here, now

it is shameful how long it has been since i last blogged. i am ashamed. in all fairness, its not really my fault. we have been here and there and as it turns out, the computers suck here and there. you know, dial up connections in places where the phones go out on the hour, broken keyboards with no question marks, and the like. but now, we are in quito, the reasonably modern capital of ecuador, and weve found a trendy little internet shop/cafe/bar, the type that i always try not to like, because they are so touristy and blablabla, but secretly love. actually, if there is any reason i dont like these places, its because they are typically expensive. but this place is cheap, much cheaper than on the coast or in Vilcabamba, half the price. also, food and laundry are much cheaper here too. plus you can actually find coffee here. drip coffee, not that cup of hot water and jar of colcafe (generic nescafe) that is served with a spoon everywhere else. ahhh, big cities. say what you will about them, and maybe it makes me an inferior traveler, but i love em.

we came into quito early this morning via overnight bus from puerto lopez, on the central coast. this overnight bus was a delight - we got the seats in front with extra leg room and they turned the blaring merengue off at about midnight, which is very nice considering it typically goes all night long on these busses. our last busride, from loja to guayaquill, was not so pleasant. puerto lopez is 10 hours from here. it is a grey fishing town which, frankly, became terribly boring after we had overstayed our welcome. kindly refer to anthony{s blog for a very accurate description of old puerto lopez, altho he did fail to mention the smell of sewage which permeated the whole town. before that, we were in montanitas, another beach town an hour south of puerto lopez, where we got a room with The Best Shower in the World. hot (but not scalding, a la hotel pichincha in cuenca) and with great water pressure. slightly troublesome, i suppose, was the smell of gasoline which filled the room when the hot water knob was turned. but still. great shower, better than at my parents house even. the rest of montanitas was nice too. we had some great ceviche from a street vendor (i know, i know..street food and raw fish is often an unwise combination, but it was cheap and delicious, and turned out ok), and some even greater fruity rum drinks from our favorite one man disco ball. again, kindly read anthony{s blog for an explanation.

so it was fun but the weather was really shitty. cold and rainy...yes it was! i know you dont believe me, as supposedly this country is on the equator and the equator is supposed to be hot, but i think they made all that shit up. judging from the fact that we were shivering on the coast, wearing our fleeces, i would say that the equator is a contrvied tourist attraction.

oh, in all my negativity i forgot to mention the highlight of our trip to the coast and, possibly, ecuador. the reason we went to puerto lopez was to see the whales. its their mating season, and apparantly they choose a spot 40 minutes off of puerto lopez via speedboat to do it. agencies all over town offer tours to go and see them on the way to Isla de la Plata, a national park dubbed the [Poor Mans Galapagos[ (no quotes on this computer - so much for big city modernity, apparantly people dont paraphrase here), which is filled with interesting birds. birds? you say. how interesting could they be? well, these ones have candy blue feet and nerdy, beady eyes, which they use to stare curiously at the humans who come to see them. but anyway. so we took such a tour and piled on to a speed boatand started off towards the island. i was enjoying the ride but anthony and vincent were getting wet and complained audibly, so the guide pulled down a protective plastic sheet, which we couldnt see through. we rode on for a while until an ecuadorian lady who was on the tour with us shouted "AY! que linda - que LINDA!!" laughing and clapping. the boat came to a sudden hlt and the crew pulled up the plastic sheath in a panicked rush and at first i didnt see anything but i heard anthony and vincents reaction "oh SHIT" and i looked in their direction and i saw it - a whale in mid breach, flopping backwards, its fins flying through the air. and then, at that moment, for the first and only time, the sun came out and the whale breached again and again. anthony and i climbed up to the top of the boat and stayed there as the boat rocked back and forth, gripping onto the guardrail and watching the whales, 2 of them now jump out of the watre again and again. the ecuadorian lady was up there too, and everytime the whale breeched she shrieked, "ay que LI-I-I-I-NDAA!". and it was.