We left
Cuenca Thursday morning (May 31st) at 10:30, the buses weren’t so bad until we
got to Jipi Jopa (pronounced hippihoppa). Except for two very sad
things. First, they refused to let us take food onto the bus from Guayaquil to
Jipi Jopa. Stephanie had just purchased two 10 piece Chicken McNuggets from
McDonalds. Allison managed to sneak one of them onto the bus, but the other one
got stuck under the bus with our bags. We feasted on cold chicken nuggets and
sauce 2 hours later on the second bus. But we still enjoyed every bite. Second,
right after Ariel and I sat on the bus, the guy in front of Ariel fully
reclined without any warning. She was pinned in her seat. We managed to wiggle
out and get new seats, but we suffered a casualty. Ariel's unbreakable
sunglasses were crushed. :(
A guy walking around yelling “Puerto
Lopez” led us to our bus. When I got to it I was thinking “is someone going to
steal my luggage”. It was very sketchy. Once we got going, we soon realized
this was going to be a fun and entertaining bus ride. We made friends quickly
because we are “gringas” and everyone wants to be friends with us. :) One guy
wanted to take pictures of Ashley and Stephanie (and did with his phone). Very
entertaining! I was so excited about seeing the beach that I couldn’t wait to
get there. I turned to look out the window and WOW! Much to my surprise the
beach was beside me!!! And I start flipping out. I was in walking distance of
the beach. I think I could have actually cried it was so AMAZING!!! The man
behind me on the bus starts speaking to me about something that I obviously
didn’t understand and all I thought to say was “si, si”. I turned to the girls
and gave a nice big smile and a shrug (hehehehe). So I snapped back to reality,
because we needed to figure out where we were going to get off the bus. We
called Veronica and told her to be waiting on the side of the road where we
could see her. All of our new friends from the bus ride made sure we got off
right where we were supposed to. How nice of them to help. We got off, got our
luggage from under the bus and all our friends were hanging out their windows
saying bye to us. What’s more thrilling than 5 men sticking their heads out of
a bus window???
We got to
Veronica and Kelly’s place (well one of their places) and left most of our
stuff there. Stephanie, Allison, Ashley, and Kelly headed to the other house
where they were staying at in Puerto Lopez (Courtney was house sitting). Yes,
confusing I know. We all got dressed in our bathing suits and headed off to
eat. We ate at this pizza stand on the side of the road, and I didn’t realize
how much I love pizza! Then it was off to the beach! AH I was full of excitement
as step by step I was getting closer to being on the stinking beach!!!!!!! We finally make it down that last street that
leads right to the beach and we put our stuff down. All I could do was run.
Veronica and Ariel stayed with the stuff and sat catching up on all their
Ecuador experiences. I got into the water and was sorta creeped out by the
stuff that I was stepping on that I couldn’t identify. But I soon got over it
when I thought “Oh my gosh, I’m in the OCEAN!”
Although it was late at night and I couldn’t see it, it was still
amazing. So after swimming for about an hour or so we headed back to hit the
sack.
Friday
morning I woke up to the smell of a yummy breakfast that Veronica and Kelly
were cooking. It was a very nice welcome to Puerto Lopez, a breakfast that is
not cereal or peanut butter crackers. Anna (a sister originally from Wales) our
first Puerto Lopez friend, came and ate with us as well. Then it was off to the
beach and where I would be able to take pictures and actually see the ocean
this time. We had to take a bus to get to Piqueros (the blue footed boobies)
beach. It was more than I’ve ever expected. I literally ran to get into the
water! And I do not run! The water was so warm and pretty I didn’t ever want to
get out.
Veronica,
Kelly, Ariel, Ashley, eventually Stephanie, and I decided to get into this mud
bath. It was seriously the nastiest thing ever, but I can say that I took a mud
bath. You’re supposed to lay out and let the mid bake on, but I couldn’t bring
myself to sit with mud all over my body for long, so Stephanie and I got back
in the water to wash all that off. Stephanie decided to start singing songs
from “The Little Mermaid”, and if anyone knows me you will know that I love
Disney, so she totally made my trip by singing songs from the movie while we
were in the ocean!! After singing for a while I realized my eyeballs were
starting to burn very badly from all the salt, so I got out for a while to lay
out. Allison, the beach goddess that she is, spent almost the whole time laying
out. By the time I was done, it was time eat and our day was pretty much over
at the beach.
While
waiting for a bus to come back and pick us up, Allison and Ashley did
cartwheels in the street, while the rest of us sat on the side of the road and
watched. We made it home finally and all the girls went to get ice cream.
Veronica and I stayed back. I had a slight tummy ache from the beach food. But
they brought back Caseros, which are the best things ever. We ate our Caseros
then everyone besides Ariel, Veronica, and I left to go to the other house. We
were all tired and needed to rest for service the next day, but we three girls
stayed up so late talking about everything in Ecuador.
