4th of July

if you haven`t checked it out so far, we highly recommend you do...
www.couchsurfing.com

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This is the way we have been traveling for the most part through Ecuador. We met Ruben in Esmeraldes through this program, and have either stayed with people he knows or couch surfers all the way along the coast. It`s a blast.
This is how we are still in Manta. We found a 64 year old American lady who happened to live 2 streets down from where we were staying previously with Leo and friends of Ruben. She doesn`t speak much Spanish at all and is from Miami. She is currently in Quito and getting ready for a trip to the galapagos. But, even though she wasn`t here, she threw a party at her house, most of which was run by her house helper and many american and ecudorian friends she has here.
For 4th of July we partied at her house, ate hamburgers, hot dogs, potatoe salad, baked beans, pahela (an ecudorian dish), jello, and cake...it was a feast. We tried to keep the American theme going with Johnny Cash music and the whole bbq. It went pretty good and Julie and I stuffed ourself until we couldn`t move any more. So we met plenty of very nice people and had a great time.
Today we took a day trip to Puerto Lopez. This is a cute little beach town much like Canoa that has some tourists but still has maintained that Ecudorian feel to it. It was a much longer bus ride than expected, but worth it. It is in a bay and is known for it`s whales and great fishing, so the ocean was filled with little boats. We walked around there, checked out the artesian booths, and ate some empenadas. Got a little confused on the ride back home because there were no direct buses, but luckily we met a really nice old man who helped us get back to Manta cheaper than getting to Puerto Lopez. We`ll try and see if we can find some couchsurfers in Puerto Lopez to maybe stay a night, if not, we`ll head to Montanita on monday and meet up with some friends. Hablemos pronto