TORI'S TRAVELS: My life's a beach

Why, hi there. Things are going amazingly well here in Ecuador. I love the family I live and learn with, I love my sweet new fellow mentor, I love the fact that Daylight Savings doesn't exist in this country––so many good things. I can't believe I only have TWO MONTHS before heading back to Jersey!

A few weeks ago,we all piled in the car and left the mountains behind, spending the weekend in a lovely little coastal town. A note on driving. I've driven in Philadelphia, Rome, Paris––nothing is as crazy as Ecuador. Basically…ANYTHING GOES. Stop where you want, go where you want, pass where you want, speed where you want. It's total anarchy! Cars fly around blind turns shrouded in thick clouds like YOLO.

At first I was terrified, clutching the steering wheel with such intensity I was in danger of giving myself CTS. I kept my eyes glued to the road, ignoring the viridescent cloud forests flashing by. Obviously, looking at the road while driving is a pretty good philosophy for any scenario––even in my farmland hometown in Jersey––but it is especially smart when driving around sharp turns in the Andes. Why? Remember how I said anything goes? Well, that applies to which lane you drive in, too. Several times, coming around a curve, I had to hit my brakes because a car was flying directly towards me! Crazy, right?

The good news is that I survived, and after five hours of motor anarchy, I stepped out of the car to bask in that glorious thing called humidity.

Well, the humidity wasn't so great when the elevator broke and we had to repeatedly hike up seven flights of stairs to our condo. The view was worth the climb, though. (Um, in retrospect.) After living high up in the Andes for so many months, the tropical air was so warm, thick and moist I felt like it might get stuck in my lungs. 

At the beach, I didn't get sunburnt, go swimming in the ocean, or build any sandcastles. I did buy one of those floppy sun hats I've always wanted, see a magnificent frigatebird for the first time, and taste several delicious local foods (chifles are my new weakness).