If I were a bananna.....

Hellllo all!
wow, so... I am in Ecuador now! We (Margot and our new friend from the UK that we picked up in Peru named Marios) came a few days ago to this town-city called Cuenca. The border crossing was a little hectick because the people on our bus were really concerned about the potential of us getting robbed. They hustled us off the bus "hurry hurry, come on come on! get in line, come on!"and it was a little crazy. They were nice, just really wanted us to get across and back on the bus. But now, I have another stamp in my passport! We arrived in Cuenca and were greeted at the bus by a lady who had a hostle, and after a lot of chatting, we decided to go with her. it is nice, and we feel like it is our house, or "flat". *We are having a LOT of fun with Marios'accent, lol. So, we are there for the price of $5 s night (they use US dollars here!) and $6 with breakfast. Breakfast, and all the food we have eaten so far, consists of some type of fresh fruit juice, and this corn that is really big, and a little flavor-less when not cooked well. Yesterday we wandered around, and found an Awesome artisan shop where this girl made and sold all of these really cool pieces of jewelry, bags, earings.. everything. margot and I were in girly heaven. I got a bag that is SO awesome, and some really sweet earings that are butterfly wings! They are so cool! (side note: I found a cure to my metal allergy.. Clear nailpolish! I put some on my earrings and was not bothered! yayyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!) Then, we kept walking and found this Cuban bar that looked neat. We popped our head in and were very warmly greeted by the Cubans who owned it. they offered us drinks, etc... but it was early, so we said we would come back later. So, we made some dinner at our hostel and went to this Modern art museum that we had gone to earlier and that had told us about an art opening that night. The exhibits were really cool, and one of the artists has a doughter in Boulder! craaaazay! Then the exhibit closed and we went back to the Cuban bar for mojitos, salsa dancing, a little karaoke and an overall great time. We met another guy from Europe, and two girls from Nebraska that want to travel into Colombia as well! From the Cuban bar, we checked out some other places, and fnally stumbled upon this one really neat bar where I tried a traditional Ecuadorian drink that was hot! It was almost like hot cider or something, but with a different taste, and a lot more liquor. We stayed at that bar for the rest of the night drinking, chatting with some locals and listening to a few people playing awesome songs on the guitar. This German guy sang some real funky songs in German, and it was really cool.
Today we went to the mercado to eat some lunch and buy some veggies for a chicken soup that we are making. (side story on the chicken... The first night we went out late for dinner, and only one place was open, so we went in and ordered an ENTIRE Chicken! ha, wow. Also best chicken I've ever had. So, we ate the rest of it last night in a "curry"I invented, then used the carcas to boil and make soup! I think it will be really tasty...) So, we go this market and it is the coolest market I've ever seen. its in a building, but the celings are open, and where the stairs are is all open as well. There are three levels dedicated to meats, fruits and veggies,and prepaired food (where we ate lunch). For the grand total of $1.70 I got a delicious vegetable smoothie, and a plate of rice, noodles, meat, veggies and sauce. It ruled. Ecuador is SUPER cheap! And its nice being familiar with the currency, too! Its not this "monopoly money"(as Margot calles it) that we have to mentally convert into dollars "8 Peruvian soles is..... how many dollars? