Nata

            This week we have been filming the stories. My story won't be filmed until Tuesday and Wednesday, so estoy tranquila horita. I just wanted to write down how much I am loving NATA right now. Every morning we get fresh milk that is heated up. We can either drink it straight, with chocolate, or with cofee (which is what I have). This morning I drank it straight and became fascinated with the nata. It is basically the cream that rises after the milk heats up.

Fresh milk with nata :)

       They even make butter out of it, which tastes so real and I feel much better eating it than that gross "I can't believe it's not butter" stuff. This is the start of my real butter revolution. When I get back to the US I am going to buy whole organic milk and make real butter out of it. ¡¡Ñiam Ñiam!!

Puerto Lopez: Blue-footed-boobies, whales, and whale sharks

            Last weekend we went on an excursion to Puerto Lopez, which is about 3.5 hours south and is known as a jumping point to Isla de la Plata, an Island which has species found on the Galapagos, such as blue-footed boobies. Here's the play-by-play:

Our hotel

            We wake up at 4:30 am, then leave around 5 for the van. We all packed into it and listened to reggaeton, salsa, and bachata music while driving away in the pitch black dark. It was the sketchiest night ride I'd ever taken. We were going up and down deserted dirt roads, and would only see the lights from houses scattered here and there. Megan asked us if we would rather walk a mile down the road at 5 am or 5 pm. It is still a question I cannot answer...I'm thinking at night because either no one else would pass by anyway, or you could hide on the side of the road. Such dark questions for such an early hour of the night/morning. We were fed simple buloni and cheese sandwiches and drinkable yogurt. Mine was guanabana "stone" flavor, and had a picture of what looked like a stoner. It did not taste like guanabana. We got to Puerto Lopez at around 8:30, and were blown away by how pretty the hotel was. We had it all to ourselves and had a pool with a little slide. The only problem was that there was a bees nest right next to the pool so it was scary going down the slide. We had a gorgeous view of the ocean too, and they always played latin music.
          At 9 am I rode in the one lawn chair in the back of the van because there were no more seats left, and we arrived at the beach that was full of fishing boats, dogs, pelicans, and frigate birds flying around everywhere. We took off our shoes, put on life jackets, and took a boat which I THOUGHT was going to take 15 minutes but we were on there for a good hour and a half to get to the "Isla de la Plata". On the way were other boats and whales. We stopped and managed to take pictures of a few surfacing only enough to see their dorsal fins and tails. Our guide kept saying "¡cola, cola!" which means "tail, tail!" in hopes that we would get a better view of it. We got pretty soaked on the boat, as it was not a smooth ride but riding the waves was fun. I'd love to have the guides' job.

           We got to the island, and got off the only small port which had one house. It looked like a desert, but we hiked up to see a ton of blue-footed-boobies. Our guide took us up at a gazebo, where a female was just chilling there. He told us that you can tell the gender from looking at the pupils. He kept asking us if we had questions, but we finished all of our boobie questions really fast and there was not much else to talk about regarding the deserted island. We walked a little further and saw groups of frigate birds (they had bright red pouches that they inflate to impress their mates), and they would tap the bright red bags with their beaks. We passed a ton of boobies doing their mating dances...they just lift their feet and squawk. We also learned that the color of the feet depends on how well nourished the boobies are. Some even had turquoise colored feet.

            After our hike in the hot equatorial sun, we got in the boat for lunch. We had a chicken salad sandwich and a sandwich with cheese and apricot jam. What odd mixes. I gave my banana bread to Keneshia because it was too dry. I have discovered here that I don't like dry things. Then, we jumped in the water and snorkeled. Apparently someone saw a whale shark swim next to the boat. I didn't see it, but they are harmless so I stayed in the water, which was surprisingly clear. We were lucky it was sunny. We got back in the boat and saw a ton of whales jumping. I didn't take pictures because I left my camera with Chio and she was on the other side of the boat, but here's one someone else took.

