quito getaway...

with canaval in full effect, monday and tuesday free from school, mixed with a great need to getaway from shell, beth and i took the bus to quito on friday afternoon. waiting for the bus in shell was an adventure. i dont know how we didnt get clobbered with water balloons, sprayed with foam, or have a bucket of water dumped on our heads...but we didnt! we just walked away with a small spray of water..from an old man! for some reason, we made the young high schoolers feel sorry for us. they said we were "tourists" so not to get us wet...and at that moment, we were glad that we were considered "tourists" because normally, we would see it as an insult...since we LIVE here :) we like to be set apart from the normal "tourist" :)

we were kind of nervous what kind of carnaval action we would find in quito...but were happy to find that we saw nothing! we were able to walk without fear :)

on saturday, we discovered a free university soccer game that we could attend, which we thought would be fun to experience...so we watched a half of the game. it was crazy. a lot like a high school football game with a lot of school spirit...execpt they sell beer there. there was a huge cheering section with a small band and all! it was exciting.
at the game


band shot


crowd shot

after the game, we got some beautiful $8.00 haircuts...shampoo, style, and all! i will miss some things about ecuador! then, we went back to relax...to find Gilmore girls was on tv..and i was a new episode! that was great...after that, we hit up a local mall and movie theater. we got tickets for Babel, and went to a fondue restaurant..one of Beth's favorite types of food. i have never been to one like it, but have always been curious. so, we tried it and got a combo where you could try every kind of fondue. we had a 5 course meal. bread, bread with cheese fondue, an ecuadorian inspired salad, various meats and fresh veggies with chicken broth to cook them, and fruit with chocolate, and an espresso for me :) after about 2.5 hours of slow and fun eating, we saw babel...which is an interesting movie...it was in like 4 languages, english being on of them..but when the other languages like japanese were being spoken, the subtitles were in spanish. we got the jist of the movie, but i would like to see it again to get all of it. it was a great day!


ok. so, the trip was going so great....and i was wondering, when could this trip get any better? well, i realized it the next day when i realized something i ate the previous day did not agree so much with my stomach...because i was paying for it ALL DAY! it was miserable, except when i was sleeping all day. i literally slept for 12 hours. beth can attest to it. i felt really bad because we were on our break...but being sick at our nice hotel with room service and TV didnt make it so bad for beth. and i had a comfy bed to sleep in :)

the trip was great. we had an uneventful bus ride back, besides seeing a car flipped upside down. we made it back to shell, anticipating our drenching walking back to our houses. but, being such natives, we knew the back roads to take..and we stayed dry! i couldnt believe it! i mean, i was ready! camera in a ziplock and all! we knew the compound where we live could potentially have danger awaiting though. and we were right! just then, some girls ran up to beth with a bucket filled with water asking to drench her, expect she had a good excuse since she had her camera and all....they asked her to come back out though so they could get her. well, they should have known better :)

we might pay for that later though.