Manabi

Last Wedenesday (17) all 145 exchange students in Ecuador went to Crucita, a providence off of Manabi for 5 days. For the most part we had great weather for the trip, and it was so much fun to meet even more exchange students from other countries, like Australia, Mexico, Iceland, Bahamas, and pretty much any other country you can think of. The best part of having all these different nationalities in the same place is when we take picture. Everybody gets so excited to represent their host country they all take their flags and group up by country. All the Guayaquil kids met at the airport again to board a really nice premier bus, which is meant for over 60 people, and we only had 12, including our Rotarians. The drive was about 3-4 hours, but I love driving around Ecuador, and seeing the different towns and landscape, its all so beautiful to me.
The first day, myself and a few other girls were very unlucky and had some items stolen from us. I was checking into the front of the hotel (which wasn't really a hotel, more like a diner room, and when you walk behind it, it opens up into a big area with a pool and over 40 cabanas to sleep in) and I set my bag and phone down to sign a paper and receive my room key. When I went to collect my belongs and go to my room, my phone was gone. I learned the hard way that I need to be way more cautious with my valuables. The same night someone went into my friends's room while they were sleeping and stole a backpack, 3 cameras, and a phone. Not the best surprise to wake up to the next morning.
The next day we all boarded the bus and drove 20 minutes to Portoviejo, were over 30 exchange students are living, to march in a parade, proudly wearing our blazers and waving our flags. After that we got to spend the day on the beach. It was a little cloudy, so nobody thought to wear sunscreen, but seeing as we are on the equator and the sun is at it's strongest here, almost everyone (but the kids from Brazil) got badly sunburnt, which only got worse the rest of the trip cause we went to the beach everyday. After the parade we got to go to a typical Ecuadorian market and by bracelets, scarves, hats, bags, for dirt cheap! That night we were not allowed to do much but sit at diner for a few hours back at the "hotel" because we had 2 police men to search every room to look for the items that were stolen the first night. Unfortunantly, they didn't find anything.

The following day we spent at the beach being pulled behind fishing boats with motors on inflatable bananas and other giant tubes, which was awesome! Later in the night we walked to the top of Crucita to take pictures with our flag and look at the view of the town. After we had a talent show, which unfortunately I was sleeping during because the water we had been drinking made me sick, seeing as it was stored in plastic bags.
On our last night we went to Portoviejo again for diner and dancing, but first we got to ride on party buses! they are giant buses with no sides, so you can stand out of the sides, and a platform on top to dance on and for a band to play their music. This was so much fun! we drove around the town waving to everyone we passed by for almost an hour! We finally returned to the hotel at around 3 in the morning, and almost nobody slept that night, because we had to leave the next morning, so we wanted to spend as much time with each other before we went our separate ways! We won't be seeing each other until the end of the year for the around Ecuador trip, because the Galapagos and Amazon trip will only be with 25 students at a time.

Everyone was sad to leave on Sunday, but excited to be back in their home towns with their families again and get a good night sleep.