Beach Time

While visiting Ethan and Laura in North Carolina, we packed up the car and drove out to Oak Island for a couple of quiet days on the beach. Laura's aunt and uncle were extremely nice and let us stay at their house that was right between the beach and the sound. The weather was absolutely perfect the first day and a little overcast the other two, but it was probably a good thing because I was too sunburnt to go lie on the sand again...

How many college grads does it take to fill a tire with air?

The front of the house. 

We went to a restaurant called "Fishy Fishy" one night for dinner and sat on their pier overlooking this sunset.

We also ate an unbelievable amount of fried food at "Fishy Fishy" including Jalapeño Hush Puppies, Calamari, Buffalo Popcorn Shrimp, and a Bacon-wrapped Shrimp Platter. Yum.

Playing charades

Lots of puzzle time

Burgers and daiquiris on our last night

Thank you so much, Laura's family, for letting us crash your house and enjoy the surf and sun! Back in the day, my family would vacation in North Carolina, but normally in June. Going to the beach in October was perfect weather and temperature and a lot less crowded- we had the beach to ourselves almost every day!

El Carmen

I apologize for the incoherency of this post; I'm exhausted.

There are some days when my brain just can't think in Spanish, and Friday was one of those days. At one point during the day, my host mom asked if I had anything planned for Saturday, and I said no, because in reality I was up for things like shopping or touring the city some more during the day. Well, around 6 o'clock that night she told me to pack my mochilla because we were going to go to her mother's house and we might go tonight or tomorrow morning, we weren't sure. So, at 9 o'clock we all piled into the car for a 4 hour drive down to the coastal region of El Carmen. Big misunderstanding on my part at some point. Picture this: steep mountain roads with perilous drop offs, dangerous curves, and the thickest fog you've ever seen, while my dad was driving at least 70 mph. It was terrifying. At 1 am we arrived at abuelita's house; she lives on a farm with chickens, ducks, cows, cats, dogs, and plantain trees by the millions:

On Saturday we woke up and went to the beach, which I was told would be a short drive away. An hour and a half later we reached the ocean. There was the weirdest juxtaposition of rich, beach front stores and poverty-stricken shacks on the other side of the street. Also, the sand was black, and when I asked Sophia (6) why she thought it was that color, she said "it's because the sun is so hot here that it burns the land to a crisp and gives us black sand!". Duh, how could I have not known.

An hour later, Sophia got stung by a jellyfish and we promptly departed the vicinity. It was a little terrifying. She's fine, but in order to calm her down we bought ice cream and went swimming in a very nice pool near by:

When we returned to the house, I met most of the family (I lost count at 24 new faces and just smiled and nodded all day long). I'm also pretty sure the chicken we ate for dinner was alive and well that morning; I'm almost considering becoming vegetarian...

Hola gatitos!

And this morning we woke up, I saved a baby duck from getting stuck behind the water heater, sat in the hammock for a while, and then we went out into the jungle. We picked limes, plantains, bananas (yuck), and mandarins right off the trees. It was really cool. Apparently the family grows plantains and exports them to places like the USA and Canada, so look out for those Ecuadorian stickers on the plantains, they might have come from my family!

So that was my weekend! No shopping or touring the city, just family family family. It was fun, but really intimidating and exhausting.