grace like an ocean: time flies?

So, it's been another few weeks and I have been so incredibly busy with schoolwork and traveling that my blog completely slipped my mind. I'm catching up now though, I promise.

The weekend after John was here, I went to the beach for a few days. It was definitely an adventure. I went with Amanda and a friend of hers named Roni who is from Australia and works in Quito. Roni goes to this beach- Muisne and Mompiche- every single weekend, so she has connections. We took a night bus (you can sleep in theory) and got to Muisne at about 7:30 am. Muisne is a tiny island and is absolutely beautiful except for the trash EVERYWHERE. We went to visit a friend of Roni's named Alex, who is currently petitioning the government for funds so that he and his volunteers can start cleaning up the beaches. We ate breakfast with him- halfway through breakfast, we were told that we were eating octopus. It was a little early for that.

From Muisne, we took another bus to Mompiche, which is a tiny town directly on the beach. It was incredible to be in such a remote place- we were literally driving through the jungle (we hitched a ride on a banana truck!) and then all of a sudden the ocean was in front of us. We spent the weekend barefoot, drinking pineapple smoothies, and relaxing. We also walked to la Playa Negra (Black Beach), which was absolutely breathtaking.

The weekend of Halloween, I went to Canoa with a girl from Michigan, a girl from Norway, and a guy from Ecuador.We drove in a car, which was a very nice change from taking the bus! We had Nov. 2 & 3 off of classes because Nov. 2nd is the Day of the Dead, which is a national holiday. We spent a day in Bahía de Caraquez, a nearby town. We didn't do much, just ate a lot of seafood, did a lot of dancing, and swam in the Pacific Ocean. On the way home, we stopped at a couple cemeteries to see the Day of the Dead festivities. It's a happy holiday: families gather to go to the graveyard and light candles and pray for their relatives, then return home and eat guaguas de pan and drink colada morada.

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks!