back in post-election guayaquil

so the elections were last night. the entire country has been under a dry law since friday at noon which ends today at the same time. it´s funny because señora flor remarked that with all the free alcohol flowing at the political rallies to sway favour, you´d think that they´d let the good times roll. didn´t stop me from enjoying a cold pilsener on saturday night. i felt a little giddy in knowing that i had broken some rule, or aided in the breaking of the rule (it was illegal to sell alcohol... i don´t think consumption was on the table). either way it was tasty, and the pizza that came with it - a tropical one with peaches, bananas and pineapple, with a healthy dousing of chili flakes - was a taste-tingling concoction that hit the spot indeed.

no changes for mayor in guayaquil, jaime nebot got the nod. this might speed relations up between the government and ecotec, but i wouldn´t count on it.

also visited the museum in bahía on friday. i wonderful mosh of exhibitions running from religious art (about 30 paintings of the virgen mary with christchild... almost interchangeable given their similarities), historical artefacts that included some interesting and anatomically correct ceramic offerings, as well as children´s and modern art. the prize of the tour was a trip to the roof offered by the guide from which i could see all of bahía and much of san vicente across the river. the city of bahía is very interesting, with 10 story buildings crowded around the downtown core, all of which are virtually empty and so at night they are barely visible because no lights are turned on.

saturday took us to a farm in the hills north of san vicente. juan carlos´friend owns the place and trains champion horses there for competitions. it was an interesting place, with more pigs than you can shake a stick at, a bunch of curious ostriches, a parrot, a bric-a-brac of cats and dogs, and of course the numerous horses. we took a ride into the hillside and found a small pool in the middle of a stream fed by a very small waterfall of just a foot or so. the water was wonderfully refreshing but since then we´ve all found little critters crawling around making us itch. i forget what jc called them but they´re none too pleasant. we scrubbed hard to get them off and occasionally still find one or two, but apparently we´ll survive.