my brain is just a jellyfish in the ocean of my head

¿Que pasa?
Had an amaaaazing weekend these past few days at the coast and today upon checking my e-mail I found Wisconsin gave me a nice study abroad grant, so my spirits are high to say the least. Anyway, last week we knew we wanted to go to a beach somewhere on the coast but that´s as detailed as our plans were. In class on thursday we were discussing our plans when another student mentioned a nice beach he had been to before and that they had a group together set to leave that night for the coast. Having no other idea what to do and liking what we heard about the beach we decided to join the other students, four from michigan state, one from massachussetts, and an ecuadorian from guayaquil. However as we got ready to leave it started to pour harder and harder (it´s the rainy season right now in ecuador) and we got a little weary of taking a seven hour bus ride to a beach if it was going to be storming all weekend. We decided to roll the dice and go ahead with our plan and took off late thursday night for an overnight bus ride to the pacific ocean.
The ride was long and dark so there wasn´t much to gaze at, but I was able to sleep a good amount of the ride. I awoke around 7am to a beautiful green countryside and a fresh mist coming in through the windows. We finally arrived at a small village called Tonsupa where we walked for about 20 minutes in search of a hostel. We headed right for the beach knowing we wanted to be as close as possible to it. The first place we tried was a little disgusting, to say the least. Upon deciding against spending the night amongst many many ants, extreme heat, and a rather unpleasant smell we snuck out of the hostel before paying in search of another. The next place we found was a lot better, though it still makes your average motel 7 look like a 5 star beach resort (are there even 5 stars or do they stop at 4?).
We were all changed and settled on the beach before 9am and prepared for a long, hard day of relaxing in the sun, staring off into the ocean and gorgeous scenery, losing to the locals in volleyball, and swimming with the jellyfish. By night´s end I was both quite tired and very red, I have some very strange patterns of sunburn...I think I must have applied the sunscreen rather poorly. We concluded the night with a few drinks on the beach, reggaeton and salsa music, and a bit more swimming.
This pattern of eating, drinking, sleeping, and relaxing pretty much persisted throughout the next two days. Worth noting though were the large amount of jellyfish around, I was one of the two or three out of 10 of us who wasn´t stung though I often spotted them in the water or washed up on shore, but i actually kind of enjoyed it because I´d never seen one before. Only unfortunate part about the weekend (besides really having to pee on the bus...I guess they only let women use the bathroom on the bus...) was losing my frisbee to the pacific ocean, i always thought they floated! What else...we played with/chased around a few local kids for a while, met an amazingly nice, local couple who refused to let us pay for a drink, watched lizards roam the ceiling of a restaurant we ate it, and built a sandcastle which only last for a few minutes before some local kids got their hands on it. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun and it was such a great getaway if even for a weekend.
Although it seemed to drag on forever as we neared Quito, I really really enjoyed the bus ride home. The entire first few hours I spent with the window down, gazing out at one breathtaking sight after another. Unlike a drive through the midwest back home, there´s an unbelievable array of beautiful plants and flowers, rivers, mountains, and unique villages. However, it is pretty sobering to witness some of the poverty that exists in many of the smaller villages. Although these families and communities are surrounded by amazing scenery, can seem happy, and have children running around and smiling you can´t help but feel pity for the obvious, poor conditions they´re living under. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed those few hours, as I was able to zone out, reflect on sooo much (including how lucky I am to be here), and take in so many new and unique sights.
I finally returned home very tired, dirty, sandy, salty, and hungry. After showering and a quick bite to eat I fell into a very nice, undisturbed, much needed sleep. Today I woke up, finished a last-minute bit of homework, and headed to school. Usually Quito and the valley where I go to school (Cumbaya) is pretty cloudy, especially in the mornings. However this morning there wasn´t a cloud in the sky and for the first time on the way to school I was able to see several snow-covered mountain summits, including the extremely tall, active (barely, don´t worry) volcano, Cotopaxi. It was yet another phenomenal sight and since they sky is so clear today in just a little bit me and some friends are going to ride the Teleferiqo. This is more or less like a giant ski lift that takes you up the side of Mt. Pinchincha, one of the two mountains that helps form the valley that Quito subsides in. It should provide a ton more spectacular views, I´m just hoping it´s a little more enclosed than most ski lifts, i´m not all that great with extremely huge hights... Well check back soon for photos of my ride today and a few more from my weekend on the beach. I just uploaded more pictures from last weekend at Otavalo my yahoo site if you care to check them out. Hope all is well and those of you in Wisconsin are keeping warm!
¡Que te vaya bien!
Brett


A view of Cotopaxi