The Coast

I got back from the coast a few hours ago. It was nice to be out of Quito, and I didn't want to return today.
I made it to the airport on time, the flight was only 30 minutes long. From there we took a taxi to the bus station, and then about a 2 hour bus ride to Los Piqueros. I roomed with 3 other girls in my group in a room right on the beach. It was about a 20 second walk to the water. Our room had one large and 3 single beds in it. I was luck and got the large bed for the first 5 days. The windows had glass in them, unlike many at La Hesperia. The door liked to lock itself, so we came and went through the window! We ate out meals in an open air shelter type place. Mostly they fixed us fried seafood, though as one girl described it, it was the Discovery Channel on our plates- even the professor couldn't identify some of the meats. We had fried chicken a few times, though one girl found a large cockroach under her food, so I lost all appetite that night. For breakfast I usually had fruit and yogurt with granola. We ate lunch at local restaurants 3 times, so the preparation of the food in general was not very sanitary I'm sure, one of the restaurant's kitchen resembled a dirty mechanical shop. But I had the best lunch there so far, and have not gotten sick yet!
The first mini trip we took was to a "dry forest." The entire forest was scrubby and without leaves- it pretty much just looked dead. Most of the area there was covered in this type forest. We saw some lizards, a snake that was related to the rattle snake, tree snails, some termites, and a few birds.
We also went to Puerto Cayo, Montinita (a hippy town), and Los Friles. At each place we looked at rocky outcrops and compared what was living on them to each other. Our teacher (Kelly) warned us when we went to Montinita to watch out for people offering to sell us drugs, because if you get associated with them and the police think you are involved with drugs, you will go to jail and theres not much anyone can do to get you out. Here you are guilty until proven innocent, and proving your innocence can take a long time. None of us were offered any drugs, so we avoided jail.
The weather at the coast this time of year consists of mist mixed with some drizzle. It was overcast the entire time except for about 30 minutes at about 7:30 one morning. The average temperature was about 70 degrees, and a bit colder at night- not very tropical. Every thing there was damp, so all our clothes there got damp within a few hours and stayed that way. Nothing would dry unless you wore it and stayed out of the rain.
Most mornings me and 2 other girls in the group got up at about 6 and went to the local fish market to measure sharks for a project we are working on. We will compare our measurements to the average size of how big the shark is supposed to get and see if they are on average smaller, which may mean that they are being over fished. Regulations stay that fisherman cannot target sharks, but if they are caught and brought in in nets, its ok. But its really easy for them to lie about things like that, and hard to regulate unless a government official is on the boat. There was one in the market, but we think she was being payed off.
Our teacher said that our rooms were secure and that we could leave our things there safely, but I had 10 dollars stolen and another girl lost her ipod.
Even though I am 10 dollars less now, it doesn't really bother me. The poverty level here is eye opening. People here live on a fraction of what we pass up every day in the States. People here play soccer on fields of dirt clods, with a ratty soccer ball, have few clothes, live in houses that have no running water (unless you count the water in a large bin on the roof running down through a hose), make a living by selling sweets on street corners while some live by what they catch in fish that day. I am sure there are poorer places in this world. In comparing the poorer places in Ecuador with what I have seen in the US, Jamaica and Mexico, I would think that Jamaica is the poorest, with Ecuador close to it with Mexico next. Some people and places in the US are pretty badly off, but they are not on the level in the other countries I have seen. Though Jamaica seems the poorest, the people there have the best attitude towards life of anywhere I have been. They don't complain, they laugh, joke and appreciate just being alive. If I could go back or stay longer in any place, it would definitely be Mandeville, Jamaica.