Life, the Universe, and everything

Hi there:
Well, Christmas and New Years came and went. We stayed in Banos for Christmas and had Christmas turkey with the works. It was a bit of a strange day as it was Rachelles Birthday too, and she decided to go water rafting and hanging out with friends. So in reality we had Christmas the next day and carried on from there. It didn't really feel like Christmas, and I don't mean because of the lack of snow, it was more that Christmas was different because a certain someone is now 17 and that changes quite a bit. It was still good just very different. We decided we had had enough of Banos and required a bit of a change, and went to the coast. We took the long way down and went through Latacunga. This is the first time I actually saw the poor side of Ecuador. Here there were sheep and llamas being herded and the life was much more basic. There were thatched huts to live in and begging on the side of the road. But the scenery was fantastic. What the pictures are like in scotland. On the side of the roads too, was a thing called beaute. It is the celebration of the old widow. This is where the men dress up as women, begging for whatever they can get. It is a tradition here that the men can have one day to be women, in sexy black clothes and saunter around. It is kind of bizarre really, if you don't give something they can do the Halloween thing and play tricks on you. So the bus we were on was stopped with rope crossing it and so on, all in good fun. We went to Bahia it took 5 bus changes and about 12 hours, yuck. Bahia is a city where the cruise liners used to port, but, as the bay became wealthier, the farmers stripped more of the mountains to make farms and down washed the land into the bay. Now the cruise liners go elsewhere. It is sad really you can see that it was once a prospering place but now it has a different flavor. A friend of ours has a hostel there and that is where we met up with a friend of ours from Canada who came to spend Christmas with us. He took an earlier departure and was waiting for us with cold beer. I have to say, I forgot how hot it can be on the coast. After all the hoopla about how dangerous Bahia was, we felt quite comfortable to walk around at night on the beach with no problems. It was all very nice. And of course very refreshing to be close to the sea. While we were there, they were getting ready for New Years. This meant parades and so on. We were told that we might not be able to get to have rooms with out reservations, but we wanted to keep moving on to explore sooooo we took our chances and never had a problem getting a room. Next stop, we had to cross the bay and then catch a bus to Canoa, ( for all the hoopla about Canoa being a cool destination, I fail to see why. It was like the Baha in Mexico, dead and desserty and very f----ing Nice place to stop and have cerviche but not more thank you. Soooo, we carried on to Pernales, which is another city of questionable destinations. I was told by one of the local not to go out at night because it was dangerous. So dinner was good in one of the resturants by the sea. I saw wonderful waves and great looking for shells. The hotel sucked. The beds were way hard. Soooo, we carried on and went over close to the beach by bus and ended in a little town where the guys finagled with the small boatmen while having a beer. We took about an hour to get to a beach town calle Monpiche. WOW. This is a fabulous little place, it is one of the few undiscovered beaches that still has its jungle growing close to the beach. We stayed here and rented a Cabana by the sea. The shells were nice and because it was New Years, we fortunately found this little place. We walked and met some friends from Banos (unplanned, but fortunate) who had brought some kids with them. Our kids hung with their kids and it was great. Dane had cashed in on his last years birthday present promise of a body board, and surfed and even went horse back riding with the other kids. Rachelle made friends with a couple of boys and well you know how girls are at this age...... So in total we spent 3 days there, including "New Years". The amazing thing about New Years on the coast is that the other close towns are celebrating tooo. This means at the stroke of 12, all the cities had their fireworks too. They don't go cheap on their fireworks either. We could see at least 5 other cities/towns from Monpiche and that was very cool seeing them light up and all by the ocean. We did however find on place to have good filtered coffee, the coastal people love Nescafe,,,,, yuck. Overall it was nice. Feeling the pressure of Rachelle not completeing her schooling we left and went to Atacames. Now here is another town, I simply don't understand. The beach is calm and white sanded and you can walk forever, but it is a city. I found it rather yucky and it is another town that I would not call one of my chosen destinations. We had cerviche there too, and I started to notice a rumbly in my tumbly. Oh Oh.
We stayed one day in Atacames and parted ways with Hank (he went to Columbia) and we organized going on a Coache Cama. A bus with seats that can tilt back to almost be a bed. Had good potencial right. Okey dokey, first things first remember my tumbly, and I am getting a bit anxious. But before much of that happened, on fellow started doing the green face thing and ralphed right on Rob. Fortunately, it was only Coconut, that had just met his lips before he boarded the bus. It could have been alot worse. I am starting to feel the pressure rise, when the rain came down. I got up from the window seat to check out the bathroom. Soooo Rob took my seat and waited for my return, from a very smelly bathroom, which was directly behind us, another yuck. So I sit back down nervously, when rain starts coming through the windows and gets Rob soaking wet. Poor guy, it was hard to find humor with all the goings on. Needless to say, I did not sleep on the bus and was sooooo glad to get off and go home. The bus literally stopped outside our door, so we didn't even have to walk far. Overall, I am glad we went to the coast it was great and within 5 weeks we will go again, as a send off for Rob for he returns to Canada in 6 weeks. Hard to beleive.
The workers have been still going like made on the house, and are doing a great job. But I do have to say, it is better if you are a man, they listen better than they do to women. So that means no work will be done while Rob is away, and I have to say that makes me happy.
Soooo, talk to you all later
Robin