fishin

I have a friend from Switzerland who is here on a different sort of Rotary Exchange- she is only here for 3 months, but she is staying with a girl who is also her age, and when she returns to Switzerland, the girl from Ecuador will return with her to stay for 3 months. She got really lucky with her family- they have taken her almost everywhere in Ecuador! She is leaving next week, so has been doing a bit of traveling close to Portoviejo- trying to do everything before she leaves. Tuesday I went with them to a town about 25 minutes from Portoviejo called Montecristi. We just did some shopping in the market there, and it was fun. Wednesday night, they both showed up at my house unannounced and asked if I would like to go to the beach with them to spend the night in their beach house. I threw some clothes in a backpack and was out the door in less than 5 minutes. The girl from Switzerland hadn’t seen the fishers in the morning at Crucita. So we drove up there and spent the night. In the morning, we woke up at 6 and went walking along the beach to where the fishermen are. I had been there before while they were unloading the fish, but this time was more interesting. Last time, I just saw all of the fish that they chop up to make fish flour- they use the heads and gross parts of the fish that we don’t like to eat, and grind it up and feed it to livestock to make them gain weight faster. The people who chop up the fish are of all shapes and sizes- there are children, teenagers, adults, and old people. 

This time, we saw a lot cooler things- a hammerhead shark, a fish called a ‘picudo’ or something like that in Spanish that look s like a swordfish that they use to make ceviche that was HUMONGOUS, and another huge fish that has a big fan-shaped fin on it’s back.  Here are some pictures, because those are by far the most interesting:

I woke up this morning with a sore throat, and I am hoping that I am not getting sick. I did not enjoy being sick the last time, and i don’t think I will be able to stand being sick in this heat.

This morning when I woke up it was raining! For the third time in almost 20 weeks. It was exciting.