The night bus from Esmereldes

I managed to kill the rest of my time in esmereldes in a chinese restuarant, where i was finished eating and had paid after a half hour of walking in, but that didnt stop me from sitting there for 2 hours and watching bad chinese cartoons dubbed in spanish from far enough away that i couldnt here what they were saying. once the waiters started giving me really wiered looks--i had been recieving questioning looks for about an hour--i grabbed my stuff and headed to the bus station. and none to soon, as everything was beginning to close (strange, since it was only 8 or so) and i took that to mean that this is a dangerous city after dark. the bust station was just a few blocks away and i got there and sat in the uncomfortable plastic chairs for the next 2 hours reading. of course at this point i was hungry again, but had $3.50 to get me from esmereldes to canoa, a small beach town more than 10 hours--and a few buses--away. so i bought some baked good from a guy in the terminal and ate my cliff bar from back home, i now have only one left.

the bus wasnt particularly bad, but i had somebody sitting next to me, which made it harder to sleep. and of coures, 5 minutes outside of the city the police stopped up, made everybody get off and searched everything. nobody was carrying contraband, and no guns were pointed at anybody. we left and about 10 minutes later the lights in the bus were turned off so we can sleep. of course that was accompanied by ear-drum-shattering bad spanish music blasting from the speakers. i guess this was the only way the bus drivers would be able to stay awake for such a long drive (since they couldnt bring the copius amounts of cocaine i would have expected would be needed to make such a drive, because of police checkpoint). finally the turned the music down and i fell asleep. everytime i woke up however, the bus was getting hotter and hotter, and more and more humid, until i was sticky with sweat (along with the guy next to me, and everybody else). then after 5 hours of hot and humid somebody must have opened the window because i was quickly chilly and needed my jacket to keep warm.

now we were in Manta, a town similar to south beach (yes, another one) with its row of tall hotels lining the beach. i didnt even go check it out because a very helpful--and extremly excited--guy told me to get on this other bus to canoa. i took me to another town similar to manta bust smaller, were i walked along the river and hopped on a boat going to the other side. then it was another bus, and a short ride in the back of a pickup to my hostel. but its lovely here, with a private room and TV downstairs and a Wii. All right on the coast. although much of yesterday was spent inside due to the light rain and wind. unless its gets really nice by tomorrow, im outta here and headed back to quito to try a different route to peru (i was going to go down the coast, but that hasnt been what i hoped it would be: sunny skies and warm water).