Mike and I crossed another border today, from the northern coast of Peru into Ecuador. We are currently in a Machala, a city which is the largest banana producer in the world. Yumm! We are just here... eatin` bananas... and waiting for the next bus out of town at 10pm. Mike is going straight to the capital, Quito, and I am going to a smaller town about 3 hours away called Baños. It has some nice mountains and thermal baños(baths). I will be there for a couple days and then taking a bus to meet up with Mike in Quito.
Ecuador had harsh economic troubles in the late nineties and so they adopted the american dollar which successfully stabalized the currency. Although the change managed to stop crippling inflation and it was good for the country, I don`t like using american dollars in south america... feels trampy!
We said good-bye *sob* to Peru in a nice but touristy town called Màncora, which is nestled along the northern coast. It was described in our guide as a small fishing town with many empty beaches, not yet discovered by the herds of tourists. Well, it was a fishing town, but the tourism (and surfing) was much more evident than the fishing. There were loads of gringos with sunburns walking around, including me! (I`ll give the fisherman respect though, cause we did have some delicious seafood.) It was also popular with the surfers and artensanias, I think there must exist identical towns all throughout latin america. Caught up in it all, I was going to have my first surf lesson, but the during our stay there was a swell in the ocean and my instructor told me that it would be dangerous to try to learn on waves that big. So i opted for getting tossed around by waves (without a board) instead.
In Màncora, we were camping for really cheap. Less than 2 dollars a day and met loads of nice peepsols. Mike cooked me dinner every night and most of our time was spent lazin` around and reading in hammocks. YEAH!! Oh yeah, I also ran into a trio of Andean musicians and asked the charango player for an impromptu lesson. Now I can practice my playing AND singing as he tauught me a nice little Andina ditty called Ojos Azules (Blue Eyes). I hope Mike has a high tolerance for TORTURE! I must say, it was really nice to be on a quiet beach early in the morning, watching the rolling waves and playing the charango with my new friend.
And that about brings us up to date! More on Ecuador coming soon. Chau, Jess
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