G-Town and Other Adventures

I just spent half an hour writing a witty entry about all the cool stuff I got to do when my friend Leigh was here in town studying spanish . And then I got all fancy and tried to load some pictures from the internet of places that we went (yes I realize that is cheesy and no I haven´t developed any of my film digitally yet) and then I lost my whole entry. Jokes and all.

So, I´ll try this again, but if its not funny or interesting, just remember, the first draft was better. And it´s lost forever.

The first weekend we went out to Ingapirca to see Cañari and Incan ruins. There was a motorcross bicycle race going on across the valley in the actual town of Ingapirca, so while we were hearing from our tour guide about the daily life under the Incas, the sounds of Don Omar and Daddy Yankee were wafting over into the archeological site. The next day we went to the thermal baths that are outside of Cuenca. There are several places which offer access to thermal baths for a few dollars, but on the recommendation of Marty, a backpacker that was living for awhile in my house, we managed to pick the wrong place where none of the Cuencanos actually go. The dressing room hadn´t been changed since it was built in what looked like 1966. The water was lovely though and I haven´t gotten athlete´s foot yet, although Leigh did cut two fingers on the rocky bottom of the pool.

The next weekend we hopped on a plane and went to Guayaquil. It was the first time I had been to the coast and being in a hot, chaotic, gritty city was really welcome after Cuenca´s preciousness. (I mean I love it, but after awhile you´re just like, yeah, beautiful churches, beautiful mountains, got it. The truth is that I really like big cities, even ones that are slightly rough around the edges.) Leigh and I got locked in a stairwell for forty minutes and nearly got sunstroke walking up and down the Malecon 2000, which is the big fancy waterfront development that is impossibly nicer than much of anything else in the city, but we ate some good ceviche with patacones (green plaintains that are mashed and fried) and menestras (beans and rice) and pollo asado or grilled chicken. We also saw a big green iguana in the park.

I took the bus back from Guayaquil to Cuenca and went through vivid green rice fields and banana plantations, that eventually gave way to brown tree covered hills that precede the Andes. At sunset we were going through a little town, where the front doors of houses opened up onto the highway we were on, more or less and you could see people sitting outside, enjoying Sunday evening. I had one of those moments I periodically have where I feel this peace, this happiness at being here, away from the States, learning new stuff, meeting different kinds of people. The whole world is interesting and beautiful in its own way, just waiting for you to go and learn about it. And here I am.