Tonsupa Beach Trip

Ok, I’m going back a couple weeks now to post some more pics from the girls’ visit. In fact, this beach trip was actually one of the first things we did with together, after the soccer game, that is.
Our friends Augusta, Cynthia and Anapaula invited us to Esmeraldas, a coastal Provence of Ecuador where their family has a beach house about 4 blocks from the sand. As we were 7 people, we couldn’t take the car, so we had to go in bus, which was a 6 hour ride…they showed this weird horror film on the way that kept going inside a pregnant mother to see what the fetus was doing and how it was reacting to all the weird stuff that happened. It was a local film I think. The girls got to see the inside of A LOT of buses while they were here, but it’s actually a great way to see the stunning scenery as you pass through the mountains, and go down toward the coast. We ended up getting in at night time, and although already dark, it was super humid and hot still. From the bus depot, we grabbed a taxi, which on the coast are made of a bicycle or motorbike with a cart attached. The guy driving ours had no shirt or shoes, it was a pretty funny sight. The beaches up north are pretty cool, people sporadically dancing in the streets, loud music all night long, people aimlessly wondering around the streets barefoot, telling jokes. It’s pretty laid back.

The house itself we were staying in was… hmmm… how you say? … weathered I think I’ll go with. No screens, old peeling walls with holes in them. No drinking water, beds made up of 3 old, thin blanket mattresses, combined to make one sort of thick mattress. But it was pretty much what I expected and totally livable. The only major problem we ran into at the house was the watermelon size cockroach we found in the other girls’ room. It was on their bed, Cynthia found it started screaming. Holly and I ran in to “catch” it, which we did… for a minute. Holly had it trapped underneath the Fly swatter, waiting for backup. We were stupidly playing around with it, lifting the swatter, seeing if it was still alive. Well, cockroaches are very fast, and the little sucker slipped out and ran away before we even realized. Well, a full on search and destroy ensued, moving mattresses, taking the bed apart, etc… but it was not to be found. They were pretty upset... oops, sorry….

The “highlight” if I can call it that, was the ride home from a neighboring city late one night. A lowlight may be more appropriate to call it I guess, as I could have DIED! So these taxis are meant for 4 people, and some of the larger, motorized ones have a small shelf on the back in between the two back tires where you can put a piece of luggage. We were leaving Atacames, a much bigger, more populated, bit more dangerous at night kind of beach town at about 10pm one night, on our way back to Tonsupa where we were staying. Well, we were trying to catch the last bus before it left, but some riot broke out in the streets right in front of us and we were advised to turn around and leave. Well, to get out of the mess, we jumped on the taxi (Made for 4…) The guy assured us we’d fit, but in the end Holly and I had to jump on the back where the luggage goes, hoping that we’d go a couple blocks and get off. I literally had to hang on to not fall off and the weight of everyone put us right on top of the tires. So we go through a couple shady neighborhoods, with like drug deals going down all around us, and I’m hoping no one tries to grab us off of this thing, as no one else in our group would even notice. Worse was trying to hold on, keep our feet and hands away from the tires and not touch the ground with dangling feet. We were probably about a foot and a half from the ground, which did not alarm me until we got on the HIGHWAY!! What was this guy thinking?! We are on this tiny motorized bike taxi, literally hanging off the back, a foot away from the pavement. It was pretty scary. We were there on the highway for maybe 20 minutes, with semi trucks and cars going 80 mph passing us and honking.
Anywho, we made it alive with a story to tell, but the driver was super mad ‘cause I guess we broke his bike or something due to the weight of 8 people.

As for the beach, it was pretty nice. Too many beach vendors and too many harsh waves for me, but the ceviches were great. Made me sick, but it was worth it. Got some sun and relaxing done. We made a decent rescue attempt on behalf of a beached fish, but he kept coming back, so we decided to let him have his way. Lunch is a pretty big deal here as some of you know. It’s the only real meal they have all day, it’s always huge and always eaten around 2:00. A quick sandwich or pizza usually doesn’t do it for Ecuadorians, so Augusta arranged to have the caretakers of the house make us lunch every day we were there, which was nice to not have to eat out a lot. The food was good, Coastal food is what we like best here in the country, so it was a treat. The caretakers were nice people who paint their chicks different colors. I’m still not sure why, but they were really pretty to look at.