The triumphant return of a gringa to Ecuador

I have returned! To the country of love. My love, at least, and I have been reunited with Raul, after many (three) months of separation. I have been here for two weeks. The time has passed quickly, but not much has happened. I have spent a lot of time at the grocery store, because shopping for your own food and figuring out how to cook on a regular basis is a lot harder than it looks.
We made a little trip to Salinas this past weekend, and had a lot of fun. It was too cold to actually be out on the beach in a bathing suit - I actually had to buy a jacket - but it was nice to people watch and look out at the peaceful ocean. Actually, the ocean was not very peaceful, but it was still nice to look at because so much was happening all at once. People were going whale watching, renting jet skis, selling jewelry/sunglasses/tattoos/lamps/crafty things/coconuts/ice cream/shells/etc., swimming, hitting people with boats, falling off big floating bananas, and fishing. Definitely not the outer banks.
They call Salinas the "little Miami" of Ecuador.

Went out for some drinks Saturday night, came back and drank some more with Raul's aunt, uncle, and their friends.


I've been going running every day in our neighborhood. I found an amazing hill that I can only run up half way before I have to walk the rest. It's quite steep and a lot higher than it looks. I take our dog, Aquiles, who is very good at running in a zig zag formation in front of me so that I get a little bit of an extra work out by dodging him and then steering him to the side.

I am still waiting on a job ... hopefully that will happen this week, but I'm not sure what the dynamic will be with my friends and sister visiting for three weeks.

Oh shit - my bank account is in the red. I thought I was all caught up, but I guess I never will be. I'm not sure what to do about it. I have about $100 in cash that I can deposit tomorrow, but I don't know if that will be enough. My credit card payment finally went through and caught me by surprise I guess.
I've been looking at Hunter's facebook a lot recently. He's back on face book after a long period of inactivity. It is shocking how much you can reveal about yourself just by getting on face book. He has an Android phone, he's doing MMA fighting at a nearby gym, he's taking classes at NOVA and apparently actually making an effort to pass them. He's hitting the gym a lot, working a lot, and quite frankly I'm almost impressed. Almost, because who knows how long this will last.