Well to continue our "keener, learn everything possible" attitude, David and I enrolled in more spanish classes upon arriving in Cuenca. We did 8 hrs of class and were invited to the school's end of the year celebration. It was great fun! Ecuadorians really know how to party! They had bought about 12 bottles of this fermented sugar cane alchohol called Zumhir... it was fantastic! The only thing about it was that David still had a stomach flu from Montanita and it hurt him to eat or drink anything but they didn't care at all, just kept pouring the delightful drink down Dave's throat.
I feel like I should take a break in my blog here and explain something.... I know you're all thinking pooooooor David, sick with the stomach flu... but really... his daily routine is, "let's go eat some sketchy meat on the street" then he gets sick and can't eat for 3 days... then once he's had me run around for him enough and cater to his every need, he starts to feel a little bit better, makes his way to KFC or some other fast food joint and fills up on the greasiest thing that they have to make up for the days where he couldn't eat or had to eat my cooking...
Anyways, back to new year's... In Cuenca, they celebrate the New Years by making a paper mannequin of someone and then burn them on the 31st, it's supposed to burn all the previous year’s bad things that they have done and prepare them for the new year. We made two mannequin on our last day of school, one of the president and one of one of the teachers at the school. The school had their party a day earlier as it was closed on the actual holiday so we were all invited to join in on the celebration. It was pretty crazy. It didn`t take us long to realize that it was just an excuse for the teachers to get absolutely pissed when our teacher came up to us and inquired if it was alright if we skipped our 8am class the following morning! We let it slip after hours of limbo, shots of Zhumir and lighting our mannequins up in between 2 parked cars!
On the real new year`s eve we planned to cook a huge meal with our new best friends, Digs, Mel & Clark and a few other friends we had made at the hostel. I had a blast choosing out a few recipes and then making my way to the market and bargain over random ingredients which I mostly had no idea if they were even the right thing! The meal was a great success though, we ate on top of the rooftop terrace and Dave set off fireworks as we enjoyed our meal. Afterwards we all headed downstairs to the family room, played a few games, ate some chocolate fondue and then booked it out to the streets for more lighting of mannequins on fire!!! David set off more fireworks and we both sprayed everyone with champagne on the stroke of midnight! It was awesome, except for my dress is now ruined!!! After hours of us dancing around the fire we started to make our way to the club when we walked by a group of little girls. They grabbed my hands and started to dance with me! Not going to lie, this part of my night was for sure the highlight, they were so cute and even though my dance moves weren’t the smoothest after hours of drinking games and champagne sipping they thought I was the female Michael Jackson (or so I thought at the time) It was sooo much fun! Slowly our friends started to drift away to the club and soon enough David was the only one waiting for me…. The girls and I had our typical Boychuck group hug goodbye which only took 15 mins and then met up with our friends at a club on the river front. Met lots of locals and danced the night away!
When we awoke in the morning we decided it was time to move on to another location, Mancora Peru was calling our names! Mel, David and I made our way to the bus station to purchase our ticket. The rest of the day consisted of movie watching and I will be proud to say that I made everyone in our entire hostel watch Step Up!!! No one was happy about it but I still think it changed all of their lives!
The following morning we had to wake up at 6:00am to make it to our bus. It was a long bus ride but well worth it when we arrived. Mancora was glorious!!! Picture a beach town in the desert, never rains, always perfect weather, tons of restaurants, shops and hotels, it was awesome! The first few nights we stayed at a hostel off the beaten track but then booked ourselves into a beautiful hostel which was more like a resort, called Loki! Unfortunately it was fully booked so Dave and I had to stay in a dorm. Normally this would be OK but we had a pretty unique experience in our room. It all happened on the eve of the 4th of Jan 2011. David and I were exhausted after a day of lounging on the beach so decided to have a nice relaxing Tuesday evening and go up to our room and watch a little bit of Dexter on our laptop before going to bed. First off, that idea was impossible as our room was located directly above a club and the bass was pounding so loudly that it was tough to concentrate. This blarring salsa music continued until the club shut down at 3am. We were finally able to shut our eyes when we heard some pounding on the door. I got up let our roommates in and jumped back into bed. We found out soon enough that only one of the individuals was our real roommate and lucky as we so often are, they chose the bed within arms reach of us to have their special night. Man was it romantic. I don`t know if you have ever been in a similar situation but I would have to say it was the most awkward thing I have ever had to be a part of. Digs had leant me his IPod the night before and I have never been more grateful for anything in my entire life!! Dave wasn`t so lucky… he was directly beside the couple and if any of you know David, you can imagine his face change color, his anger veins form and his fists whiten. I was incredibly proud of him at this point because I realised that all our hard work in Spanish class had paid off as he proceeded to politely ask if the couple could please be aware that they were in a dorm and that there were plenty of other hostels with private rooms, or a shower or balcony that they were welcome to use… They didn`t listen… Again they went at it… Again David asked them to stop in Spanish… the guy finally sat up and said, "Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it!" hahaha still makes me laugh! We both just tore into him after that!! A few hours later when the sun started to come up, David and I packed our bags and made our way to the front desk to demand a private room. Our next night was A LOT nicer! We met a ton of great people at Loki and went out on the town with a big group of them! One night after hours of flippy cup I meet a guy from Lima outside the bar and tried Bull's heart! He didn't tell me what it was until I had finished eating the entire scewer!!! Even though I was sooo grossed out, I can't lie, it was the best meat I've ever had!
We left Mancora as different people... saw and heard things people should never have to experience... We have learned many life lessons, mainly to avoid dorm rooms at all costs but we left on a possitive note and will miss the desert beach deeply!
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