Manabí Trip

Sorry about what seems like a lot of complaining in the next part of the post, but unfortunately I wasn't a huge fan of the Manabí trip. Compared to our first trip to Punta Centinela, the Manabí trip was poorly done. I still had a lot of fun seeing my exchange friends, but the hotel was nowhere near as nice as the DeCameron Resort, nor was the food anywhere near as good (we had bread and a small portion of eggs for breakfast each morning and that's just breakfast). Also, because of the orientations, the northern students and the southern students tended to stick to the groups of friends they already made so we didn't get to know everyone well. Despite the negatives, I did do a couple fun things on the trip. 

Day 1- Once all groups arrived, we got to sit and listen to the rules in Spanish and in English yet again, even though we were sent the rules and heard them many times during our orientation trip. And then, EVERYONE introduced themselves. It was torture. 

Day 2- First we took boats to see the Portoviejo river. It went like this; 

Bad part- wait 2 hours, get a killer sunburn on my face (it hurt so bad), take a 10+ minute boat ride, get off and wait to board the river boat, see a bunch of birds and bird poop, return and wait for the other boat for at least 40 minutes, ride back in dangerous waves and get soaked.

Good part- do something crazy, go tubing in the big, scary waves with my Canadian friend Kelty... twice. 
Bad part- walk back to the hotel to find the rest of the students eating lunch and we are standing there in soaking wet clothes (not bathing suits). Then we didn't get food.

Later we went and walked up this huge hill to La Loma de Crucita which was a beautiful look-out spot for group pictures. I got some pretty great shots here. 

That night I had another "why not" moment like getting up and dancing on the last trip. When everybody was about to go find other things to do, I walked up to the DJ in the front of the group and asked to sing karaoke like the schedule said we could. Not only did I get a bunch of people back on the dance floor with ABBA's "Dancing Queen", but I got a bunch of people to sing after I did. Also, the exchange student chairman then came up to me and asked me to sing at the final talent show during our last exchange trip in May. So cool :)

Day 3- We participated in Portoviejo's Independence Day Parade which was pretty cool. Then we went to Montecristi to view the Ecuadorian artisan museum, take the official trip photo, and visit the shops. Then we went to Manta for the Maritime Port pretty much for the exchange program publicity as we took another group photo with the port business man. We ate lunch at the Playa Murcielago which was the most fantastic food I had all week. Then we returned to our hotel in Crucita and had the country talent show night. I ended up singing a cappella "Turning Tables" by Adele because the Rotarians had wanted me to. I got a standing ovation and a comment from one boy who said, "You just brought this to a whole new level". (Look for the video soon). It is nice that because I put my talent out there, all the Rotarians recognize me and actually talk to me. This was probably the best day overall. 

Day 4- We went to Bahia de Caraquez (a beach) for the whole day. There were different games like volleyball and soccer and of course dancing. We didn't know we were returning to the beach after we had gone to lunch a little ways down the road, so some people changed out of their swimsuits and then were really bored when we got back. I was one of those people. At the hotel that night, we had a "special dinner" where we all entered with our host countries then choose the queen and king of the trip. We could have been eating through all of this but instead had to wait for the food to be ready... we didn't get fed dinner until 12:10am. 

Day 5- Goodbyes and on the road again. Always a bitter-sweet time in my opinion. It was 8 hours to get home and it was extremely uncomfortable to be on the bus for that long. Thank goodness for my iPod. Back at home, I reunited with my host parents and we talked about our different trips over a tigrillo dinner.

Photos: https://ayearinalife.shutterfly.com/pictures/973