Spring Break Kick-Off 2011: Puerto Lopez

Yeah. Ecuador is weird. Our Spring Break is at the end of April. Crazy. Last day of classes was Wednesday, April 20. We couldn't find a straight-shot bus ticket to Puerto Lopez, so Ashley and I left Quito at 11:15 PM on Wednesday on a bus to Guayaquil with Rachele, who was going to Guayaquil to meet a girl she's been sponsoring for 6 years. The bus was actually incredibly comfortable except for the fact that Ashley and I were in seats 3 and 4 which are like right in front of the door that separates the driver from the passengers, so there was a lot of traffic. Also, around 3 in the morning some jerk asked the driver to turn on the AC. Really?! Quite unnecessary. We arrived in hot and humid Guayaquil around 8:15 in the morning where we parted ways with Rachele. Ashley and I bought tickets to Puerto Lopez and waited around until the bus left at 9:40. This second bus was definitely not as nice as the overnight bus. No AC so we were riding windows open. Guess where we were sitting? Again. Seats 3 and 4. It was hot as heck on the bus and they were playing some mariachi video with a wannabe half-dressed Shakira dancer. Entertaining. We finally caught a glimpse of the ocean and thought we were almost there, but we had to wind around the coast for another hour before we finally arrived in Puerto Lopez around 2 in the afternoon. This is Thursday the 21st by now. Found our hostel, Villa Colombia, and moved into a 3-person room with a girl from Poland. Put the swimsuits on and headed for the beach which is about 3 blocks away. Puerto Lopez is a fishing town so there were boats everywhere and the water smelled a little fishy, but it was a beach and not rainy Quito! Seriously. It has rained every day in April in Quito. Ashley and I hung out on the beach for awhile, headed back to the hostel to clean up, and then headed around town looking for a place to eat. We stopped at this one restaurant and we were about halfway through looking through the menu when the waiter told us that they didn't have any chicken or beef because it's Easter and the markets don't sell it. Yeah right. We left and found a restaurant that DID serve chicken. Sat on the beach to watch the sunset when Rachele called and said she was headed to Puerto Lopez. Her original plans were to go to Manta, but she decided she wanted to hang out with us, so we were pretty excited. She got in around 10 PM. We headed back to the hostel and switched into a 4 person room for the three of us. She told us all about her visit with the little girl she's been sponsoring. So cool. Then it was off to bed.

Friday morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hostel. Then we got our beach bags ready and took a "taxi" to Los Frailes, a beach about 15 minutes away from Puerto Lopez. I say "taxis" because they aren't cars. They look like this:

So we took that to Los Frailes which is an absolutely gorgeous beach. Almost Galapagos worthy. And since we got there at like 10:30, there weren't many people there at all.

We spent basically all day there (until 3:30) just chilling and chatting. So incredibly relaxing. It was exactly what I needed. We played in the ocean, too. The wave pattern was very unpredictable, though. One minute we'd be splashing through these dinky little things, and the next minute there were like 5 death waves in a row that came so fast it was nearly impossible to escape. We almost died. And that's only a slight exaggeration. Headed back to the hostel. I was burnt and crispy (you would think I had learned my lesson by now), but it was a great day. This is what we look like after a day on the beach:

(Rachele, Ashley, Me)

Beautiful. Then we headed out for supper and ate at the same place Ashley and I ate the night before. That way we're guaranteed meat in our meal. Chatted on the beach as we watched the sun set. 

There was a little doggie friend that came over to get some attention. Very cute. Then she started digging a hole right behind us and got sand everywhere. Haha. Quite comical. Then we treated ourselves to ice cream and headed back to the hostel to rest up.

We woke up on Saturday and ate breakfast at the hostel. Then it was off to Los Frailes again. Since we were already burnt, we rented an umbrella. We also brought oranges to lighten our hair. It's really supposed to be lemons, and we bought these yellow fruits thinking they were lemons, but it turns out they were oranges. You rub the juice in your hair and it's supposed to attract the sunlight to give you natural highlights. The verdict is that oranges don't work as well as lemons. Back to Puerto Lopez around 4. Shower. Then we went to a restaurant a little ways further down the beach where they serve you lots of high-quality food for a low price. I had a vegetarian sandwich which consisted of tomato, avocado, and cheese on thick slices of warm wheat bread. Yummy. Ice cream again and then Ashley and I grabbed our stuff from the hostel to head back to Quito on an overnight bus. Rachele decided to stay another day for more relaxation on the beach. Left at 8:00 PM and got to Quito at 5:30 in the AM. Guess what seats we had!?!? We actually had seats 1 and 2, but they were positioned exactly where seats 3 and 4 were on the other buses. They must be the gringo seats. Maybe it was because I was burnt, I don't know, but I could not sleep on that bus. It was terrible. Horrible. Awful. Taxied home and slept until noon on Easter Sunday. I know. I didn't go to church. God understands.

Leaving for the Amazon on Wednesday the 27th. Only 6 more days of school!