January 8

Woke up at about 8:30am. Felt pretty rested actually.












My mud wrap was magnificent. I’ve never had one before. I changed into a paper bikini type thing and a robe. Then “Sandra” brought me to a room, covered me in mud, wrapped me in saran wrap, and then in a warm blanket. I stayed wrapped like that for probably 15 minutes. Then I showered it all off, put on lotion and my robe again, and then got to sit in a comfy chair and drink guava juice. And this 45 minute procedure cost $27.





I managed to catch breakfast, which consisted of some pretty yummy scrambled eggs and the cutest little croissants.


Then I spent maybe an hour in the hot springs. It’s cool outside since we’re up in the mountains, but I really just get too warm if I stay in the springs for long. One of the springs is cold water, but it feels ice cold after being in the warm springs, so I couldn’t go in much further than my knees. I decided to nap until lunch, which was nice.









Lunch was what they call a club sandwich, which had the lettuce, tomato, and bacon, but then a chicken salad-type layer. I of course removed the lettuce and tomato, and managed to eat the rest of it. It was also served with some pretty spectacular French fries.


Dessert








We boarded up the bus and headed to our afternoon lecture.

On the way I saw this car. An “Evolution”….with a Jesus fish


This lecture was from an entrepreneur-type, who had a hotel and a restaurant and some other businesses. I think he was supposed to tell us what was involved in starting a business in Ecuador, which he did, he just made it sound like it was the dumbest thing to do. There was a huge list of paperwork that had to be done before starting a business, and a million permits, and a million costs. So it essentially took over a month and about $3000 to just declare that you were starting a company, then you had to actually invest in all the real stuff. And there are a million taxes on existing companies, like for every square inch of signage, and playing music, and paying a water bill for the sidewalk—most of it didn’t make sense, just sounds like the government is going to tax anything it can for no reason at all. Mainly I think the guy just liked to hear himself talk, and liked to make hand gestures and facial expressions. The lecture was almost depressing. He talked about the dollarization, and how when he moved back to Ecuador (after school) in 1980 it was 25 Sucres to the dollar. Then come 1998 it was about 5500 Sucres to the dollar. Within six months it was 6300. And when they closed the banks for 7 days, and at the end of it gave everyone one dollar for every 25,000 Sucres…well, I really can’t imagine. Imagine your wealth being cut into a quarter of what it was. And most of Ecuador doesn’t have much of anything to begin with. It’s like 5% upper class, 30% middle class, and like, 65% poor.



On a lighter note, he served us empanadas.


And tomorrow we fly to the beach.