AMAZON

So a group of us went to the Amazon jungle for a few days. Myself, Solbi, Matt, Frances, and Michelle left Guayaquil on Sunday the 27th (after a thoughtful birthday call to my mother) on a 6am bus to a town called Baños.  The bus ride there was about 7 hours, I actually did not get any sleep the night before so I could pass out for the whole bus ride and not worry about having no bathroom. Well, that plan went fine for about an hour until a somewhat unpleasant violent film started playing at high volume (The Call, I think it's called). So in Baños, we met up with Steve and Jieun, and took a transferring bus from there to Tena. Another 6 hours or so. In Tena we met up with the guide/tour agency, payed a nice cheap price and eventually got another bus for another 5 hours or so. Sleeping became impossible once we got into the jungle area and the bus was driving over rocks or so it felt like. Around 4am we got off somewhere in the countryside/jungle, and took a canoe down a river. This was really nice, quiet, sky full of stars, river full of fireflies, definitely really exciting to be here in the jungle. We arrived at a cabin where we'd be staying, in rooms of two. It was about 5:30am by the time we finally got to sleep, the sun was already out and it sounded like we had a million animals outside our door making noises. Definitely had a good sleep though, for about 5 hours before getting woken up by the guide.

HALLOWEEN PARTY!

To kick off our 10 day break from UEES, we had an early Halloween party.

Terrorist.

:)

Angel-devil relationship.

Tempting Pepe..

END OF FIRST BIMESTER

We finished the first bimester towards the end of October, and wrapped up quite an awesome first two months.

Despite a challenging start, Institutions of Society eventually got better. Our teacher warmed up and allowed moments of friendliness and affection to potrude from her icy exterior. We finished on friendly terms, and I hope I don't have classes til 10pm next bimester.

Thankfully no one has had any major problems or run into any dodgy situations, only one girl got her wallet stolen on the street and a couple of girls got their phones stolen from their bags but at least no one’s been attacked or anything. Although one thing that annoys me about Ecuadorians is the attitude a lot of them have to women, they really like to stare long and intently at the girls, maybe saying some things to them. Anyway it is really annoying to keep noticing it. Sure we all look at girls, but there’s a difference between being subtle and quick about it to sleazy stares and comments. Grr.

Thursday nights continue to be the grand party nights!

Ozzie mate!

Zhumir, a very common beverage amongst the group. It's basically like flavoured vodka. Some flavours taste nice, most taste terrible.

WEEKEND VISITS

CHURUTE PLANTATION/MONTAÑITA

The last saturday of September was the birthday of my Mexican friend Nancy. To celebrate we would go to Montañita on Saturday, Montañita is a party beach town which has quite a reputation. It's full of hippies and surfers, and some people like it so much they apparently end up staying for a few months. This is the place to be if you like to party all night, but if you were to seek a relaxing beach break then you would do better to avoid this place and go elsewhere. On the friday before our trip to Montañita, a group of us went to the cinema and then to the bar Fanatico.

Steve and I testing out the local Pilsener towers.

Zombies?

Most people went to Montañita early on Saturday, but I had already signed up to go on an UEES trip to a plantation with a couple of the others. We headed there earlier than one prefers at around 8am. The other guy accompanying me was Brenn, who was actually in hospital yesterday because of some apparently extreme food poisoning but seemed determined to go on the trip today. The other two internationals were Michelle and Frances, the older woman of the group (28) who I have not talked to as much as most others but am relieved to say she’s just as friendly and down to earth as the rest of us. There were a couple of native UEES students and a couple of others from another university, alongside my favourite staff members Angelike and Andrea.

First we went to a monkey forest to walk around, then some more hiking in a forest area which was full of mosquitoes. Seriously, this second place was barely enjoyable because of the constant stinging we kept getting. We also took a canoe ride on a river to accompany the local to catch some crabs.

Having a nap?

Brenn.

Frances and Michelle.

We then went to the Churute plantation where we were given food, and saw some of the food they produce (mostly rice!).

We got back to Samborondón around 4:30pm, enough time for me to get something to eat before meeting up with Brenn’s host brother Michael to take a bus to Montañita.

With Ayano and Aiko, two Japanese students who arrived last term, and Michael.

The main road is full of these cocktail stands, and the cocktails are dangerously cheap.

Matt found great happiness in Montañita.

The next day! Forced to wear Solbi's flip-flops as my shoes were covered in sand :( anyway, definitely a fun place. The bus ride from and to Guayaquil is three hours, but both times I slept throughout the whole journey so no bathroom necessities.

GUARANDA

The first weekend of October me and Solbi spent a night in Guaranda, a town in the mountains. This was a nice little night away from Guayaquil, although definitely did not need more than one night there. The bus ride was four to five hours, the longest I've had yet which meant I was definitely a little worried about the toilet situation. I make sure to go twice before getting on the bus, and I've managed to not actually have the need to go while on board yet.

Shout out to Bristol!

Beautiful!

DOS MANGAS

I went with Solbi and some of the girls to a forest commune called Dos Mangas, where we hiked for a couple of hours and had a little swim/paddle in a rock pool.

Now this water was freezing! It would be nice if it was sunny and hot, but this day was cloudy and un-Ecuadorianly not hot.