            I loved being on the boat. It reminded me of how much I love boating and just water in general. Back home one of my favorite things to do was to go water skiing and tubing, and I just have not gotten to do that in the Northeast. It's these little things that make me so happy that make me realize where I want to live later on. As soon as we got back, we were greeted by a huge St. Bernard on the beach. I have never seen so many dog species as I have in Ecuador! He was so big and fluffy! :) We spent the evening at the hotel chilling in the hot tub, which wasn't so hot. The pool was deliciously refreshing. Then came dinner, and we had a three course meal which reminded me of France. It was great getting whole vegetables again and the fish was yummy. In the night time we went downtown because there was a town festival going on, but we were all too tired to stay for the salsa dancing and there was a creepy man following us. I did get to speak French briefly with some tourists. They told me that I should go to Cuba because the people there are really nice. Then I told them how it is harder for an American to go, but I would love to head over there at some point and have Perníl!

Cebiche de pescado/Fish cebiche

          I was so tired from the early morning ride that I crashed on a hammock and slept through the fireworks. Apparently I can fall asleep at the club and through fireworks, but I still need a facemask and earplugs to sleep at the apartment. Weird.
         Sunday: The day to lounge and leave at 2. We decided to go walk to a beach, which we were told was 10 minutes away. FALSE. We walked down the side of the road and found this sign with sea turtles that said "No trespassing, turtle nesting site". This guy kept telling us to go in....so we did, and 5 minutes in we stopped and decided that we should go back because things were getting way to scratchy. There were bushes and thorns; something I'm not used to encountering on the way to a beach. I found it funny that that path was better carved out than some I have seen in national parks. We have a beach every day in Bahía anyway, so we chilled by the pool.
            At 2, our van was supposed to pick us up but it didn't get there until 4:30 because of an apparent accident. Then we left the gravel road of the hotel, then before we even touched the road, the van broke down. Apparently the driver knew something was wrong with the battery, but he tried to see if he could make it. So, we took a bus instead, which was full up to the point of having people standing. It was more comfortable than sitting in the van, and reminded me of the Senate bus from Wellesley to Boston because it, too, gets packed to that point. We got to Manta, one of the larger coastal cities, and took cabs to Bahía, which took another hour. We arrived safe and sound at midnight.

Whipped cream stories and pineapple deliveries

Sean's birthday celebration

            It's Wednesday night and we're sitting in the living room watching a movie about Richard Gere in China. I can't really take Richard Gere seriously, much less dubbed in Spanish.
            On Saturday we went to Canoa, a beach town known for its parties. It just seemed like Bahía but with more touristy things and a bigger beach with bigger waves. I rented a boogie board for a little bit, but was afraid to break it in half since it was made of something other than fiberglass. My favorite thing about this place was the number of speakers along the beach blasting salsa. We danced on the beach and played soccer to songs like Celia Cruz's "Guantanamera". We went to get drinks and tried this gross local one, so I tried washing it down with a so called 'mamey' milkshake which I was super excited for because I haven't had one in forever, but it tasted nothing like I thought it would... like bad virgin piña colada Yegh. Yuck. Fuchi.
            Later that night some of the girls and I walked down the street and encountered an older woman, Theresa, and her husband selling cakes. She had some of the best tiramisu I've ever had. We sat down and talked about Bahía, and how both of them have basically been here all their lives. I asked them if Bahía had changed much, and they said it did. I found that hard to believe since it seems stuck in the past. You don't find the fast-food chains you see in Quito and there are only two traffic lights. Their best story was their description of an earthquake that shook the city's foundations (I couldn't resist, hehe) about 14 years ago. Their house was fine because it was well built, while a 5-story building down the street crumbled to the ground because it was built out of concrete and SAND. What a no-no. The couple was really nice, and let us take pictures on some swings they have on their front porch that look like open cages. The next day I went for a walk and saw the couple enjoying their swings with just each other in the evening. It was a pretty picture....they looked so happy together.
            On Monday we held a birthday celebration for one of our instructors, Sean. We had cake and broke a piñata that looked like a paper lantern and had "El Chavo" on it, I'm guessing from El Chavo del Ocho. It was fun singing "Las Mañanitas", the Mexican b-day song. Also, we taunted him with a chant of "eat it, eat it!" after he blew out the candles. He actually took a big bite out of it!
            Yesterday the highlight was getting Pan tres leches with Keneshia after the taller (workshop). For one dollar you get this cake topped with all of this whipped cream I always give away. This time I plopped some of mine onto her cake, but decided I still had far too much. There were some small boys huddled around each other eating bread they bought at the bakery, and I quickly thought to offer them some whipped cream to put on their bread. At first I asked them if they wanted it, and they looked at eachother blankly. As soon as they realized I was offering it to them, they swarmed around the both of us going "me! me!". I'd never seen people so eager for whipped cream. In America, if you asked someone if they wanted it they would have backed away disgustedly. These kids were all over us. Then this boy wanted my strawberry. Maybe I was overreacting, but told him, no, as I shook my head in disbelief. This is the second time this happens when I offered my whipped cream from the same cake! Nelda also wanted my strawberry, but I'm sorry, it's the best part of anyone's cake. The scene of the boys swarming around us like bees on honey would have made a great picture.

