protests and strikes, but i made it!

hey all,

i write this from the studios of HCJB-2 in Guayaquil, Ecuador. it´s about 10 hour busride south of Quito, and is quite a lot warmer. i´m here in Guayaquil until Sunday... purpose of this trip... visit my friend´s sponsor child from Children International, and do some adventuring while im at it.

the original plan was to bus down here overnite... last nite...but yesterday in the afternoon, i was informed, after watching the news, that there is a nation wide bus strike that is going to start on Monday Nov. 21. however, the strikes have already started in Guayaquil, Cuenca, and the province of Loja. go figure...! i tried to go every route i could without taking a plane cos i just didn´t wanna have to pay...but in the end, the safest, most sure way was to grab a plane with AeroGal. im quite impressed with this airline...the logo sorta reminded me of Canadian Airlines. i left Quito at 8:10am and arrived Guayaquil at 8:50pm. what a short ride, AND they served us breakfast...that was second breakfast for me.

i first thot i´d be in Guayaquil all by myself, but things have been changing by the hours since yesterday! i flew in with a guy from Angel, an accountant for HCJB, and am also here with Allen, director of radio in Quito. tomorrow, Edison, my buddy in internet department is coming down as well to do some tech stuff here... AND not to forget James and his volleyball team. what a blessing to have people that i know here! things jus sorta kept on unfolding and they kept on getting better and better.

the drive thru the city from the airport to the studios of HCJB was an interesting experience. i felt like i was in a hybrid of Seattle & Singapore & California all at the same time. Guayaquil is on the coast, so there´s a lovely boardwalk all over - sorta like Pike's Pier in Seattle, but the open stores, and street vendors remind me of singapore...cos they´re CLEAN places. AND there are palm trees everywhere...don´t see that too often in Quito, cept for at the Marriot. im telling you, Quito is very much like Vancouver. people speak here with a completely different spanish accent than Quito...it´s a little bit difficult to understand, so i was practicing with my family last nite. i suppose it´s the same as a westcoaster trying to talk to an eastcoaster in canada. i heard from some people that´s it´s really difficult to understand people from Newfoundland.

i think i MAY be heading back here on Nov.30 to work...i´ll be helping out with an annual radio sharathon. because HCJB-2 in guayaquil is much smaller than Quito, they need all the help they can get. not confirmed yet, but pretty sure.

what else... im hot.... k, well, it´s not THAT hot..but it is humid, and i don´t function well in heat. i wanna just lie on my bed like a kitty kat and not do anything. but alas, i meet the sponsorchild in half an hour so i should go get ready..

tonite, allen, angel and i are gonna meet up with James (he´s somewhere else on the otherside of Guayaquil!) and take a stroll in Malecon, the famous boardwalk sector of Guayaquil.

if you guys happen to know of anything interesting or exciting i should check out, lemme know before sunday at 3pm your time!

more soon,
dL