It has been a few weeks since I've last added a post.  School has been going pretty well.  We just finished up our MAP testing.  The students will take the test in the middle of the year and at the end of the year again.  I have been keeping pretty busy.  Every Tuesday, our bike group rides up into the hills.  Wednesday is soccer day.  It's fun to play and every game I get a little closer to being in soccer form.  Last weekend, we went to a soccer game.  It is called the clasico.  There are two professional soccer teams in Guayaquil.  The clasico is when they play against each other.  The stadium was enormous!  The atmosphere was very interesting.  I have a few pictures and a short video of the experience.  This weekend, we had a guy's night which was a lot of fun.  Thanks to a few friends, I tried sushi for the first time here and they showed me the most wonderful thing.  The video stores are amazing.  DVD's (pirated of course) cost 3 for $5. There are even some places that charge $1 a piece.  You can find anything and everything that you could ever want, including movies that have not been released to DVD yet.  I'm really excited for the next couple weekends.  This coming weekend, I've decided to take a trip to Cuenca.  It is a colonial city in the mountains.  I plan on walking around, checking out a soccer game, and most importantly, trying cuy.  Cuy is a traditional indigenous dish that people have eaten for years and years.  Cuy is guinea pig, that is usually roasted.  The weekend after Cuenca is the big biking trip down Volcano Cotopaxi (the highest active volcano in the world) and Laguna Quilotoa.  I'm really excited.

Saturday had me wondering if I was part of some new Jurassic Park movie.  I went into Guayaquil to see some of the attractions.  The first place that I started was the Iguana Park.  It was pretty surreal. Iguanas were everywhere!  I've seen iguanas before, but never this many and never this up-close and personal.  They would walk around and not pay any attention to the people.  Pigeons would land on them, which didn't seem to bother them one bit.  They were all over the place.  The trees were completely full of them.  They definitely weren't small.  There were some pretty large and in charge iguanas.  


















After I had my fill of iguanas, I walked to the Malecón.  It was the third time that I had been there, but the first time that I actually spent some time there.  It is the boardwalk that runs alongside the river.  There are playgrounds, lookouts, and lots of food.  If you follow the Malecón, it leads you to a very colorful neighborhood called Las Peñas.  It was pretty cool.  To get to the very top, you walk up more than 430 stairs.  The view from the top really shows how big and spread out Guayaquil is.  After doing all that, it was time for a well deserved beer and ceviche!


Everything else is going well.  I'm adjusting more and more to the school and the curriculum.  Still not quite fully adjusted to waking up so early.


It's about a month away, but I can't wait for a trip that we planned for October.   We're going on a bike tour outside of Quito.  We'll start at 15,000 feet on the slopes of Volcano Cotopaxi and bike down to about 7,000.  We'll also be going to a crater lake that is supposed to be amazing.  That Saturday, Ecuador plays Uruguay for World Cup qualifying.  I am really hoping that it works out for us to go.


If you have time, check out my youtube video of my photos with voice over.  CHEERS!





Here is the link to my photos from this weekend (same as the slideshow):
Guayaquil Pictures

This weekend started out interesting. On Friday, I was teaching Science and all of the sudden everyone felt a shaking sensation and a bit of noise. I experienced my first earthquake while teaching. It was very small and didn't last but a few seconds. I've checked the US Geological Survey site and it isn't even listed. The worst thing that it did was move water bottles. Nonetheless, it was interesting and an experience that I have never had before. I left Friday after school to go to Montañita to spend the night and then off to Puerto Lopez the next day to go whale watching and to go to Isla de la Plata. Humpbacks are in the middle of their migratory pattern, and were easy to find. I was very fortunate to be on the correct side of the boat to get a perfect view. It was pretty amazing. I couldn't believe how easily we found them. I got some pretty good pictures. However, in typical Jeremy form, I missed the most spectacular shot. A whale breached, with a whole half of its body out of the water. What was I doing? Playing with my camera, of course. It looked like one of those old Prudential commercials . . . just stunning. I feel priveledged just being able to see it. I do plan on doing it again (and again), so maybe next time. From there, we went to Isla de la Plata. Some guide books refer to it as "the poor man's Galapagos".

It was a little rough where the whales were. In this particular trip, I went by myself. So, I decided to take the earliest bus from Montañita on Sunday. I left at 5 o'clock in the morning and got back around 7.

Montañita is the type of town where people were still out and about from the night before as I was leaving on the morning bus. Everything else is going well. I am meeting some very nice and interesting people. I'm enjoying the school and the students, but at the same time I really miss my old school, friends, and student population.

Here is a link to the rest of my pictures of whale watching and the island:

Pictures of Whale Watching/Isla de la Plata

I thought that I would give everyone an idea of where I live. I live in a gated community outside of Guayaquil. My neighborhood is called Puerto Azul. The school where I will be teaching at is also inside Puerto Azul. The neighborhood is nice, but the thing that I was most impressed with has been the school itself. The campus is gorgeous. There are tons of green space and the grounds are impeccable. There are flowers, shrubs, and palm trees. My future classroom is in an amazing position. It is located above the library and lined with windows that look out over the campus. My apartment/condo is really nice. It is way more room than I could possibly use. It is set up in a horseshoe configuration. It has two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, and a small living room. Both the living room and my bedroom overlook the pool and barbeque area. Guayaquil is a hard city to describe. It is beautiful and eye-opening in different instances. I'll explain it further once I've experienced it more. For now, here is a video of my place with a few photos. Enjoy and take care!!

I'm not exactly sure how to start a blog. However, with less than a week before I leave, I thought that I would give it a shot. For those who don't know, I will be flying to Guayaquil, Ecuador on Monday August 3rd to teach fourth grade for two years. I can now say that my bags are packed. Two duffel bags of 50 pounds a piece and a carry-on backpack sit at my doorstep. They serve as a constant reminder that the time is approaching. It is definitely a strange feeling. In the past, I would be gone for three months at a time. I always looked forward to each trip without any hesitation or nervousness. This experience has seemed to be a bit different. I am very anxious, excited, and at this moment, a bit nervous. Just a month ago, August 3rd seemed to be a date that would never be realized. It was so far away, that it didn't seem real. Then, time, as it seems to do, flew by. Now, with less than a week left, time seems to be frozen. I'm having a difficult time figuring out what I need to do before I go. So, my time seems to be in limbo. There are many unknowns that I am excited to figure out. Writing this post, I've come to realize that I am definitely more anxious than anything. It has been a great summer, the first summer that I've spent in the states for a while. I've had the chance to spend time with family and friends, which I've enjoyed a lot. My next post will either be right before I leave or when I arrive in Guayaquil and figure out my internet. Cheers!