Vamos a la playa!

One a Thursday night a few weeks ago, I was sick of Quito and wanted to go somewhere relaxing, so I rallied two of my girlfriends to go with me to the beach the next day. We picked Canoa as our destination since November is the slowest month of the season and all we wanted to do was lay on the beach and not be bothered. We showed up at the bus station at 10 pm and loaded the bus for a pretty uncomfortable 7 hour ride. When we arrived at 6am the town was still asleep so we found a good-looking hostal and slept in the hammocks until someone woke up. We got a room and immediately headed out to the beach. 

Although it was cloudy in the morning, it cleared up in the afternoon to show some sun and we lay on the beach and read books all day. In our room was a 35 year old high school teacher from Oklahoma who told us all about his sabbatical that he was taking: surf during the day, party at night. Oh and he was doing some sort of research in his free time. We watched him surf for a little bit and headed back to the hostal to hang out. We met an Aussie who has been traveling throughout South America and a middle-aged Brit who came here to escape a nasty divorce. He was extremely friendly and talked our ears off. 

Turns out my skin is extremely sensitive. Although I put 55spf on my body THREE times that day, I still got horribly burnt (picture below). So that evening everyone in the hostal ordered drinks and we were hanging out talking but I couldn't stop shaking from the cold. Everyone was in shorts and tank tops since it is a tropical beach but my burns were so bad that I was violently shaking and went to the room to sit down. I didn't quite make it to the bed before I vomited in the trash can and then fainted. I chugged a water and Gatorade and went to bed under three wool blankets (the woman at reception said they only had 3 for the entire hostal since it is so hot). 

The next day we rented an umbrella and sat under it and enjoyed the beach from the shade. We ate ceviche (traditional Ecuadorian could soup made from tomatoes and shrimp) and drank pina coladas. 

After we had our fill of the beach we went back to the hostal and found a puppy that could fit in the palm of your hand. One of the woman who works at the hostal said she had found it in a river bank almost dead so she took it to the vet and now it seems like it's going to live. She named it Rio and when I picked it up it instantly snuggled into my jacket. I fell in love. The woman told me I could take it home with me if I wanted and I seriously debated adopting it for the next few hours until I decided that it would have a much better life here on the beach than in an apartment in a city. 

That night at 10 pm we loaded the bus and I had a very uncomfortable ride back home with my burns all over my body.