8/9/14-8/10/14 Atacames Beach

Saturday

After long travels on Friday, I ate breakfast Saturday morning (I ordered an Americano breakfast; eggs, ham, cheese and bread), and headed to the beach to soak up the sun! Atacames is a big beach that both nationals and tourists go to! It was very crowded (and a little crazy), but it is a gorgeous beach on the Pacific. It was so warm and humid in this area as well! Here are some pictures of the beach (and the crowd). There was a lot of overcast so the sun wasn't too strong, which was very nice.

Lots of vendors selling things on the beach too! 

Lots of parasailing and whale watching, too!

For lunch (and pretty much the rest of my meals), I ordered seafood because it is absolutely delicious at the beach! I got so excited that I forgot to take a picture until I was half-way through. Below is a picture of my ceviche with shrimp and plantains. 

After lunch, it was back to the beach to make sandcastles (which was a struggle without the proper beach toys)!

And the sunset at the beach!

Some huts on the beach where people are able to dance, get drinks or just rent a lounging chair!

And here's me, enjoying the view!

A look down the coast...

And, of course, fresh fish for dinner!

Sunday- Ecuadorian Independence Day

Today was Independence day for Ecuadorians. Although it's like our Fourth of July, the celebration here is not like our celebration. It is more a day of relaxation. When it falls on a weekday, everyone has the day off. Besides that, the beach was extra crowded with people on the holiday, but there were not any special festivities where I was. When I asked my family, they said it is not very common to have celebrations on this day and most people just relax!

Sunday morning, I only had until noon at the beach before I had to head back on another 7 hour bus ride. Therefore, I was up at sunrise to hit the beach early and find some seashells! I found a little bag full of beauties and was able to see the beach when it was a little less crowded. I ate breakfast then went to work on my tan! Here is a picture of my glass of the best and most fresh pineapple juice that I  have ever tasted! Yum!

 It was not as cloudy on Sunday, and I was actually able to get some good sun! Here's some more pictures of the beach and the main strip of hotels (the clouds and sky are so clear they don't even look real!).

Before I got back on the bus, I needed one more plate of fresh fish! It is so good! Here is the view from my favorite little restaurant!

The view of the street! Always crowded!

The inside of the restaurant with its cute little juice bar to make some of the best fresh juice you can imagine!

Watermelon juice!

Pretty awesome!

And my last plate of delicious fried fish! 

It was a beautiful way to spend my last full weekend in Ecuador. You can't beat the ocean, fresh fish, and a great tan! It was more than lovely! Thanks for following!

Love, 

Danni

08/08/14 El Mitad del Mundo

Friday

It was a very busy weekend. After being very sick on Wednesday and Thursday, I made big plans for the weekend! Friday morning, I got up very early and headed to El Mitad del Mundo or better known to us as the Equator. It was not as hot as I imagined, but it was defiantly the warmest place I had been so far in Ecuador!

We went to an awesome museum where we were shown several cool experiments on the equator line! I'll explain more below, but here is me, standing in the middle of the world, on the latitude 00!

Here we were able to see a sun dial, which was perfectly accurate on the equator!

Again, you can see the time (9:30am), which was accurate with my watch exactly!

The equator line! Jump from North to South all you please!

Here was a sort of calendar that showed where the sun was is comparison with the seasons!

You were able to balance an egg perfectly on a nail at the center of the Equator! 

At the Equator line, it is very hard to walk in a straight line because our bodies are naturally attracted to one pole or the other! When you're right in the middle, it's harder than being drunk to walk this line!

The last cool thing we were able to see was water flowing. As most of you know, when you drain water at home, it usually funnels in one direction, but at the Equator, it doesn't! The water goes straight down (as shown below!). We were able to see this tested in the North and the water spun counterclockwise and in the south it spun clockwise! This is the same reasons hurricanes don't form at the Equator! It was very interesting to do all these experiments and tests.

After the Equator, I was headed to the beach on the coast for the weekend! It was over a 11 hour bus ride and I spent all day in a bus driving in and out of mountains and trying to unpop my ears from the changes in pressure! On the bright side, I finally had some time to watch a few movies on the bus (in Spanish, of course) and read my book!

