Something Especial

Sometimes you have one of those nights.  One of those nights where you seem drift outside of your body, hover over to a popcorn machine and sit in a plush recliner to watch the scene you are participating in as it unfolds before you.

We just had one of those nights.

Our first day in Guayaquil consisted of investigating the best way to visit the Galapagos.  In fact, we debated whether we even needed to go that far since the first city park we happened upon had enough Iguanas to satisfy my reptilian curiosity (or so I thought at the time).  Don't believe what your parents tell you kids, Iguanas DO grow on trees:

It's crazy yo, they're like the pigeons of Guayaquil.  The best part was, as I was snapping pic after pic of these gigantorasauruses, the locals were doing the same with squirrels.  Squirrels!  Bizarroland.

After we left the park we went to see our friend Fernando who we had met 30 minutes prior at Centro Viajero travel agency.  We had compared a few options elsewhere, but we returned to Fernando cuz we thought he had a nice face and he had offered us a beer.  Tough sell I know.  5 beers later, we wound up in the living room of the travel agency owner, Douglas (aka Doogie Doogie), a delightful lunatic who made us Chinese food and gave us more beers.  Then Fernando's wife Stephania shows up and they all decide they are taking us to Fernando's hometown of Pedro Carbo, a suburb about an hour away.

Relying on the kindness of strangers, off we go.  Jesse, brave soul, had posted up in the backseat with DD who had brought a bottle of "Something Special" for the long ride.  That is not a euphemism, it's the actual name of the whiskey.  60 minutes later, there we are, in the teensy village of Pedro Carbo with maybe 7 streets, none of them paved.  We pull up to Fernando's humble abode and are greeted by his whole extended family, 10 or so adorable kids...nieces, nephews, and Fernando's 2 year old son, Benjamin.  Into the van we all pile and headed out to a delicious dinner at the local grill.  We also happened to be in Pedro Carbo the night before Mother's Day and they had a local Carnival to celebrate.  It had the sketchiest ferris wheel I have ever seen in real life, jimmy-rigged to a lawnmower motor and tied together with rope.  Naturally we had to ride it.



Survival of the fittest, but it wasn't over yet.  We were whisked off yet again to the local discoteca where Jesse was harassed by go-go dancers calling out his every awesome dance move over loudspeaker. According to Fernando, we were the first Gringos to ever go to this town, and it did not go unnoticed with the locals.

Around 4am or so we finally made it back to Guayaquil for 4 hours of sleep before catching our bus to Montanita.  Did that really just happen?  On our first night here?  Hang on to your hats and glasses, cuz this here's the wildest ride in the wilderness.