What do you do when you realize you only have two weeks left in Ecuador?
Throw your beach towel and a bathing suit in your backpack and head to Montaña for the weekend!
After the stress of classes and actually having to study last week I decided it was time for another beach adventure. Somehow I ended delegated as the organizer of our weekend adventure, which put me in charge of finding a hostel and buying the bus tickets. Sounds simple, but nothing in Ecuador is ever as simple as it should be. I went on Thursday to the terminal to buy tickets and argued with the vendor for at least twenty minutes because she refused to sell me tickets until the day I was leaving. I have bought them the day before many times, but I think the lady was just lazy and didnt feel like cooperating at that moment. Anyway, she told me to come back the next morning. So Friday morning I hopped on the public bus, listened to a ten year old walking up and down the aisles rapping in spanish so that people would give him their spare change, and crossed a crazy street full of traffic and beeping horns to make my way to the ticket booth once again. I got there around 10 and the same lady was there and just smiled at me and refused to sell me a ticket until 3 o clock in the afternoon since the bus didnt leave until four. So I glared at her and walked back out of the terminal, back across the street, got back on the bus, and listened to a lady trying to sell me genseng all the way back home.
But in the end everything turned out fine. I went back to the terminal and was the first in line at three to buy tickets for all eight of us that were going for the weekend and then got myself some icecream for all my hardwork while I waited for the bus.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend! We ended up finding a hostel on the main street of the town for ten dollars a night. And it even had a bathroom with a shower that worked most of the time! And it had sheets on the bed. So I figured we hit the jack pot. We spent most of the days laying on the beach and soaking up as much of the Ecuadorian sun as possible while being harassed by beach vendors selling sunglasses, hammocks, and jewlery. A few of our Ecuadorian friends went with us and were attempting to teach some of the foreigners how to surf. However they didnt have a lot of success due to the huge amounts of people in the water. The picture to the right is one of "the instructors." He refused to rub in the  sunscreen on his face all day. Dont be fooled, most Ecuadorians are not that tall.

I fell in love with a new Ecuadorian dish this weekend called Encebollado. It literally translates to mean Pickled Onion, which makes it sound disgusting but its actually delicious. It is a fish soup that is served for breakfast and is really traditionalon the Ecuadorian coast. It also has a bunch of yuka and other vegetables and is topped with cooked fish and marinated onions. It is also served with chifles (thinly sliced fried plantains) that can be eaten on the side or crushed up and mixed in the soup. It was $1.50 for the soup and .25 to add chifles! It was my breakfast both days this weekend!

Walking back to the hotel on Saturday after our day at the beach, we found a lady who was doing trenzas, which is kind of an Ecuadorian hair wrap. A few of the girls and I decided to get one so that we could look more Ecuadorian when we went home (haha). After I got my trenza we walked around the streets a little more and we ran in to a guy who was playing a huge Peruvian rain-stick thing. We stopped to watch for a few minutes and started talking to him. He was an older gentleman from Peru who worked making artisan crafts. He grew up in a beach town in Peru all his life but moved to Ecuador because he liked the culture better. His English was pretty much limited to "Hi how are you?" "Welcome to Ecuador" and "I have good price for you" so when he realized that we could all speak Spanish he was really impressed. He saw my trenza and told me that it wasnt complete because it needed something to finish it off. So he chatted with us and told us all his life story while he made a Peruvian sun charm out of a regular role of metal wire.

Here is the final result of my trenza! Peruvian sun charm and all! Its amazing how much people open up when they realize that you make an effort to speak their language and are interested in their life and their culture.
Anyway, the final beach weekend was an amazing success and we avoided any huge break outs of tears, although I am sure they are coming this week at our closing ceremonies. I have already finished my Spanish exam. I have a presentation and an exam tomorrow and then one more exam on Thursday and then I am officially done with my Ecuadorian schooling! An Ecuadorian friend is throwing all of the exchange kids a big going away party on Friday night and then I will be back on US soil exactly two weeks from today!