tons of exchange students, and tons of fish

I have returned from the Rotary trip, sunburnt and REALLY tired.
Saturday afternoon I drove with my friend’s host parents to a beach that is about 30 minutes from Portoviejo. It is not very far for us, but for the people who live in the highlands of Ecuador, the trip was quite a bit longer (8+ hours). The next day, we all got on three huge buses and drove BACK to Portoviejo to be in a parade for the festivals of Portoviejo. It was kind of weird- we were all just carrying our flags and walking through the streets. It was fun though. Right as we were getting back on the busses, a girl who was standing two or three people behind me in line was holding her camera, when some random guy ran by, and tried to grab it! She had the wrist strap on, so he didn’t end up getting her camera, but when he grabbed it, he pulled her really hard and she fell, and she was REALLY scared. I was too- I didn’t know what was happening at first but as soon as I figured it out, I jumped on the bus. SO, that was my first time seeing an attempted-robbery. Hip hip hooray!
After the parade, and after that, we all got back on the bus and drove to another cute little town named Montecristi that has a craft market. Montecristi is actually where Panama Hats are made, which is pretty cool. Apparently when the hats were exported to sell in other places, they were taken to Panama first, and then to Asia and Europe and the rest of the Americas. And for some reason ‘Panama’ stuck better than ‘Ecuador’. The hats are woven out of some sort of plant called paja toquilla, and they’re pretty cool. After wandering around the market for a while, we got back on the buses and went to yet another city- Manta. Manta is about 30 minutes away from Portoviejo as well, and there are 4 exchange students who live there. We went to the Manta Yacht Club for lunch, which was really good. After, we went back to Crucita for the night. Monday, some of us woke up early (5:30 a.m.) and walked down the beach to where all of the fishing boats unload the fish, and where they are cleaned and then taken off in trucks. It was really interesting. There were TONS of people there, and even more dogs and pelicans trying to get the fish and even MORE fish. Lots and lots of fish. We had the rest of the day at the beach, which was fun, except there were tons of jellyfish so a lot of people got stung. Tuesday we hung out at the beach in the morning and then drove BACK to Portoviejo in the afternoon. When we were dropped off at the hotel, they told us that we needed to be ready to leave again at 7 o’clock sharp, which in Ecuador means maybe 7:45, or 8:00, or maybe even 8:30. Anyway, we waited for a while for our bus, which we thought was going to take us to a place to have dinner. Instead, a different bus came, one that had bench seats inside. There are a WHOLE LOT of exchange students- about 120, so naturally, the buses filled up pretty quickly. Once all of the seats were filled, we started getting ON TOP of the bus, where there is a little railing that keeps you from falling off. THEN, a mariachi band climbed on top of one of the buses, and started playing. So we drove around Portoviejo for about half an hour, listening to the mariachi band, and wondering what on earth we were actually doing. It was so weird, but a lot of fun as well. After that, the bus things took us to a banquet-hall sort of thing (which TOTALLY did not look like it belonged in Portoviejo), where we thought we were going to be fed dinner, since it was like 9:30. INSTEAD, we spent an hour and a half electing a ‘King and Queen of the Trip’, because apparently that’s what you do in Ecuador. It was weird as well, and slightly less appreciated than the bus-trip thing because we didn’t eat dinner until after 11! After dinner, there was a dance sort of thing until 2:30, and we ended up arriving back at the hotel at about 3-ish. And then had to get up at 8 this morning, which was not fun.
So now I am sunburnt and really tired, and plan on spending the rest of the day relaxing.
Love you all!
Kirsty