Ecuador, Ama la vida!

What a joy it is to be in Ecuador. I can't believe that I'm here for work. It has been quite an adventure in so many regards. I'm back in Montanita after passing a week in Guayquil and Cuenca. Fausto and I ran around the city filling out paperwork and talking with government officials about becoming licensed exporters. It is a suprisingly streamlined affair, if you know what your doing. Thankfully Fausto is studying International Business so he's been the man of the week. We topped off all of our hard work by going to a natural hotspring off the beaten path in an area of mountains called Los Soldados (The soldiers) We drove our way up a windy dirt road in a valley following a river, until the vista opened up into mountains soaring above our heads with rocks jutting out like... soldiers. The paramo, the high altitude plains is ethereal. We didn't quite make it but the valley just disapeared into the endless vista of rolling hills. The hotspring was right next to the river, and our view held the mountains, rocks and paramo all with only the turn of our heads. We went with a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in four years, Inel, from France, she was an exchange student when I was and is now studying tourism in Cuenca. As well as a woman from Switzerland who is staying with Fausto and studying Spanish. We sat in the waters for ours talking and taking in the beautiful scenery, it was astounding. The speed of the clouds, passing in front of the sun and changing the light every so often kept the soldiers in constant motion. The owner of the hotsprings came down and asked us to pay the nominal fee of $1 each. He told us some tall talls about 16 meter anacondas, cows producing 70 liters of milk and other stories that were pretty interesting. 

Staying with Fausto and his family was great, living with a family is always interesting. His mother is so accomodating and was happy to see me.When Fausto was in class I wandered around Cuenca looking for tasty things to eat and interesting people to talk to. I had more flashbacks staying with his family, eating together and hanging out than I've had yet. Eating different foods that I used to love, like ripe plantain with a slice of cheese in it, or Morocho the drink made from corn. Has elicited waves of memories of my life back in Quito. I look forward to staying with my family in Quito before I come back to the states.

Today a woman told me that my accent still is from Quito. She's from Quito and couldn't get over how much I still had the accent. It's so funny that people know the city where I learned spanish because of my accent.

All is well and swell, I still can't believe I'm here "working!"

I'm an international model, say what?

I arrived in Ecuador the evening of the 7th, Fausto, who stayed in our house five years ago met me at the airport in Guayaquil and we went directly to Montanita. As soon as we walked into town we bumped into my buddy Riley who had been traveling for the last three months. Another friend, from Germany who was an exchange student when I was also happened to be in montanita at the same time. It was a night of reunions, seeing Fausto and Leo after four years and the juxtiposition of seeing Riley in Ecuador was almost too much to deal with. Even after traveling for almost 28 hours  from leaving Ashland to getting to Montanita I was energized to hang out with everyone.  Fausto and I quickly found a hostal, showered, ate and met everyone to go out.
The next day, Fausto and I were sitting out on the street side eating a set lunch. Here in Ecaudor one can get a meal from $1.50 to $3.00 usually, it comes with rice, lentils or beans, a piece of meat and soup usually. We were going to town on our chicken when two women approached us and asked if they could sit down at our table. We told them that we were almost finished and they said that they wanted to talk with us. They asked if I would model for them in a video in an hour. They said that they'd pay me $100, so I of course said sure.
We went back to our hotel, showered, took a nap and they picked us up. We went to another part of the beach where they took the video above. Pretty funny, I had a hard time keeping a straight face sometimes, I couldn't believe that on my second day in Ecaudor I was modeling. It sure wasn't what I was imagining!
When everything was finished they asked if I could come to Guayquil the net weekend to be in a runway walk. I did, on Saturday I spent all day at the location sitting around until we finally got to walk. It was a great experience, now I can say I've modeled.  It's a crazy world, shallow and superficial, but another interesting experience worth sharing.

San Francisco Airport

Hello everyone,

I'm back! and off on another adventure. I'm sitting in the SFO airport after being delayed on my flight to Houston. I've been meaning to write for a long time but finally I have no ecuse. Ecuador here I come, it's been two years since my brief visit and adventure to find the woven baseball caps. Four years since I was there as an exchange student. Now, I've got five weeks to figure out the logistics and reality of importing these hats into the USA. My godfather Cedar and I are very excited about the possibilities of these hats. While I'm in Ecaudor I hope to be picking up my blog where I left off.
I thought that India was an adventure, being back in the USA took it to a whole new level. Being sick, living at home again, and reacclimating to the USA was quite an adventure itself. I took off and tried to fly right out of highschool but I came back to earth pretty quickly. Now I hope to continue my way as a wanderer, and possibly make some money doing it!?

Alex