We all
got up and got ready the next morning. We had to pack our stuff up and take it
to Veronica and Kelly’s other house in Machililla. We were walking to the
Kingdom Hall thinking we were going to be really late when Steve, Sunny, Avery,
and Emery saved the day and picked us up. They took us the rest of the way to
the hall. When we got to the hall it
seriously was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
It was like a hut almost. The inside is so small and has benches instead
of chairs. The friends in the congregation were so happy to have a hall (they
just built it a year or so before).
I worked
in service with Veronica, which was nice. She got a really nice girl that
invited us in. Well it was more like under the house. But she was super nice
and was willing to listen. It was so hot out in service it was crazy! Veronica
took me on some of her calls and we walked where they sell fish and I really
wanted to throw up. The smell was horrific! I’ve never smelled anything like
it.
Stephanie
was preaching with two young sisters named Genesis, who just got baptized that
year and Marlena. After one door of preaching, they left for 3 Bible studies
also spanning the entire town. They were all with young girls. Only two of them
could study, but they were really sweet. The last girl Suleka drew this
beautiful picture of Paradise:
After
that we headed home (the longest walk ever, considering how scorching hot it
was). Ariel and I decided to lay out on the beach for a little before the
meeting. After we laid out, we had to take BUCKET SHOWERS! GO ME for being able
to do it with only 2 buckets of water (haha)! Ariel beat me. She only used 1
and a half buckets, but that’s not the point.
The
meeting was nice we all commented at least once, the pros obviously more. There
are a lot of studies that come to the meeting. It was really nice to see the progress
everywhere. We met a lot of wonderful people as well. One was Courtney, she is
an awesome bubbly person originally from New Zealand. After the meeting we went
back to the house packed up our stuff again and caught the bus to Puerto
Cayo.
Once we got there we took a truck (the
kind where you stand in the back) to the house where we were going to stay.
Courtney was already there waiting for us. We were staying at a beach house
that belongs to a family that was home visiting Australia. The house was
amazing and it was so close to the beach, it was like the beach was literally
their front yard. We later went to a
restaurant that was right on the beach. Avery showed up and joined for dinner.
We all got eaten alive by mosquitoes (except Ariel who only got 2 bites). It
was really good food.
We
went down to the beach and spent our final night playing around in the ocean
one last time. The undercurrent was seriously insane. It was a little scary for
me, but I kinda liked it. We swam until it was dark enough so that we could see
these fish that Allison told us about. You stick your hand in the water and
it’s like little sparks in the water. It was really cool to see them. You have
to concentrate really hard to find them and the waves were one after another so
it was kinda hard. I think Kelly missed out on seeing them. But they live on
the beach so she can see them anytime. Courtney sadly missed our whole day of
fun because she got held up in Puerto Lopez and wasn’t able to come back. We finally decided to call it a night. We
started heading back to the house and we found Allison’s friend Pedro playing a
game (Estrellitas – pretty much a combo of jacks and dodgeball) with a whole
bunch of witness kids. So Ashley, Allison, Ariel, and Stephanie decided to play
for a while. We later found out it was Pedro’s going away party and they
totally crashed it. OOPS! We got back to the house and we decide to watch “Step
Up 2.” Most of us fell asleep while watching tv so we headed to bed even though
it was only 9:30 or 10.
Monday
morning I got up and I was a little bummed because we have to leave. Allison
made French toast which I didn’t really eat because I didn’t want to get sick
on my bus journey, but it was delicious. We all started packing and getting
stuff together. Stephanie and Allison decided to wash their sheets and later
found out that Stephanie also washed her phone in the same load. :( Courtney finally made it back that
morning just in time to eat some French toast and hang out a bit before we
left. She was definitely helpful when we wanted to leave, she went and found us
a motor taxi that came and picked us up from the house. We loaded up the taxi
and off we went to the bus stop. We were very close to the bus stop and his
little motor bike that had to carry all our weight from the luggage and all of
us couldn’t make it up this mini hill. It stalled and so Ashley, Allison and
Ariel got out to push and he finally got it going so they didn’t have to push.
I was kinda sad that they didn’t, that would have been a hilarious video and
memory of the trip.
So
it was off to Cuenca with a few stops. We returned to Jipi Jopa and were happy
to leave. Another stop was in Guayaquil, where we ate McDonalds and met up with
Johnny and Gaby. We had fun until it was time to go and we all had to say bye
to Allison until she comes back in 5 weeks.
My first trip to the
beach was an amazing experience! It truly showed me what Jehovah has given us
and how beautiful the things he provides for us are. So until next time I
have plenty of pictures and all my memories to think of to keep my ocean fix
under control :) - Kaitlyn
Veronica & Kelly's
blog: http://v-roni-tay.blogspot.com/2012_05_20_archive.html
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