Manabi- Paseo Numero Uno ~ Rotary Youth Exchange: From Granville to Guayaquil

So now I am actually going to tell you about Manabi. I can already say it was completely incredible, even better than Machala. We stayed in Crucita in a place, once again, filled with cabañas, however I can´t say they were as nice. My room here as well, did not have hot water, however, it did have the dangerous looking wires hanging above the showerhead to suggest it. I talked to some other exchange students and they had hot water, lucky. One night, the power even went out due to someone´s shower and I saw flashes of electricity and it sounded like something exploded. Other than room accomadations, is was pretty awesome.

Us Guayaquileños arrived early, it seems to always be that way, because we did that during our other trips too; always prompt. We were served lunch on our early arrival, which was fried fish, and was suprisingly delicious (served also with the obligatory straw in coke glass). We were eating outside and the vendors, knowing we were foreigners, were trying to take advantage of us. We were first approached by a man selling Panamá hats (hats really from Ecuador), who tried to sell one for 20 dollars. One of the exchange students knew that was not the price and managed to get it down to six dollars. A man selling sunglasses came around and I finally bought these lovely pair of red sunglasses (you will continue to see these buddies in the rest of my photos).

We each recived a nametag, which purpose still defeats me, because they were never used for anything, suprisingly my was pretty nice and professional.

Already with the sunglasses
Note: Kendel Lipe in the background

We had our luggage checked by some Ecuadorians, and we walked down these stairs to go to our rooms, which looked like this.

Since we arrived early, we began our "Guess what country that person is from" game. When the person was getting his/her luggage checked, we would try to guess what country they are from. We were guessing for this one guy who we thought was from Chile or Brazil, and we quickly realized when he grabbed the luggage that he actually was a native Ecuadorian, oops.
We exchange students bonded quickly, once again, over swear words, planking, and dancing.

Moritz (Germany), as ususal, with the planking

We learned things like Sut Min Pik, other planking models, and DANCING. Dancing was always my favorite part, which we did everyday. It was encouragd to go crazy, like so:

Matt (Colorado) one of the many exotic? pole dancers

The amazing Brazilians during the talent show (the song became very popular among exchange students).Unfortunately the only thing the Americans could bring to the table was the Cotton-Eyed Joe dance, but it was fun.

It is so amazing how fast people get along, and even warmly throwing their friends into the pool, like in Machala, however, here they threw even the Rotarians. I got pushed in one time, resulting in nicely, drenched clothes. This was not the only time my clothes got wet. The second time was when all the exchange students were dancing and everyone was moving towards the pool. I ended up jumping into the pool with a friend still with my clothes on and all of the exchange students were moshing in the pool. We would fall backwards off the ledge of the pool, to be caught by many hands and carried acrross to the other side. Others were simply dancing around the pool, of which wasn´t the safest, but no one got hurt. Here are some photos from the insanity.

In Crucita we climbed to the top of a hill and took many pictures, where we showed our pride for our countries.

Climbing the Hill

The smart Germans, who decided to tie the flags together

Group Photo

Everyone´s Flag tied together

Birds´eye view

THE AMERICANS!

Danish guy doing a a flip dangerously close to the edge of a drop, but still, FLIPPIN´ SWEET!
We did of course do plenty of touristy actvities, including going to MonteCristi, where we bought the famous Panamá hats. There were many vendors, and it was really cool to go around and buy hand-made items. I am really regretting not buying a llama jacket :(. Some of the Germans were yelling and try to help sell some of the Panamá hats for some lady, by yelling "muy bueno, lo mejor precio!" it was pretty hilarious.

We were also lucky enough to be in a parade In Portoviejo. Everyone was screaming their national anthems, and in the case of the French singing Frére Jacques at the top of theire lungs. I felt bad for the people from Feroe Island, Hungary, or Japan, who had no one or almost no one to sing with them.

The Fantastic French

The Germans, I don´t even know what to say... the taxi driver probably didn´t either.

The Great Wall of Germans

Pikachu!

The Feroe Islanders! (which is not Denmark)

Kendel Lipe (Texas) and I

On the last night we went out to a Rotary meeting, which was more formal. We had an election of the King and Queen. The Queen was Savannah Jankosky from California, and the King the Danish guy named Valdemar Bødker, who did a flip while doing his model walk. It was entertaining. But before this, we went on a Chiva Ride. It was one of the best experiences of my life, it was basically a bus with musicians playing on top of it.People were hanging off the sides, or dancing on top. Yes, you could say this too, was a bit dangerous. It took three of these babies to carry all 135 exchange students, Rotex students, and Rotarians. All the while, our camera man, who had been filming everything we did on the trip, was filming everyone while riding alongside the buses in a truck. Everyone was waving to random people on the street, sitting in restaurants, on motorcycles, in taxis; all from which we recieved huge smiles. We basically were parading around and bringing the party to a community (which exchange students normally do).

Notice some of the exchange students hanging off the side. Some would jump off the Chiva when we got to a stop light and commence to dance in the street. When the light turned green, they had to quickly board the bus, that they sometimes had to chase after. Only in Latin America, right?

This photo is from a boat ride we took, where I got some good pictures of pelicans.

My Michael Jackson photo taken in a Mausoleum

By the end of the trip, nearly every exchange students´ wrists were filled with bracelets. We traded bracelets (and pins) from each others countries, or got them from street vendors. The one that says Freundschaft means "friendship" in German. I had no idea what that meant, considering I do not know how to speak German I asked my friend, Johannes, if it was a place. Now he won´t let me live it down.