Piña Colada´s and Hammocks Galore

We left for the beach yesterday (Thursday) morning. Our flight was supposed to leave at 9:30 but we did not end up taking off until close to 10. It was a 35 minute flight! The fastest flight ever. We arrived in Guayaquil, grabbed some lunch and then tried to find a taxi to take us to the beach for $30. Unfortunately the taxi company we found outside the airport wanted to charge us $170 for each car!! We would need to take two because we had six people and apparently people dont travel in groups that large down here because they did not have a taxi van for us. So we asked them if they could take us to the bus terminal because we were not paying that much. Will, Elise and I get in the first cab and our driver is going on and on about how much time we will save and blah blah blah by taking a taxi so I tried to satisfy him by saying that we needed to talk to our friends before we made any decisions. So he decides to pull over in the middle of the road and tells me to get out and go talk to the three others in the taxi behind us. I was like, ¨NO! Take us to the bus terminal!¨ Apperantly the other taxi driver was also trying to barter and told us that he could get us a taxi van and it would only be $20 per person. We said screw it, would would rather pay $4.25 for a 4-hour bus than $20 to get there an hour earlier. We finally got our bus ticket and left Guayaquil around 12:30. Arriving in Puerto Lopez, we found our hostal which appeared sketchy at first but turned out to be relatively nice. The lady who runs it, Maxima as she told us to call her, absolutely loved us. She gave us a deal on the rooms and told us about 10 times that she has over 700 movies if we want to watch them. Our rooms have mosquito nets in them so that was my first experience with that last night and it wasn´t bad. Last night after the Chone people got here, we ate at a little cantaña right on the beach that served HAMBURGERS. They were amazing! and cheaper than the piña coladas. They had hammocks that overlooked the beach as well...absolutely perfect. All ten of us then went to the beach to play ¨ten fingers.¨ It was absolutely hilarious and I was crying I was laughing so hard by the end of the night. Inside jokes that no one in the states will understand: ¨Wait, what constitutes Europe?...But Granny was there, so it doesn´t count...being assaulted by a toy...creepy dogs...taking a nature walk on the beach...what do I wear to a passion party?...MUY PELIGROSO...DING! Then Katie, Eleanor, Hilary and I went to get another piña colada and ended up making some Ecuadorian friends. I don´t remember all their names but they were super cool and invited back for happy hour at their cantaña tonight. Also, there is ONE discoteca called ¨Taurus¨so we are going to check that out tonight as well. One of the guys was trying to tell me they all had the same name so I asked if they were his sons. Also, another inside joke that no one reading this will understand. Sorry, I just wanted to make sure I did not forget anything. Today it was a little cloudy so we went whale watching!! It was aboslutely amazing! They jumped out of the water about a dozen times and swam right up next to our ship. I saw four humpback whales and blue footed boobies on the island of Salango and the entire excursion cost $15. I love Ecuador.