Morning lecture about ecotourism. Actually pretty interesting. The guy talked about the growth of the tourism industry in Ecuador. EcoTourism means that there is a low impact on the environment, and it also results in an education about the environment to tourists. People obviously can’t do anything unless they’re aware.
It was also during this lecture that I made my Jan 4 and Jan 5 posts. :D
At coffee break they got us cinnamon rolls from the Cinnabon place across the street in the mall. Dry on the outside, but the inside was gooey, and there was a cup of icing for dipping (well it may not have been for that but that’s what I used it for).
More talking about ecotourism.
Then there was huge a scare that the game was not available at the hot springs we were supposed to be visiting that night. So there was a huge change of plans (I’ve already informed you of some of this). Instead of driving to the Papallacta Hot Springs and watching the game…we instead took an afternoon tour of a sportswear factory, then had a few hours to kill (I killed mine at a spa) and then we’d watch the game from Margherita’s house (i.e. Margherita’s huge ridiculous house with multiple landings and a maid), then drive to the hot springs afterwards. So that’s what went down.
We toured the Tatoo sportswear production facility. It’s a company here in Ecuador, and they only sell to Latin America. They import Goretex and Polartec from the U.S. and use those materials, as well as some locally made materials. We were hoping we’d be able to buy stuff at some cool discount, but they don’t typically sell anything at the factory. They did have a warehouse with some items, and offered us a 5% discount and no tax, but the items weren’t really any cheaper than what we could buy in the states. We got some free little backpacks that say Tatoo, and I purchased a Tatoo tshirt. It was actually an employee shirt that they don’t sell, but we told them we wanted Tatoo shirts (a lot of the stuff was the imported brands, and their tshirts were more touristy, with “Galapagos” and stuff on them). They seemed happy that we were interested in advertising for them, so they let us buy the shirts.
Tatoo actually started as a tshirt screen printing company, and then branched out to sportswear
warehouse
Then we were in a bit of a rush to get back to the hotel. A bunch of us had scheduled procedures (massage, pedicure, facial, etc) at Margherita’s spa, starting at 4pm, and it was already 3:45pm. So the dropped us off after a bit so we could go ahead and catch a cab.
The spa is in a suburb of Quito, called Cumbaya…pronounced Kumbayah, like in the song
I had a massage scheduled, but since we were running behind I got a pedicure while I waited.
My awesome flip-flop line
red toes!
I would love to go into great detail about my massage, but there are a number of male readers who probably wouldn’t be interested (or would be a little too interested) so I’ll just say it was nice. Very relaxing. Perhaps just a bit more violating than any massage I’ve had before, but not bad.
After my massage I sat around waiting for Ashley’s pedicure to be over, and then Margherita’s husband picked us up (everyone else had been picked up about half an hour earlier). We arrived at their super awesome house to find three rooms broadcasting the game. A den-type room, a guest bedroom, and their son Nicholas’ room had a projector displaying it on a wall (Nicholas is 19 and goes to LSU, and he’s been hanging out with us for some of our trip excursions). There was a table full of food set up, and a maid that brought us trays of margaritas and pina coladas.
The beer was out on an open landing in ice chests.
Pre-game was on, and everyone already had on their tiger gear, so we changed into LSU tshirts. Food and drinks just kept coming, and they wouldn’t let us do anyting for ourselves. Nicholas had two friends over, and the three of them kept taking our empty glasses and picking up dirty plates and getting us new drinks when we needed them. It was ridiculous. But the whole thing was ridiculously awesome.
Pizza showed up
The game started slow, but obviously ended well. We lost the signal for about five minutes in the first quarter, but we survived.
We sang karaoke during halftime. A couple guys went first, and did pretty well on Yellow Submarine and some Bryan Adams. Then I put on Baby One More Time for the girls, but somehow ended up with the microphone. I’m pretty sure it sounded horrible. I wonder if I just needed to warm up because I honestly didn’t think I had that horrible of a voice. Oh well.
Then when it was over we loaded up the bus again, along with an ice chest of beer. Someone had burned a cd earlier of some party music, and we even had a little bit of a dance party when we stopped at a gas station (soulja boy, cupid shuffle, etc…video to come). Unfortunately only the first few songs were compatible with the cd player, so we thought our party was over. Luckily, there’s a microphone that the tour guide uses to tell us things, but we pretty much used it for a sing-a-long. I wish I could remember all the songs we did. My memory card filled up in the middle of Bohemian Rhapsody unfortunately. There was some Journey, Whitney Houston, and really a lot more old and exciting stuff that I just can’t remember.
We eventually made it to the hot springs. I had to be up at 9 for a mud wrap, so I figured I’d go to bed…but then I realized we were leaving the next day so this was really my one chance to sit in the springs at night. I was an idiot and took out my contacts (they get dry quick here), and put on my glasses. Which normally wouldn’t be an issue, I just hadn’t considered the steam from the hot springs. It was still really nice though. We were all still a bit wound up, and most people were still drinking beer out of plastic cups (no glass in the springs).
I did cut out after about an hour or so. The water was really hot and I was really tired. It was probably about 3am.
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