Cheers to being 24!

Friday, January 16th I turned 24-years-old. It wasn't until I had to blow out the candles on my cake (which were really matches because we did not have any candles) that I realized how many years have gone by since I graduated high school and became an "adult." I left Grandview High School in 2003 and was off to figure out my future and discover the world. Now 2009, living in a different country, I am still working on discovering the mysteries of life but I am realizing just how important is is to show kindness to all and to be true to yourself. PC has been a very humbling experience.

On Friday, my PC friends that live in Manabi with me took me out to dinner and dancing to celebrate my big day. Thanks to Kristen, everyone knew it was my birthday because she gave me a sparkly crown that I had to sport around the enitre night. It dressed up my outfit. Thanks friend. ;)Saturday afternoon, my friends from my community helped me celebrate my bday. These girls are the culprits of the future cake fight. (don't let their innocent faces fool you)My friend Jennifer personalized my cake for me with my Spanish name TaliaIt is tradition to make the birthday girl take a bite of her cake before serving it to everyone. Of course, with the person's face that close to the cake, it is just too tempting not to push their face into the creamy frosted dessert. This initiated a frosting fight and before I knew it everyone was flinging cake everywhere. No one escaped the party with out leaving with chunks of white frosting in their hair.

Saturday night, my host family also made me a special birthday dinner. For dessert, we got Jello in fancy glasses and an ice cream cake! Because it is the rainy season and there are lots of bugs, we ate by candlelight.

The second time around that I was encouraged to take a bite of the cake, I was more cautious about who was behind me. I thought I had it all under control, when someone's hand (my Aunt Monce's) quickly slipped behind my head and tipped my face into the frozen cake. Instead of icing, this time I had ice cream dripping down my face. It's one of those situations that you just have to laugh about because there is no fighting the tradition.

All in all, my birthday was a day to remember and to reflect. Thanks to everyone who sent me endearing emails, letters and care packages! Even from miles away, you know how to make someone feel loved. Thank you!

Christmas in my site

Here are some more pictures of the holiday season spent in Ecuador.
After our tour of the coast, it was time to head to my site to spend Christmas with my host family.

My host family (Aunt Gladys, Me, Aunt Monce, Host Mom Cecilia and brother Joselo) with their Christmas stockings from Dan and I.People in my community are not use to getting presents for Christmas so it was fun for Dan and I toplay Santa Clause for my host-family who has taken such good care of me. As you can see, Joselo was very excited about his new Leatherman tool kit that we got him to work on his bikes. It was also fun to introduce my host family to candy canes, which they found very odd at first. (Thanks Mom for all the Christmas goodies that allowed me to share some of the classic American Christmas traditions with my friends here in Ecuador.)Dan giving lessons to Joselo and the neighbor kids on how to use the new fancy Leatherman. The boys loved Dan and continue to ask me when he will be coming back to play soccer and to show them more bike tricks.My friends in my community threw Dan and I a Christmas party! We all danced until late in the night, played interesting Ecuadorian games and ate lots of Christmas treats. One of the games we played reminded me somewhat of "Truth or Dare." Each person had to choose a balloon and pop it to find a small paper inside that disclosed the challenge/dare. Dan balloon said he had to retrieve coins from a bucket of water with his mouth, which he successfully completed after he got a nose full of water. I lucked out and was only dared to drink a small glass of beer with a spoon. Others had to put on embarrassing performances and dance in front of the group.My good friend Delia had to put on a show as if she were in a beauty queen pageant.My friend Gladys had to put limes under her armpits for 5 minutes. After the balloon game, the party continued with "Amiga Secretas, " which is equivalent to our Secret Snowman. My friend Delia got me a beautiful purse that says Ecuador on it, and I love it! I don't know what I would do with out this fabulous group of girls.

Also, during our time at my site we had a Christmas party for the kids in my community. Maria Belen was chosen to be the "Queen" of the party. (Her and her 4 year-old little brother Alvin are some of my favorite kidsand are always over at my house.)

As I have learned through planning other events and activities in my community, many things tend to run late. At the kids Christmas party, when the food was over 2 hours late, we started running out of ideas of how to keep the kids occupied. We had over 50 hipper children running around on a sugar high looking to be entertained. Someone suggested we have a "Hora Loca," which is a traditional party activity where everyone dresses up in Mardi Grass costumes and dances for an entire hour to loud energetic music. Well, the youth group I was working with happened to have a bag full of costumes that even came complete with two random clown costumes. It was perfect!

After many pleas and begging, my friends and I had convinced Dan and another friend (also male) to dress up like clowns and dance with the kids. As Dan was hesitantly slipping into the clown suit (in what I’m sure felt like 100 degree weather), I helped paint his nose and cheeks red with finger-paint. I knew it was a big favor to ask but I also knew he would soon realize what a great thing he was doing for the kids. The Christmas party would be something they would never forget. Below is the video of Dan being such a good sport and playing limbo with the group. He was so great with the kidos.

