Idolo del Ecuador

Reading: We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People by Peter Van Buren

Liga graffiti, Tumbaco

So on my return trip from Santiago, I made a pit stop at the Estadio Monumental Banco Pichincha to catch a match between one of Guayaquil's club teams, Barcelona, and Liga, a club team from Quito. Think of it as a futbol (soccer) game equivalent to a baseball game between the Yankees and the Red Socks, with Barcelona being the Yankees. I say that only because Guayaquil has a second team, Emelec, that I prefer, but it leads to a  Yankees/Mets sort of dynamic, minus the fact that Emelec is actually good.

Now, in my experience, Emelexistas tend to be true soccer fans that love "the beautiful game." Barcelona fans, on the other hand, just like to get rowdy and see soccer as an excuse to party (see the Yankees comparison). They tend to be overly obnoxious and would much rather spend their evening with a haba of cerveza, but a soccer game is a justifiable excuse. What more is, Barcelona fans have a reputation for being horrible... as in they like to through urine at their own fans when the game isn't going the way they would like it too...

How to kill 8 hours in the Guayaquil airport

Reading: Another Turn of the Crank by Wendell Berry

So my flight to Santiago by way of Lima was delayed for 8 hours and I didn't feel like leaving the air conditioned airport and braving Guayaquil. So I killed the time by...

Peruvian cebiche

1. finished typing up my very late CAT report that I had rewritten by hand thanks to the death of my computer
2. left my flash drive in yet another computer (once again it was returned and my faith was restored in people)
3. revised my CAT report
4. translated my CAT report into English to put on here late... by hand
5. wandered through all the ecua tourist trap shops
6. drank too much coffee, shakes resulted
7. spent an hour on the phone to the States
8. finally wrote, by hand, my success story for Amanda
9. read, obviously
10. exhausted the music trivia game on my ipod
11. Where's Waldo postcard - still can't find the wizard
12. people watched
13. listened to the entire Rilo Kiley/Jenny Lewis discography
14. free sudokus in the newspapers
15. made this lame list

On a side note, peruvian cebiche is so much more legit than ecua ceviche. Just sayin'

Kraft Quinoa y Queso

Reading: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Let me just start this off with the fact that up until coming to Ecuador, my life, in terms of food has been fantastic.

That is to say, I grew up with parents that are excellent cooks and raised on fresh produce with minimal junk food. Perhaps this factored into my college days, when I became a bona fide foodie. Most people talk about their college days of Ramen noodels and boxed mac & cheese...