"Vaaaaaaaaaaaaamos, Ecuatoriaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanos" I am cheering along with 20 other gringos at the Ecuador v Peru soccer game. This is notably my best sports experience ever. I have been to Duke v UNC games in Cameron and I have played in championship games but wow... this day was absolutely rocking. I had gotten there early and made friends with a bunch of Ecuadorians in order to save seats for some friends. Little did I know that half of the office staff and other volunteers were also going to show up. We all in a drunk stuper shoved into the seats I saved and dominated the Ecuador cheers. Ecuador won 6-1 it was fabulous. Colin represented huge gringos well in a pair of two small mesh shorts and an Ecuador jersey with Tyler (go to hell carolina), Paul (will be a famous mus
ician someday) and Matt (the most honest man you'll ever meet). That night we all went out and it was a blast. At one point Colin even picked me up in all of the excitement and fell backwards, underestimating my weight and overestimating his balance. The next day my knee was swollen black and blue.
A week and a half later I was in Quito and got a phone call from Colin that he wanted to go to Tabuga with me. He was thinking it would be good to see a real Peace Corps site and do some cleansing in the tranquil life of a small coastal town. We met up and took the overnight bus to Tabuga arriving Monday morning. By the way it was his birthday this day... December birthday's rock... yeah Kunger, Molly, Beth, Angus, Angela, Tyler (go to hell) and more!
Colin's first impression (see picture below) 'Wow, I won
t' even last two days here' was quickly changed by the pure charisma that is Tabuga. The first few days we did some work in the reserve, Colin taught my classes with me at the high school and we frolicked a lot in the ocean. Acting like little kids again we chest bumped the waves, collected rocks and shells and threw wet sand at each other. The Tabuga beach is really incredible and you can walk for 45 minutes North or South without seeing any development or other people. I mentioned on one of these long walks that I would love to camp out on the beach, my friend Jeremiah had just left me a perfect beach tent. By Friday Colin couldn't figure out a reason to leave, my birthday was the following Monday and I had some great plans for the weekend. We even decided on camping out on the beach Sunday night to celebrate my birthday. This atleast meant Colin would be staying in Tabuga for a whole week. So much for just staying two or three days. I told everybody in my town that Colin was my cousin to avoid small town rumors. This quickly developed into Colin being called Primo Loco, or Crazy Cousin, by all the Tabugans.
It's Friday night and the mood is definitely right. I get my girliness going and get all dressed up to head to Pedernales
for a night of dancing on the beach. Miguel, my 17 year old best friend, Colin and I head to Pedernales. Jeremiah and his friend Sarah are suppose to meet us there. We have an awesome dinner with fresh shrimp and then meet up with a friend of mine Carlos. Carlos drives a Mototaxi. A mototaxi is a motorcycle that instead of a back wheel is attached to a chariot like cart that you sit in. Carlos convinced one of his friends to hang out with Jeremiah, Sarah, Miguel, Colin and I for the night instead of working to celebrate my birthday. We heard there is a big community party in Coaque, a town 15 minutes south of Pedernales. We load up the two mototaxis with gringos and rum and cokes and head south. The ride there is like a crazy roller coaster. With one foot and one hand on our mototaxi Colin leans out as if flying and grabs onto the other mototaxi that hold Jeremiah and Sarah. We all alternate the flying technique feeling liberated and free. We get to Coaque and my foreigner friends are skeptical as we buy tickets through a little hole that is about the height of Colin's waist. We walk into the dance and the Cumbia music is blaring but no one is dancing. I grab the other mototaxi driver and go right to the dance floor. Within minutes the party is hopping and everyone is dancing.
After about an hour of serious Cumbia dancing we all jump on the mototaxis to head to Pedernales because I want Colin to experience the discotecas on the beach. Again we are all hanging off the mototaxis, singing and being jolly (which is Jeremiah's last name, literally). We get to Pedernales and immediately tear up the dance floor. The highlight of this being Colin's stunt double walking sideways, like a crab on two feet, over a speed bump and falling flat on his face, doing what gringos do best: entertaining the locals. Colin didn't actually bring a stunt double with him, it was just him.