La Ruta del Sol

After our adventures in the Galapagos, we worked our way up to my site by traveling along the Ruta del Sol, which lines the Ecuadorian coast. We spent time in several different beach towns. I was slowly letting Dan adjust to the "real" Ecuadorian lifestyle vs. the fancy full service Galapagos cruise lifestyle that he had gotten use to.
Dan and I's sand sea turle that lives in Los Frailes beaches

Our ecologically friendly hotel called Alandaluz...great place and highly recommend.We had a private beach in front of Alandaluz...so peaceful

We even found a random baby sea turtle that had washed up onto the beach!

We decided to put him back on track.
(When I got back to my host family's house to share my travel stories, they asked me why I didn't bring the turtle "home." I began to laugh at the idea of traveling with a little sea turtle and then looked back at my host families faces and began to realize that I don't think they were joking...a little strange.)

Lots of little sea creatures on the beach

Fish market days are the best time to visit the fish ports...white-tip sharks, hammer heads and sword fish just to name a few.

All the birds know where to hang out if they want their meals served on a platter...poor fisherman would be carrying heavy buckets of fish on their shoulders as birds would be stealing any fish they could quickly snatch up.Venturing out to Isla de la Plata
Isla de la Plata is full of boobies

It was breading season, so we got to see hundreds of baby Blue Footed Boobies

Los Frailes....pictures don't do justice, but these beaches are considered some of the best on the whole pacific coastline.

We ate mangos for lunch, but I sadly dropped mine in the sand.
We took a motor-taxi to Los FrailesAs you can see from the line on my forehead, the motor-taxis are a fun but very dirty form of transportation.

This Christmas season was spent with a very different backdrop than I am use to. The next post will have pictures of Dan and I's Christmas in my site.

I would like to take this time to say thank you for all my warm emails and Christmas cards. Thank you for thinking of me and for showing your support. I can't begin to tell you how much I missed spending the holidays with family and friends.
...and many blessings to you all for the new year!

(To be continued...)

Sailing through the Galapagos

Well, I have finally made it back from my mini-traveling adventure around Ecuador with Dan. What an unforgettable trip! I will be posting a few different blogs but I thought I would start with the cruise!
I'm thinking you should add the Galapagos Islands to the list of things you need to see during your life time..it really is as spectacular as everyone says.We visited 7 of the 13 main islandsOur cruise ship....we had 5 different language groups on our ship (Italian, German, English, Spanish and Japanese. I think our English group lucked out with some of the best guides though. One of our guides was a native to the Galapagos Islands .)Embarking on my first cruiseWe got to take dingies from the ship to the islands. I would have loved to have taken one of those dingies out for a cruise solo. Our sun deck where saw some of the most beautiful sunsets Where we ate all of our tasty mealsThe very first day we saw a penguin!The sea lion circling our dingie boat.
The water was so clear and turquoise everywhere we went. One of the Galapagos beaches we visited as the sun was going down

Our sunset toast with the crew of the shipB-e-a-U-tiful

The infamous spitting marine iguanas, which tend to blend into the rocks so well, that some people almost accidentally stepped on them.Loving life

The sea lions where my favorite part. I couldn't get enough photos of them. I did, however, decide to spare you the sea lion photo overload. I just picked some of my favorites and then posted a video at the end of this blog.
It must have been breeding season because we saw tons of sea lion pups...so adorable.

One of the first islands we visited..Santa Cruz

The red against the black lava rock was very striking

Bartolomeo Island and the Pinnacle Rock. We climbed to the top of the volcanic cone and had a good view of the other islands along with blue footed boobies diving into the ocean for fish. Later that day, we got to do some incredible snorkeling along the island. We swam above giant sea turtles, a white-tipped shark, sting ray, a monterey, sea lions and other colorful tropical fish.
The best part about the Galapagos Islands was definitely the wild life and how close up you could get to the animals without disturbing them.
Dan teased me about how much I liked the sea lions but I know he was secretly falling in love with them too.

A spiky bundle of spitting lizzards

I loved the sea lions playful inquisitive natureSimplicityYet another one of my favorites...

It was mating season for the frigate birds. The male frigate is trying to win over a female frigate by puffing up his red gular pouch. The red pouch starts out the size of a small deflated water balloon and grows to the size of a giant watermelon. I have to say, this trip definitely got be more interested in bird watching.

On one of the last days of our cruise, we went to a big green valley where giant tortoises liked to roam. The tortoises weighed over 400lbs!Volcano tunnel

The bones of the cows who discovered the volcano tunnel
What an amazing trip! And I leave you with a video of my favorite Galapagos sea animals!