Well, when I last wrote it was New Year's Eve early in the day and we were enjoying the last few hours on the coast. Under an overcast sky we jumped waves, took pictures, saw more sea turtles and baby crabs, collected smooth rocks, and enjoyed the beauty the Lord had laid before us. It was a wonderful day and a perfect cap to a restful week. This is a picture of the family and their help that took care of us for the week. Isidro is the gentleman in the back with his arms around his daughter Jennifer. Wife Janet is showing thumbs up and Jasmin is in the middle. Fabio is the handsome boy on the left who threw the football with our guys on the beach.
(Remember in old TV shows when someone is playing a music record on an old fashioned turntable and then the needle runs across it and the music comes to a scratching halt? That idea seems to apply here.)
Sunset came and went and then the electricity in town went out. Let me tell you, it gets really dark on a beach in South America when there's no moon and stars out. Thankfully our host had a generator so in a few minutes we were up and running and able to see our meal. Also, we were blessed with a few minutes of peace and quiet since the speakers were unable to blast out the dance music. Everything returned then to normal but when the electricity went down the third time I asked Doug his thoughts on the whole thing. What would cause such a blackout? He thought that the town had maxed out their electrical supply with all the demands of music and lights. Made total sense to me.
Finally they'd ironed things out because by 11 pm there was a steady stream of music coming from the middle of town (two houses away) along with a DJ who talked over every song with mouth fully pressed to his mic. The only word I could make out from his litany was 'baile' (dance!). In spite of the music and excitement of the evening, Seth and Selah were worn thin and had their heads on the table during dinner. Darius and Jacobey were not far behind. So, we carted all kids up to bed, had them put on jammies and brush their teeth, and plopped them into bed. Within moments, all were out.
Doug and I, however, decided to see what all the ruckus was about and took the one minute walk into town. There under hanging streamers and before a mound of speakers sat all 400 inhabitants of Las Tunas watching as couples took to the dance floor. I didn't notice much alcohol or loud boisterous behavior--just the syncronized bobbing of black-haired heads on the dance floor and a man with exceeding power running the music and mic. It greatly resembled what you'd find at a wedding reception without all the food and toasting of the couple.
After a short ten minutes Doug and I decided to give sleep a go. It was nearly 11:45 and we were fairly wiped out from the early start to our day and several days of fairly poor sleep (Six of us in one room; Doug with Darius who hogs the bed and talks in his sleep; Me with Selah in a twin bed top bunk who kicks and likes to hug). We put on our jammies, brushed our teeth, popped in our ear plugs, and kissed goodnight. Incredibly we could still hear the music clear as a bell but laid down hopeful that come midnight things would get slightly louder and then would eventually taper down to a slight buzz.
Wrong. At 2 something the music and DJ were still going strong and just as loud as before. At 3:25 when Selah needed to go to the bathroom and get a drink we were serenaded by songs I'd not yet heard. Around 5 we barely heard the rooster. At 6:15 someone cranked the speaker up a hair more because you know there were still people on the dancefloor willing to give it all they've got. At 6:20 am Doug and I looked at each other red-eyed and wiped out considering the fourteen hour drive we had ahead of us. Heaven help us.
Once again we didn't have to wake the kids up; the music took care of that for us. Everyone milled about the room, got clothes on, brushed teeth, took the Ecuadorian version of Dramamine, and packed the last items in our bags. Ready or not, Shell, here we come.
We caught a ride from a friend of Isidro's into the town of Puerto Lopez where he dropped us off a the place where our friends stayed the week. Then our van driver arrived at 8:30 to pick us up and cart us cross country back to the jungle. We climbed in, barf bags ready, and headed eastward. I began in the front row with the driver and Cobey and he seemed to be doing well. Quickly I learned though that my original prayers for our journey said in bed this morning could really use a little extra umph. I thought it wise to pray again covering our driver and his wisdom, our boy in the front and his stomach, our oncoming traffic, and our van which was busting at the seams with people and bags (and bugs!--I discovered a couple of hours into our ride that we had baby cockroaches crawling on the floor! My hyadis from the bugs was apparently over. Have I mentioned how much I hate bugs? I pulled my legs up and refused to put them on the floor again. At one point one little guy was crawling up the pillow in my lap and I nearly came unglued, silently of course, because I could just imagine what all they were enjoying down there. A few minutes later Selah decided to sit on the floor and I yanked her up quicker than you can say, 'bug bite'. Later in our journey at one of our stops we saw a roach crawl onto the driver's seat with antennea three times as long as it's body. Even the 250 lb. driver was grossed out.
Yet, there were some highlights to our road trip. Since everyone in Ecuador danced till dawn and beyond, the roads were nearly free from all traffic. We passed town after town with not a soul about and very few cars on the road. Our trek into the large city of Guayaquil which was supposed to take three and a half to four hours only took two hours and forty-five minutes. When we got to Guayaquil we found the only McDonald's in the city (one of only a handful in the country) located at the bus terminal and had Big Macs, Chicken Nuggets, Double Cheeseburgers, and fries. The burgers were cold but we didn't care. It was a taste we'd longed for. In the states we never went to McDonald's--here we're looking for something familiar.
Well, the next part of our journey took us up and into the Andes. We drove for over four hours on the mountaintops where only clouds are visible--we were in the cloud forest where at times the driver could only see about 50 feet in front of him which required 20 m/h driving. Winding through the mountains on a single-lane road for a long time eventually led us to the other side and an amazing view of the tallest volcano in Ecuador, Chimborazo. It was beautiful and snow capped and we caught a glimpse of it at sunset.
Then we headed toward Tungurahua, which is our closest volcano, and a 'short cut' that the driver suggested. Great! We're all about cutting an hour off of our journey. So for the next hour, at dark, we wound our way around the mountains on an at times single-lane dirt road which was in the middle of absolutely nowhere. It was the craziest thing. I several times had to pray and ask God to keep us from having car trouble (I would surely go mad if I had to spend any more time in the van than I'd already expected). Oh my. Yet, in the end, we came out on the Banos road and had indeed shaved off an hour from our journey.
We finally drove through Banos, our closest big city and then people were out in droves. The city was alive and the cars were packed. We drove onward and I began counting down the minutes. Selah and Darius were stirred up and I could tell our driver was ready to be there. (Did I mention that he'd only gotten an hour and a half of sleep the night before? When I found that out, I began pumping him full of liquid, hard candies, and questions I could ask to keep him awake and alert.) We dropped the others off at their respective houses, and finally made it to our house just before 9 pm. Only 13 hours this time; and no one vomited! Praise God!
We unloaded our stuff--we DID NOT bring the things into the house. I was not about to cart anymore bugs into my house than were already there awaiting me. I started a load of clothes, unpacked enough to find my glasses and contacts case, and then reported to the rest of the family that I was headed to bed. They seemed quite content to play with their new toys (Seth went straight to his Lego, Selah to her Poly Pockets, Darius to a book, and Jacobey to his Star Wars paper airplanes) and Doug loved catching up on the phone with Roni and Andy at home in Katy and his mom in Minnesota.
Today, a day later, we're all feeling much better and have almost recovered from the ride home. We've decided though that one trip to the beach is enough for us and that we're happy we got it out of our systems. A week of buglessness is not enough to coax us into that journey again.
Thanks for reading this very long blog.
Blessings, kim
Bye!
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