Tonsupa...

Katherine: "Whitney, you want to go to the beach instead of Otavalo?"

Whitney: "How's this possible?"

Katheirne: "Well, Adam from Kentucky invited us to Tonsupa, his host dad has an apartment there. There's other people going too. SO you want to go?"

Whitney: "Katherine, this isn't even a question. We're going, call him."

Wednesday morning at 11 we meet Adam at Trans Esmareldas bus station to buy tickets to Tonsupa ($8 for 7 hours) The bus leaves Thursday night at 11pm. The night bus (so like Harry Potter) was pretty exciting to begin with, but that is how a trip always starts out. Until about hour 5 and you want it to be over. I still got it when it comes to traveling :) what a trooper.

Katherine and I were too excited to sleep and it was a bit sticky on the bus, since heading out of the clime of the Andes changes quite a bit. I stayed up talking with Adam, profusely thanking him for inviting us.

We arrived at 5am on Friday morning, walked to the apartment and settled in. Tossed on our swimsuits (the 5 of us) and headed to the beach. Kath and I were again too excited so we jogged to the water (took about two minutes) and got in. Although the weather resembled Oregon beaches, overcast gray, the water was another story. It was like a tepid bath. And the waves were wonderful. Kath and I body surfed and got tumbled more than once against the sand. I had a pretty epic sand burn on my right leg for a bit. But all in good fun. We spent a couple hours at the beach until the breakfast shops opened. This was around 8am. At 9am we went back to the apartment and slept till 2pm and then of course headed back to the beach. :)

That night we headed out to eat dinner. Katherine and I shared a plate of ceviche de camarones (shrimp) and arroz de camarones (rice and shrimp) It tasted delicious. The ceviche here is famous all over Ecuador. These plates tasted of coconut, seafood, fried banana, and tomatoes.

The next morning Katherine and I woke up early (8am) while everyone else slept in and we headed out for a short morning jog along the water and of course to swim. It was nice being alone together. We're quite dependent upon one another, in a good way of course.

We came back to the other two girls making breakfast and we had eggs toast and cheese. Delicious, quite american, minus the queso fresco. (Which really is the only type of cheese down here. I haven´t had good aged swiss in so long!)

We spent Saturday in Atacames, a larger beach town about 20 minutes from Tonsupa. The beach was full of people and vendors selling, sunglasses, beach mats, ice cream, coco lotion.. anything really. We sat on the beach with two other girls on the trip while the others went on a illegal whale watching boat adventure. I didn´t have $20 bucks to pay for it otherwise it would have been fun to go. So Katherine and I just walked around the shops looking at the crafts. I didn´t buy anything.. just looked. :)

That night we went out for food and had a little fiesta at the apartment. It was a bunch of fun. I bought an Ecuabeer for .90 cents. Needless to say it wasn´t delicious. But it served its purpose. All of us danced the night away. The next morning Katherine and I got up around 8:30am and cleaned the place up for our sleeping friends. We left at 11 for the bus station. And we spent the next 8 hours of the day on the bus.

We´ll definitely planning a trip back :)

Love to all. And I hope fall is treating you well.