COCO LOCO

I thought this dude who worked at the internet place hated me but my constant need to get my facebook fix just landed me a lil cherry-flavored candy. i will use this moment to confess my sins and never talk foul about his oddly shaped Ecua-fro ever again.

anywayysss...a couple weeks ago leading up to Easter was "semana santa"- the Roman Catholic holy week. To me, this seemed to mean the people from the mountains headed to the coast to get drunk and ride around on a giant light-up caterpillar for 8 bucks a person.

We escaped the madness Friday night to Punta Gorda where Ramon (one of the branches of the Planet Drum family) has a little house high up on a hill above a secluded beach. The house is just a one-roomed log cabin on stilts with a couple bunkbeds and a basin for recycled rain water that he built himself. Crafty guy. The house served as a great point for Sarah's new hobby as bird watcher, I'm sure. (Sidenote: She continues in her previous passion of hand-dancing)

Ramon's friend Jose was in town from Prauge and joined the other Planet Drummers for the weekend. He reminded Andy of Benicio del Toro's character in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", aka the crazed Latino always hopped up on something and as I observed Jose in his boxer briefs refilling a coconut with caña, screaming "COCO LOCO!" and demanding more rolling papers, I saw Andy's point.

During the day we hunted for oysters, prying them off rocks and busting them open with hammers and big iron sticks. At one point I grabbed a shoe and dove face-first into the sand to trap an unlucky panicked crab. I watched Jose jam a stick into the lil crabby's belly and the yellowish-brown goo run out. I decided he couldn't go to waste and ate him raw after squeezing some lime on him.
It was not the most delicious thing I've eaten in Ecuador.

Night fell and out popped billions of stars I didn't even know existed. We built ourselves a bonfire on the beach and had some wonderful sing-a-longs. The older English couple, Jane and Simon, brought some gems to the table, but I prefer Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee" not sung like it was a classic English proverb sung in a choir. Glory Glory Hallejuela on the other hand has never sounded better.

These new volunteers are hilariously English. There we were in the middle of no where and they are looking for brush to build a fire so they can have their tea at tea time. No bloody crumpets though. Bollocks.

Back in Bahia Saturday night there was a concert near the beach where the Planet Drummers served as some type of bizarre gringo freak show as we all got down real hard with our lanky white folk dances amongst the suave salsa and meregue. We busted out some classics like the soul train and some limbo though. Not the biggest hits however. All in all, it was a good six hours of dancing...capped off with hands down the best hamburger I've had in my life. Yea yea I've had Kopps & Solly's in Milwaukee and Matt's in Minne.
The hamberguesa man's name is Guaña and he pulls up next to a playground in his burger-bicylce cart to serve the intoxicated citizens of Bahia the greatest drunchie of their lives. There is a legit facebook fan club for him and his delcious late-night treats.

I would like nothing more than to make this man my husband.