i guess im having some technical difficulties but whatever. okay last weekend (the weekedn of march 15 and 16) pepe, evelyn, her boyfriend fernando, evelyns best friend naomi, sonja (from austria), christina (from norway), cateriana (from italy) isabel (from norway), elizabeth (from wisconsin), her host brother, jack and his host brother and sister and me all went to this funky beach town called montañita. the place is a famous ecuadorian surf spot and it manages to attract a hefty number of foreigners from all over the world. the beach was nice but we where there for the legendary nightlife and it was legendary. the whole town partied until the sun came up. then we spent the rest of sunday relaxing on the beach. it was a lot of fun. montañita is in a region called ruta del sol (sun route) where there are many towns next to the beach. it is a really beautiful spot with white sand beaches, clear water, real ecuadorian villages and there arent towns that are poisoned by concrete hotels. it was a really fun weekend to say the least traveling though was not so pleasurable. saturday we took buses which was nice enough but for half the trip (which was three hours) we had to stand up because the bus was packed. then returnning i got a ride with fernando but his car was packed so someone sat on my lap for four hours-we ran into traffic. the next week work was more or less the same routine but the juconi workers became more and more tired and frustrated. by the end of the week people were very precicely deciding what they were going to do with their free time. amzaingly wedenesday i gathered up enough energy to go to some discos in downtown guayaquil with my friends and some of pepes friends. it was a long night but really fun. our group ended up meeting a group of americans on spring break. i remembered then how much i dislike americans in large groups. the next mornin at breakfast my host mom told me that i was going with her to the beach that day with some of her friends and i would stay there for two nights. so i had to go to work and tell my boss that i couldnt work that day then i returned home to get ready to go. we where supposed to leave at one in the afternoon but that soon turned out to be four in the afternoon. i should say here that in this past week my spanish has gotten significantly better and now i dont really have problems communicating. also my brain has started to program itself in spanish where somtimes, i think of phrases or words in spanish first and then translate them into english. even writting this is a bit difficult. anyway so my host mom and some of her girlfriends and some of their kids (three were my age) all arrived at a beach house in ballenita. ballenita is a collection of houses that mostly belong to people who live in guayaquil but stay there on the weekedns. at this beach house i got a lot of rest, i read a lot and we spent most of friday at the beach. the beach we went to had very mellow waves and mostly families showed up. the only downside was that because i have had baking problems i had no money and i felt a little constrained. the next day, saturday, i traveled by bus to meet up with my friends in montañita (i cashed some cheques so i wouldnt starve). on the bus i met a couple of american spring breakers on their way to the beach. it was nice to talk to some people from back home who werent complete idiots. i was really excited to meet my friends in montañita but when i got there they were all tired and they didnt feel like doing anything. we spent most of saturday at the beach. then saturday night we went to the discos and bars the problem was that the town was completely packed. it was hard to breath let alone dance. the next day evelyn, pepe and i (they were there too) got a ride to guayaquil with pepes friend. we where really tired when we got home. this week i dont have to work so i have been resting, playing poker with evelyn and fernando and just hanging out. hopefully later this week i will be able to go to the andes. i miss dirt and cold, fresh air so the andes sound good. i was going to visit some friends in cuenca but since one of them is ill i dont know if that is a good idea. ill keep yall posted.
-mark