Chio and I with our pineapple delivery

           Today I haven't been feeling well. I don't know what it is, but I don't have energy not have I been in the best mood. Maybe its the cloudiness. Usually I'm bugging to get out and jog or walk. The little things that happen during the day just make me smile, though. During our spanish class, we sit outside so we always listen to men driving buy yelling, advertising their products from fruit to water. The pineapple guy pulled up and sold us 2 for $1, while blasting bachata music. I love the fact that you can listen to such great music without playing it yourself...the cars play it for you! Some people from the city might be used to this but I sure am not. I know I'll miss it. During the workshop we went around the town and took pictures of potential places to film the kids' stories. They took pictures of what they would think a fisherman's house looked like while I danced to the bachata music blasting from the neighboring house. People don't have much, but they do love their high-quality music and that is more than fine with me. :)

"Provecho!"

The beach on a rare, sunny day

            That's what we always say at each meal. I know it's going to be hard to leave this program and not eat three meals a day with the same people. We are very sarcastic and joke around, but we don't complain about everything, all of which I love. This weekend was chill. I went running and played soccer on the beach with the girls and some guys who came up and wanted to play soccer with us. I got darker too, after a sunburn. Lucky we have an aloe vera plant next door so I used it up. One girl said it smells like chicken soup which I disagree with but I can't say it smells nice. Last we watched "Born into Brothels", a documentary about a photographer who teaches the children of prostitutes how to take pictures, and manages to send them to boarding schools but only two end up staying. It was relevant to our project in some ways. I came here being optimistic about non profit work, which I still am. However, there are so many outside factors that can pull kids away from the workshops we offer. Some of them have to work or take care of their parents, for example.
          Today I woke up for an early run on the beach, wchih is nice because there are less people out to give you weird looks that you are running for the sake of running. Also I probably look funny because of the head band I always wear. Whatevs! I need to get out! On that note, today we decided on an excursion we are taking in two weeks...the choices were A. Organic farm without electricity (and somehow they told us sawdust would be involved) or B. Beach town/whales mating/national park/islands with Galapagos species. BBBBB!!!! I feel like we are already doing organic living because our water shuts off and we are used to taking 2 minute showers.

Fake mexican food with a 'frutilla' yoghurt drink.
I'm just happy they had hot sauce.

           Today for class we went to the local grocery store to compare the products sold here to those back home. The products here are more fruity, and they don't really sell as much meat as I thought they would. They have tons of fruit drinks (some with oatmeal) and soda such as Inca Cola, which Erica said is like candy on crack. They have prices on the local things, but not on the imported stuff often times. None of the alcoholic beverages have price tags on them. Also, spaghetti here costs about 4 times as much because it's imported. Also, they sell huge 5 liter waters with pictures of babies on them that we have been drinking because we don't have matches to turn on the stove and boil water with. Also the water is from wells so I still wouldn't feel okay just boiling it.

