ecuador is awesome

this past weekend is exactly what i needed. i was growing a little restless here in arbolito. i love my housemates, but seeing the same people 24/7 can take its toll. arbolito was wearing on me as well. there's only so much poverty one can take in, before it takes its toll. i needed to get away. and that is exactly what i did. as my search for my elusive anaconda continues, i joined daniel, frank, vicki on saturday and traveled with lupé and her family to geoffery's (lupé's husband) family farm in catazacón, ecuador ( in the cotopaxi province three hours away). four buses later we were in quinsaloma, ecuador, which is four kilometers from catazacón. after we got off the bus, lupé took us to this bar called kaos, where geoffery's brother wellington was the owner. as lupé went with her daughters estephanie and joshua to the store, the four of us sat in kaos, jamming out to bob marley and the thought popped into my head: "i'm sitting in some podunk town in ecuador, listening to bob marley. man this is cool." after lupé returned we got into the back of this huge truck owned by some family member and took of towards their finca (farm) down a bumpy gravel road. about halfway there, we had to get out because a group of people were sitting in the road, blocking all cars. the demonstration is called a huelga or "strike," which is a common occurrence among bus workers in latin america. after we arrived at the family house and met abuelito and abuelita (grandpa and grandma) we headed down a dirt path towards a river. the scene was amazing. mountains and trees everywhere you looked. they had every kind of tree imaginable growing on this farm. palm trees. banana trees. oranges. cacao (a sweet fruit that is used to make chocolate), mandarins. everything. we got to the river and it was just awesome. this water was the clearest water i'd ever seen. the river was clear, shallow and had a fast moving stream. we all got in the river and swam, floated down the river a bit (body rafting like bear grylls wishes he could), then came to a lagoon and jumped off this huge rock into the lagoon a few times. after this, estephanie and joshua took us down a bit and showed us this zip line that goes across the river and can be crossed via a little cart. so frank, abuelito and i climbed up into the cart and pulled ourselves across. it was quite cool, but the thought entered my mind, "if this line breaks, we're all dying" because the water was maybe two feet deep at that point. after the river we went back up to their house and discovered how they bathed. this japanese company built a hydro plant in the area about 10 years ago, and as a result built a channel off the river, which runs right in front of their house. the company abandoned the plant a few years ago so now the channel runs un-used. picture this: it's basically like having a lazy river in your front yard to swim in and bathe in. it was sweet. i didn't think the day could get any better. but that night things got really interesting.

that night we went to quinsaloma to go to a discoteca. because of the huelga, there were no cars so we had to walk. but about halfway there friends of the family with motorbikes came and picked us up. so after a short ride on a motorcycle, we end up in quinsaloma. how is the best way to describe quinsaloma you might ask? well, it's a mix between an old abandoned west town and a post-apocalyptic town. we're talking beat down buildings. paved roads. kinda. fires burning in the middle of the street. and everyone and their mother owns a motorcycle. so as my friend and fellow volunteer francisco sit there, two things come to my mind. one. where is daniel, the other volunteer, who was riding another moto behind us? two. why are we jamming out to 80s music while four women i barely know get ready with a gallon of makeup? after the ladies finish with their makeup and i finish jamming to "down under" by men at work, we head to a bar called kaos, where my neighbor's brother is the owner. they have a few shots of beer (that's right. ecuadorians drink their beer not out of the bottle, but out of a double shot glass.) listen to some bob marley. this was the highlight of the night for me. i could have sat there listening to bob, talking to each other all night. but the ladies wanted to leave, so then we headed to the discoteca. so we all go to some shady discoteca on the second floor of a building. picture the shadiest bar in over the rhine. add posters of peter pan, a few black lights and for some reason skull decorations and you've got the discoteca i was at. we arrive and are the first people there. a bunch of gringos at a shady discoteca, alone. awesome. for the first 20 minutes or so it's uncomfortable for two reasons. the father of the girls is along with us, making all kinds of awkward. i don't want to dance with his daughters (for several reasons) and he's buying beer for us, which is awkward since i'm not supposed to be drinking with my neighbors due to high alcoholism rates in ecuador. so we're all sitting across from each other, staring like an awkward 8th grade dance. after a while, people start pouring in, becomes less awkward, start to dance, kind of have fun. but after a long morning of traveling, and swimming in a river most of the day, i'm pooped. i don't wanna be out until 4am. geoffery, who is getting pretty tipsy at this point, promises that we'll leave the discoteca by midnight to go home. true to his word, we leave, but instead of going home, we go back to kaos. have i mentioned uncle pablo? because i should have. uncle pablo, real name unknown, is a cousin of the family and was ridiculously drunk before we went to the discoteca. came to thediscoteca with us. drank some more. a lot actually. while we're at kaos, he's just slurring his words likenone other, and trying to listen to a spanish speaking man drunk is hilarious. what's even funnier is he tried speaking english, wore a hat that said 69 and tried to get me and daniel to sleep in his "spare bed." at this point, it's at least 2am. uncle pablo has been taken off in a moto. some other man is drunk, passed out in his car in front of the bar with his trunk open. the kicker? everyone in the town is too drunk to drive us back, so we had to walk the four kilometers in pitch darkness back to the house we were staying at, where i may or may not have had a bed. moral of the story? don't go to shady discotecas in quinsaloma.