seeing an albatros, a big ass bird which is gorgeous, endangered, and only found in la isla and in the galapagos. All throughout, we were just muttering how lucky we are to be given this opportunity. It really is amazing to see such sights and notice how blessed we are to be where were we are. We got back on the boat and went snorkling near a cave. It was my first time, and Ill be honest, I sucked hard at it. I gulped a huge amount of salt water at first, and that kind of just did it for me. I saw some neat fish, but I think I need to do more snorkling in the future to get used to it because I sure wasnt. Immediately afterward, we went whale watching. Now this was INSANE. Our boat driver got up SUPER CLOSE to the whales, where we saw them jump out of the water and crash back into it. That picture was taken by my friend Tobias, who I just met on this trip. Ill probably pepper my blog with his pictures, considering his camera is high quality badassness. Greg even got a 2 minute video, where you see the whales jump in and out 3 times. It might be the coolest thing Ive ever seen in my entire life. Afterward, we got back, ate sandwiches of peanut butter for dinner, and got on the bus back which was luckily way more spacious and didnt play atrocious movies. I know this post was insane long, but this weekend was just out of control. I think we might be going to climb a mountain this coming weekend, along with going to an indigenous market. . .we will see. Until next time. . .

Just a day in the life. . .