Meat, plantains, green bean salad, and rice.
Why don't I just start a food blog?

         Also, for an exercise we talked with Jorge (from Monterrey, Mex) and Juan Carlos (from Puerto Rico) to talk about their favorite foods from home. Jorge liked goat, which is really popular. He also says he would eat dulce de leche in a tortilla. Weird. I might have to try that. They only have flour tortillas here....I have really come to appreciate corn tortillas. Juan Carlos likes mofongo, which is a mashed up plantain/meat dish that he says is really hard to make. My mouth watered just hearing them describe the bacalao (cod), pasteles (Puerto Rican tamale type things), and menudo. It was neat hearing what Jorge and I had in common because we put lime in our soups and remember eating chilaquiles for breakfast. Soon came lunch, and the most eventful part was that we saw a huge crowd of school kids run to the beach because there was a fight or something going on. Later that night there would be a huge crowd in the same spot to watch the surfers at dusk :)
        The workshop with the high schoolers was challenging. We had to brainstorm a lot and really dig through how to write a story and include twists and turns. Then we worked on making floorplans from observing the set of a spanish movie. After dinner I watched a little bit of the Greece/Ecuador soccer game in an attempt to get into it. Fail. Both sides seemed so apathetic and just kept passing the ball to each other. The last game I watched was Spain play in the world cup so I probably have too much to compare it to. I came to the apartment and the cleaning lady totally rearranged everything. She also hid the extension chord we have that lets me plug in the fan in our room and to charge my lap top. -___-!!! ugh. If I had left my clothes out she probably would have even folded them. The search continues.

It's Friday

A Torreja: Basically a fried pancake with melted cheese and plantain,
minus the syrup because that would be weird.
BEST. THING. EVER.

TGIF! In Bahia. This is what I did today:

           We woke up at the crack of dawn thanks to the roosters, and made sure to make it to breakfast at 8:30 because Doña Mariana expects to serve us at that time. We had bread, queso, and recently hard boiled eggs. Everyone was in pain cracking them because they were so hot. Then, we had our hour long spanish written exams. I did alright, and am finally getting the hang of the rules of accents on letters and being able to explain where they go and when. Taking French definitely helped me with preterite/imperfect, so that wasn't so bad. After an hour we began working on our translations of spanish stories and it was harder than I thought, but I like translating and trying to get the same senses out of one story and transplanting them into another language.

Working on shooting a story.

         For lunch we had soup and rice with some form of mystery sausage with rice and more plantains. Plantains have started to replace meat for us. We walked over to the museum for the cinema workshop, and in between we made an ice cream stop but I haven't tried it here because I'm so full after lunch. The workshop was pretty productive. We go to the basement of the museum (we haven't even seen the exhibits yet) and go to a classroom. At first I thought there were more local girls than boys, but today I was the only girl in a group with 3 guys. They are 'high schoolers' but they range from the ages of 14 to 28! They are bright and enthusiastic kids, and so far seem willing to learn and the soak up information like sponges. They already know about camera angles and the rule of thirds. I'm getting there. Today we had to shoot a story in 6 pictures, so we went for the classic 'stuck in an elevator' story, with the guard's help.

