Living The Good Life

Dave and I had our first official visitors in Ecuador this past week.  Our good friends, Brandon and Tosha, made the long trek from Boise, Idaho to experience a week in the good life.  Luckily, Dave and I had the week off of work because of Ecuador's celebration of Carnival.  We were able to show them around Puerto Azul, Guayaquil, and Puerto Lopez before they had to board the plane back to the states on Wednesday morning.  We had adventures a' plenty in the fast-paced week, and thankfully Tosha and Brandon were open to being our visitor guinea pigs.   The Bentz' flew into Guayaquil on Wednesday night, technically Thursday morning.  We were able to pick them up from the airport with the help of Paulino, the school's trusty driver.  We headed to bed pretty quickly after they arrived, it being close to three o'clock in the morning, and let them sleep in as Dave and I went to our last day of work for the week. On Thursday they were able to stop by the school to get the...

After spending a couple of days in Guayaquil, we headed to Puerto Lopez, a low-key beach and fishing village.  This was Dave's and my second time visiting PL, so we thought we knew what we were getting into.  Little did we know that everything changes when it is Carnival.  The village was packed with Carnival revelers, there was no free space on the beach, and thumping techno could be heard from every corner twenty-four hours a day.  It was a great people watching opportunity, even though we had to dodge flying water balloons a couple of times. The first day we arrived in Puerto Lopez, we were able to tour the beach and hit some of the artisan stands that line the main strip.  We ate dinner at a cute restaurant that served the typical Ecuadorian cuisine and then walked back through the strip to our very clean and cute hostel.  Thank goodness we had booked a place that was off of the main road, you could still hear traces of the techno beat but not as if it was right next door. Th...

One of our Puerto Lopez adventures was to Isla de la Plata, an island twenty or so miles away from the coastline.  After an hour boat ride, we arrived on the peaceful and beautiful island.  It is called the island of silver because of the lost treasure Sir Francis Drake, that rascal of a pirate, hid somewhere in the sea surrounding the island.  We didn't have any luck finding silver, but we did see a lot of boobies.  Birds, that is. We saw the blue-footed booby, which is apparently always a crowd pleaser, and a lot of the masked booby.  I was amazed at how comfortable the birds were in our presence.  Many of the masked boobies were taking care of their young, either roosting on their eggs or caring for their just hatched little ones.  The birds allowed us to get inches, and I mean inches, away from them and snap away like we were the booby paparazzi.  The blue-footed booby broke out a couple of dance moves and entertained our group of hikers for about twenty minutes.  The birds com...

Having visitors in Ecuador has been an exciting venture for Dave and I.  Tosha and Brandon reminded us of what life was like before we adjusted to the daily occurrence of what we call EcuaExperiences.  From being a part of a taxi chase scene straight out of a Bruce Willis film to surviving the bus depot during carnival, the Bentz' witnessed many EcuaE's during their week-long visit.   But none of the experiences throughout the week really compared to the EcuaBus incident.  An unexpected, panic-ensuing, adrenaline pumping, belly-laugh generating adventure that took place as we were all trying to leave Puerto Lopez on Monday night.   We had been having a very enjoyable morning and afternoon in Puerto Lopez.  The rain had stopped, the sun was shining, and the people were still partying hard for Carnival.  We had a wonderful breakfast at the Whale Cafe that included banana pancakes and real coffee. Brandon and Dave had gone swimming in the ocean while Tosha and I shopped at the man...