Back to Reality...

Well Ecuador, in case you were wondering, was wonderful. Guayaquil, Ecuador is considered the economic center of the country. But it was a little strange though, as I definitely felt like I was taking a miniature trip back to the US. The currency is the US dollar, and there are many US businesses there including Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, Payless Shoes, and many others as well. Payless was a special treat for me and here's why: Peruvians in general are short people with small feet. I am not a short person, nor do I have small feet. What this normally means is that I cannot ever go shoe shopping here. Not without being ridiculed about my giant feet by peruvians with much smaller feet anyway, so I usually just avoid that mess all together. However, when I went to Ecuador, and found a Payless Shoe Source, I went directly to the size 10 section, and tried on every pair of shoes in my size. Not to buy them of course, but just to be reminded that the world really does make shoes in my size. It was nice.

I took over 200 pictures, there. It was nice to be a tourist. When I'm in Peru, I do my best to never look like a tourist, but since I was actually going to be a tourist in Ecuador, I figured it wouldn't be a problem to let my hair down a little, and whip out the old camera every 15 steps. I've posted all my pictures to my flickr account, you can view them by clicking on the flickr banner on the right side of my blog. It was a wonderful trip, very renewing (again, visas and spirits-wise). On top of that, when I was leaving, I definitely realized that I was ready to go home to Trujillo. I liked Ecuador, but I wouldn't want to live there. Sometimes, it's nice to get away to get your bearings about where you should be.