I met someone right before I left who said, “Oh, the food in Ecuador is wonderful!” Now, people say that about Spain and I wholeheartedly disagree (I don´t like jamon, so I´m sort of screwed), but here the food is pretty delicious. Right now we´re on the coast, so we´re chowing down on super fresh, super delicious seafood. Ceviches, langostinos, conchas … and tons of rice. They serve a massive heap of rice with every meal, along with some fried plantains that they call verdes–greens. There´s also an amazing variety of fruits, and juices of them all are available for $1 a pop. Frutilla, Borojo, Yemi, Metey, Guabana, Azaza … what?! Crazy and delicious.

I also love empanadas, and thought they were more Ecuadorian than it turns out they are. However, we found an awesome restaurant run by an Ecuadorian who moved to the States and spent like twenty years there before returning (does that make him an ex-pat? he has dual-citizenship …), and he made me the most amazing empanadas filled with fresh veggies from his garden. The next morning, he had his chefs make us humitas, a traditional Ecuadorian tamale-type thing but the masa is mixed with eggs as well. ¡Que sabroso! He also steamed me a bag of veggies, since I was already craving them … that´s not very Ecuadorian of me.

The fashion, however, disappoints. I equated it to my brother as what we wore in 1995, but smaller and tighter when it shouldn´t be. In the bigger cities it´s a little better, but Ecuador is not fashion-forward. That said, tonight I bought an awesome necklace and ring carved from coconut from a street vendor. Here they look like touristy souveniers, but at home, they´ll look like world-traveler finds. Just what I´m going for. It´s not like I look all that much better–I´ve showered once in the past four days!

My brother and I are in Atacames, a busy, crowded, lively beach city. The strip of bars and restaurants is literally on the beach, so we can´t wait to dance in the clubs next to the waves. Off I go!