         After the shoot, I had a great conversation with 28-year-old David, who was the 'director' of our group. He has lived for a year and a half in Bahia. He talked about how he likes learning about all kinds of things, and how he enjoys playing guitar and writing music. This is his second year taking the cinema workshop. I found it surprising that some students have been doing this workshop in past years. He said it is sad that some kids have come expecting to be spoon fed, but that they become so badly behaved that they are dismissed from the group. He is interested in learning english and traveling, and I hope he achieves what he wants some day. I thought he was a pretty confident guy because you pretty much have to be if you are ten years older than most of your classmates. He didn't look older. Then another guy in my group asked me if I liked running, and then said he saw me running on the beach the morning before. This really IS a small town! After the class, the kids asked for our names to find us on facebook. Half of them already know where we live, I think. We went to the grocery store on our way to dinner and Maddie bought a soccer ball I just bought liquid soap. They don't use body wash here! Just bar soap!  How odd. Considering that water and power goes out here so often (today a 'transformer' exploded so we ran out of power for a while), I am not so picky about body wash. Plus, I'll be home to the U.S. and all of its comforts soon.
       Before dinner we wanted to go to the beach but couldn't because the tide was so high so we just took pictures in front of it and this creepy guy followed us. Then we helped paint a wall with black paint because it was for some eco-friendly youth program. I don't know, but over here you just go with it. At dinner, I was so happy because Doña was making torrejas (see photo above), and she sensed my excitement. I had asked her to make them more often and she listened! :D After dinner I washed the dishes with Crystal, but in a very efficient way. Here water is scarce so we filled up a pan with water, which we used to rinse the dishes. The way they save water here will make me guilty to go back to the U.S. and see how much we waste, but I definitely will be more resource-conscious. The people here don't waste things in general. They use old buckets for flower pots and you don't really see much garbage lying around. This town in a developing country is cleaner than Aix-en-Provence, in southern FRANCE. Mmhmm!
        After dinner we had the house to ourselves and played Wii sports. I played tennis against some of the girls while sitting down. I told them it's all in the flick of the wrist but I seem to have lost my touch over the years. Maybe next time I'll stand up. Before going home, we had to find Carolina, the dog that lives in the house and always begs at the dinner table. Shaun went to get her because she had found some other people near the beach, and he came back with her in his arms. She is just this little white skinny dog, and she seemed to enjoy herself. Even the dogs here are more chilled out! On our way home we passed several restaurants, and noticed that some don't even have signs. Just tables outside. I like how family owned everything is. There are no Mcdonalds or KFCs in sight. In Quito, the KFCs have kids playparks and they call them "Chicky parks". Tomorrow Doña wants us to have breakfast at 8 am, and afterward we are going to the beach. Even thought we are at the equator, sunny days are rare. Yesterday was the first sunny day in a week, but I hope tomorrow it's like that.
         Me gusta estar aqui. Hoy, me tomé mi examen afuera de la casa y cuando acabé, me sentía muy calmada. Hay un árbol en frente de la casa que tiene ojas verdes que son más oscuras que otras, y veía a la gente caminando por la calle en frente de la puerta del jardín. Las casas son bien pegaditas aquí como en México. Me siento mas relajada aquí porque me recuerda mucho de México...tomar jugos frescos, decir buenos días a la gente, y ver a los letreros en español. En ese momento, respiraba el aire que viene del mar y aunque estuviera nublado, me encantaba el lugar en donde estaba. La gente aqui se nutre de las cosas simples. Cada mañana, pasa el vendedor de leche, de agua, de frutas, y el comprador de chatarra. Pensé que algún día me regresaría a este lugar simple. Como el poeta Armando Tejada Gómez
dijo en su "Canción de las simples cosas":

"Uno vuelve siempre a los viejos sitios 

en que amó la vida, y entonces comprende como están 

de ausentes las cosas queridas"

Él dice también que "las cosas simples las devora el tiempo." ¿Qué pasa cuando vives en un lugar verdaderamente simple? 

Cumbia

Last night we watched "La Teta Asustada" and I will never look at potatoes the same. It features awesome Peruvian Technocumbia like this song which I will be jamming to as I do my Spanish homework. Gotta work on those tildes! Also I don't know if I mentioned this yet but last night Doña Mariana made us these patties made with melted cheese and banana. DELICIOUS! I love the food here, even though it's not spicy.  Today we were woken up by a chain saw at 7 am. When that ended, the rooster crowed to make sure we hadn't fallen back to sleep. Mañana vamos a ir al mercado a rebatear. ¡Que ganga!