the wonder of inter-city travel

a couple days before the trip to porto hondo meagan and paul came to town for a visit. they're the married couple from whitehorse living in dos mangas near manglaralto on the coast. a nice couple - both involved in environmental projects back in the yukon with experience overseas in mexico, guatemala and honduras (they've spent some time in xela where i was living when i was there - we've chatted a few times about the sights and sounds of guatemala's second city). they come into guayaquil quite a lot to buy things and unwind - dos mangas is about fifty scattered families or so a 10 minute jaunt by dilapitated truck from the manglaralto crossroads and because of its relative remoteness the people there make everyone else's business their own.

so paul and meagan dropped by and we managed to get out a couple times. the first time was a trip to the malecon and cerro santa ana where we stopped half way up and went into a restaurant for a snack. what followed happens relatively frequently - we asked if they were selling food and they called for a woman who had obviously been sleeping, to come out from the back room. she emerged and asked what we'd like. we asked for options and she basically threw a bunch of typical suggestions at us and the others (i wasn't hungry) made their picks. the woman wrote it down, turned on her heel and left the building only to return a few minutes late with a bag of food with which she then disappeared into the back room. that's life pretty much, make it up as you go along.

the second time we went out was when i met the group at a bowling alley (i told them i wasn't about to go bowling, given my intense loathing of the sport) and then we'd head out. the bowling alley was pretty intense - exactly like any back home, minus the electric scorecard hanging over the lanes. they tallied their scores (pretty sad i tell ya) and then we took off for frutabar in urdesa. this place is pretty smooth - all decked out in surf boards and weird paintings with wild colours, topped off by miscellaneous brick-a-brac hanging from the rafters. it looks like it would be a gringo heaven although such people are few and far between here. the smoothies are wonderful though - slushy concoctions 3/4 of a litre tall of such mouthwatering combinations like (my personal fav) blackberry and soursop (mora and guyabana).

anyway i told these guys that i would be making a trek out to see them - they were kind of bored on the coast and nobody had bothered to visit so i decided to see how the other half lived. jane decided to come along (long story but she had paul's bankcard) and so we decided to meet at the terminal to catch the direct bus to manglaralto at 1. after a nasty case of the runs i was late and didn't arrive till 5 to 1 (15 minutes after our settled meet time) but no sign of jane. after scurrying about she showed up as well and we settled on tickets to la libertad (where we transfer).

the bus ride itself was fine although the bodyguard (kevin costner...) was blasting out most of the way (even worse in spanish). we were hanging a left going through santa elena and saw one the buses heading north along the coast so skedaddled off the bus and managed to catch a ride to manglaralto quite easily. the drive along the coast is impressive - lots of huge complex like houses with white stucco condos spilling over the sea it looks like. swimming pools and landscaped grounds are all the rage, along with long stretches of white sand beaches broken up by random ceviche stands with huge pilsener banners.

so we arrive in manglaralto and find the road to dos mangas after asking a few people and there is a truck already waiting for us (so it seems). dos mangas? the man asks as if all the gringos who pass by were going to this isolated burg. yep, we reply and climb aboard. after picking up a few more people with bananas and a bed (sans mattress) we're off, driving through ranch type land for about 10 minutes. we arrive in dos mangas and i begin asking people if they know where meagan lives - of course everyone does but the directions - the celeste house, throw me. i'm thinking that celeste is some person and that there is another meagan, a lesbian, living in the town with her lover celeste. um, no. it seems that celeste is a nice shade of blue and the house in which they're living is blue from the waist down. silly me.

part 2 later today.