Tuesday Sept 23

humidity has been been tough in the afternoon, but the hotel and our apartment has a/c so we´re surviving. a few rain drops yesterday as we were wondering around town. we wanted to go to la playa and were going to walk down the beach - about a 20 minute walk - but the hotel staff did a once over on us and said that if we had any watches, jewerly or a bag that we´d get held up by banditos. so we opted for a dollar cab to the beach. we saw the whole stretch in about 10 minutes but we did some walking back and forth on the sand, which dad pretty much hated because the sand gets everywhere and is hard on his back.

we thought we´d try and have a cocktail on the beach and watch the passersby. i let dad do the translation as i sat back and watched the drama for about 15 minutes of describing how to make a sprite and vodka. still no drinks after all that, so we kept meandering down the walk to find a little bar that could make us a simple drink.

i kept dragging dad across streets in fear of his life to rogue taxi cabs and suicidal bus drivers. after a little bickering and some getting lost because of lack of street signs we saw a good deal of the city but couldn´t find the resturant we were looking for.

there are a lot of security guards around here, complete with kevlar vests and guns tucked into pockets. its an auspicious sight. we thought we might have been in a rough neighbourhood when we saw a guard with a shotgun on top of a gas station roof, but after seeing a guard for los banos, i think its pretty regular.

i met the manager of the resturant we stopped in and could finally get a drink (well, sort of), he had just bought a new puppy and was quite the player. after about an hour of flirting and some of the worst spanish and english translations ever, i think we agreed to have breakfast together. or maybe he said he was working the breakfast shift. either way, i didn´t make it downtown that early.

we tried to do laundry this morning only to find out that Manta has a water shortage. this finally explained why when we were taking a shower the water would just stop on us. we kept looking for a coin slot to put our quarters back into, but just then the water would turn on again. so we´ll try and do laundry in Latacunga. if i can stand the smell from pop that is.