At this point Carlos the mototaxi driver invites us to go sleep at his house. Ecuadorians are known for being incredibly hospitable and it's hard to say no. We get to his house and he changes the sheets and tells Colin and I that we can sleep there and him and Miguel will sleep in the next room. Jeremiah and Sarah had already parted to their hostal. We are almost about to go to bed when more Cumbia music from down the street lours us to another community party. At one point I am dancing with an old drunk man and remember seeing Colin in the middle of a crowd of Ecuadorians, a full head above everyone else looking scared and out of place. Here it isn't normal to dance with your friends in a group or by yourself and he was the only person not with a partner. We finally go to sleep at about 5 am until 7 am when we wake up to a crying baby two rooms over. We wake up Carlos and Miguel, get a great bowl of Encebollado and then head to Tabuga to sleep more and recover from the night of Cumbia dancing.
It's Saturday night and the birthday weekend continues. Colin and I head to Jama to meet up with some of my friends. We go to a bar and meet up with Juan Carlos
and Andrés. Andrés speaks perfect English and is incredibly bright and fun. Colin and him immediately hit it off and Colin admits to me he has a 'man crush' on Andrés. After awhile we head to Kahlua a 'night club' in Jama. A bunch of people I know are there, they play me the happy birthday song and buy me drinks. Again we dance all night until about 4am. This was one of those moments here in Ecuador where I felt like I was in college again, dancing and partying with my friends. But, on the walk home a cow hanging out in the street reminded me that no, I am still in Ecuador and yes, I get to eat Encenbollado for breakfast again in the morning!
It's Sunday and Colin and I head to Pedernales to do some pre-beach sleeping shopping. Key items include: pink foam cooler, floor wax (replacement lighter fluid), boxed wine, cheese filled hot dogs and marshmallows. By the time we get back to Tabuga we are both beat and both of us secretly don't want to sleep on the beach at all. After two full nights of celebrating setting up a tent, building a fire and the idea of drinking a sip of wine makes both of us cringe. Luckily, neither of us wants to be the loser so we push through and end up having one of the best birthday nights (or just nights) of my life including making torches out of a ripped tshirt, floor wax and a stick, looking for drift wood by torch, midnight swims and roasted marshmallows. Here are some pictures to enjoy:
Colin and I spend the rest of the week living my Tabuga life. This includes random visitors to my room asking for medical
help, Colin tutoring Miguel in math with broken Spanish, a community bank meeting where Colin got to see how volunteers try to introduce new progressive ideas and many trips to the beach. One of the highlights of these beach trips included bring along Flat Stanley. Colin's mom is an elementary school teacher and Flat Stanley is literally a cut out of a little man. By sending Flat Stanley around the world with other people Mrs. Carroll teaches her students geography.
Here we have Flat Stanley building a sand castle, Flat Stanley exploring the beach caves and Flat Stanley hanging out with my 6 year old brother, Angel.
To celebrate the leaving of Jeremiah, Colin and Matan (a volunteer from Isreal who was incredibly bright and interesting) we held a party in my room. This involved an amazing combination of ethnic diversity including Sarah from Germany, Matan from Isreal, 3 Americans from the West Coast (Jeremiah), Midwest (Colin) and east coast (your narrator) and a bunch of Ecuadorians - Maximo the volunteer coordinator at my reserve, Vicente my Ecuadorian Cousin, my Ecuadorian Dad and Mom and other Ecuadorian children. The night included Israeli bread making over an open fire, fried yuca, patacones, baked chicken and a dank mexican salsa. The festivities included my Ecuadorian neighbors (ages 5,13,14 and 15) watching an Animae movie, lots of eating, cheers-ing and even arm wrestling.
My dad watching me try to make the Israeli bread with Matan's assistance, Jeremiah and Maximo arm wrestling while Vicente and I cheer them on, Colin and Sarah with my Ecuadorian neighbors.
It was a sad day when Colin said goodbye to Tabuga and headed south to Canoa to meet up with Tyler, Paul, Matt (all previously mentioned) Stephanie, Kendra, Jesse, Juan Carlos and Andrés. Luckily, separation anxiety never sunk in because the next day I joined them in Canoa for Tyler's birthday adventures.
Jesse, Tyler, Paul, Me, Andrés and Primo Loco posing, I didn't actually spill that beer on Colin but it sure looks like I did. Primo Loco going for a fist pump and being rejected by Paul. Stephanie giving a big smoocherooo to one of her favorite white boys.
It is with these beautiful photos and fun adventures that I depart and close the door on the 12 + day adventure of Primo Loco and the Gringa from Tabuga. We made quite a team and he is definitely missed but his memory lives on. Plus, he's about to move to Denver and become friends with Alex Johnson so that I can know him in what we call 'real life'.
Somebody needs to tell Flat Stanley to go see a doctor, 'cause that's not what fingers are supposed to look like. Them shits look painful!
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