Carmen and Norwegian volunteer, Eirine. She has BEAUTIFUL sketchbooks and inspired me to draw in my journal more. We drank cocoa and painted on the balcony and listened to jazz. Meeting some of the most fascinating people! How is this world so so big and at the same time so itty bitty small?
This is a dead puffy fish:( right now I feel kind of like this boy because I spent 6 hours today trying to get an “eco/ ultrasonido”. I went to a neighboring city by bus and then couldn’t find the hospital. Finally got there and talked to some people who wanted me to have a written referral. Tried to walk to a clinic but it was closed so I walked back and waited in the ER. However my condition was not an emergency so they couldn’t treat me there. I was tired and a little in pain and frustrated butttt this secretary guy came along and asked me what I needed. I told him I just wanted to make sure I don’t have appendicitis and he said why don’t you just do an ultrasound? I followed him to the pregnancy ward and he just did the test right there for me. He showed me what it would look like if my appendix were inflamed/ vs. mine from the screen (healthy)! Sooo I’m alll goooood(:!! I have antibiotics for a bladder infection probably and they are reallly helping. No more sleeping on the balcony and watching robbers with baseball bats and ski masks. Thank goodness the old security guard got fired and we have a new dude on a motorbike. I will miss late night chats with the old one even though he sucked at his job and wore a Disney Snuggie to work.
I HATE THIS TUTTI FRUTTI VOMIT POWDER
After 8 hours on the night bus… a wacky experience for a couple reasons… we have arrived in our new home on the coast. Bienvenidos a Canoa! There are about 4-6k local residents here and the resto are tourists (like us). However it is off season right now and the sun is rarely out:( despite daily temperatures of 70-80 Fahrenheit. Our boss, Ross, is from the EEUU and our job would have been cooking vegetarian dinners, although business is slow in October and Ross is having us paint instead! He heard that we were interested in art and he had a vision for the bar/ restaurant area of the hostel to be like sitting in a rainforest canopy. I will post more pictures later, but the daily schedule is somewhat like wakey, eat some free brefkast, start painting until we can’t do. It. Anymore. (we are painting a ceiling and our necks are constantly crackling from staring upwards for 6 hours every day). Carm and I usually break for lunch or a beer and walk to the ocean or go shopping for dinner. Today we bought carrots (x2), peppers (x2), one onion, lime (x2), and three fatty beets for $1. We made rice and stir fried the veggies in our weird orange oil. It gives everything we eat a very orange tint because it has achiote fruit extract. Also I ran across the street to find SALSA PICANTE because have I MENTIONED the lack of spices around here???? Seafood (enconadas, ceviches, and cazuelas seem to be flavored extremely well) but aside from this the only hot sauce we can find is this racist “oriental”/ “salsa de China” stuff that I put on most of my meals. It doesn’t actually taste like anything except heat. There is ají sauce which is DANK but rare here on the coast.
Our hostel is across the street from the Pacific Ocean and the beach is lined with open air Cabañas that pretty much have the same menus: seafood, omelettes, rice, smoothies. Carmen and I have access to a dangerous, but nevertheless functioning, camp stove and REFRIGERATOR! So we have been trying to cook a lot and save money here. We spend the majority of our days painting and listening to audiobooks/ podcasts. Once the sun goes down (6:30pm ish) we read, watch movies in Spanish, journal, play with beach dogs and chat with boys on bikes around the skatepark. There are no girls here (except the 70 year olds that sell fruit and juice). More on this to come.
Today a woman from Alabama offered to pay us to paint her house but I doubt we will have time:( These trees are taking a hot sec and Ross wants them exactly like he pictured in his mind… next year if we have more time maybe we can just paint things around South America. So far we’ve met some UN workers, Fullbright scholars, trash/ sustainable architects, teachers, backpackers (duh), tattoo artists, and deejays of a plethora of nationalities and backgrounds.
More on Canoa pronto!! Up next: storage closets, puppies, itchy skin, and pb and j to go
Chao pescao🦀
Inspired by street art of the city and flora/ fauna of the selva. Felt so meaningful to leave this at the Secret Garden. Will seriously miss this magical place and beautiful family of people. Thank you for the INCREDIBLE life experiences and all that I learned here. It will not be forgotten<3<3 Besos y abrazossss
Carmen and I are gathering inspiration for our mural. I’ll post the final outcome once we uh finish it uh we are running out of timeeee
Spent the day with Alisson taking two fascinating tours (in Spanish) of the Museo de Guayasamín and accompanying Capillo del Hombre (the artist’s house). Mind blowing and emotional work from local Quiteñan artist depicting the struggles of humanity all over South America and other parts of the world (Middle East, Asia, and Africa too). Oswaldo Guayasamín was of Mestiza and Kichwa decent and lived from 1919-1999. He was one of 10 children and enjoyed art his whole life. He attended art school in Quito but really blossomed from influences like Picasso and political figures like Fidel Castro. He typically uses intense colors to paint naked, malnourished figures with prominent hands and eyes. His earlier works significantly changed the way people viewed racism and human suffering all over the world generating massive responses from the public as well as many international governments. Guayasamín’s later works tend to depict children and use bright colors demonstrating hope for the future of our planet.
Went to Mindo w/ my love (C Park). We stayed in a beautiful jungle hostel for the night and saw butterflies and ate chocolate! Everyone was so cute and really prioritizes la naturaleza (organic quinoa drinks and hummingbird murals everywhere). More videos and photos to come from our lovely lil getaway adventure (really lil actually because only 4,000 people live in this rainforesty town).
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