I arrived late at Atacames beach and was completely exhausted! I went to bed early right after I ate dinner!

Best,

Danni

8/1/14-8/5/14 Exploring Quito and its Culture

Hi all! Sorry I haven't been on top of my blogging! I meant to blog this weekend, but there has been so much going on and I've been feeling a little under the weather with a sore throat and runny nose (most likely from the change in weather we are having here)! Anyways, here's to catch you up to speed!

Friday, August 1

It was the start of August! Yay! I volunteered at Abuelitos de Calle and redid the picture wall (see below) they have with some of the beautiful artwork that the abuelitos made. It was a crazy day! It is so crowded on Fridays at ADC. They have to have two seatings of people because not everyone can fit it one! It was a hectic, but fun day! 

After Abuelitos, I headed home and got ready to go out with a new friend I made from Wednesday! We went here, http://vistahermosa.ec/, which is in the Old City and it was so beautiful! Check out the link to see the view! I didn't take my own pictures (don't like to take my camera out late at night!), but you get the idea from the website! It was a beautiful evening and afterwards, I also was able to go to an Ecuadorian salsa club! I attempted to dance salsa with the Ecuadorians and I realized very quickly that I am not very good (at all). Everyone here in Ecuador starts to learn salsa around age 13 or 14, so they have a huge advantage! I still had fun pretending I could dance though!

Saturday, August 2

On Saturday, I woke up early with my family to go to their family party! It was a huge fiesta with fun dancing, playing and wonderful food! We spent all day at the party (from 11am to 8pm). Here are some pictures from the fun with family! Check out that dinner, too! The parties are similar to parties in the states, they just have more soccer and sports!

Here is finally a wonderful picture of my host family and I!

And that's dinner...

YUM!

And here's my new family portrait! 

In the evening, after the party, I went out again with my friend! We went to this cafe in the old city and were able to see a view at night of the entire city of Quito! Check out the website! http://www.cafemosaico.com.ec/  It was another beautiful view of the city!

Sunday, August 3

On Sunday, I was needing my church fix! I decided to go to one of the beautiful churches in the old city with my friend, Max. It's called "Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús" and it is coated completely in gold. Here's a picture! It was a beautiful and I was able to see a lovely service in Spanish!

After that, I had a relaxing rest of the day watching the movie "A Tus Espalda", which was filmed about the differences between in Ecuadorian society between the people who live in the North and the people who live in the South. It was a very interesting film, and I would recommend it, but it is a bit racy and only in Spanish! 

Later in the day, Max and I went to the Teleferico. This is a large cable car that takes you on top of a mountain to see all of Quito. We went right at sunset, so it was a beautiful time to go. We saw the sun set over the city and we were able to see the city at night when we took the cable car down! Here are some pictures. 

This is not my picture, but it's hard to get a picture in the cable car so this gives you an idea of what we rode up in. 

Me in the beautiful Ecuador! It's freezing up on the mountain!

A panoramic of the view!

My friend Max and I on the other side of the mountain!

And the best picture I could get of the city at night through the window!

Monday, August 4

It was back to work on Monday! I worked all day at Abuelitos and afterwards I came home and rested for the rest of the evening to try to get over this small cold I have! Nothing too special!

Tuesday, August 5

Today at Abuelitos, I was able to have another American volunteer from Wisconsin to work with! We were excited to be able to have a companion to work at Abuelitos! Her name is Haley, and she just graduated from college for three months. With many of the donations I have received (and hope to continue to receive), we made a plan to make some new decorations and crafts for Abuelitos! I am really excited to have someone to work on this project with me. We worked all day and then headed home.

At home, I ate lunch and have been catching up on some other work and, of course, catching up on my blogging. I will take a nap and continue to rest up until later tonight!

Later tonight, I am going to see what an Ecuadorian movie theater is like as well as try Ecuadorian ice cream! It should be very fun and I am excited to encounter more and more of Ecuador.

I am enjoying my time here and really love Ecuador. It will be a place I am already planning to return to and I have fallen in love with the people, culture, and natural beauty. I have been so blessed with this trip! Thank you always for your support and interest in me! Please let me know if there are any special souvenirs or questions anyone has! Believe it or not, I only have a week and a half left! Time is going way too fast!

Lots of Love,

Danni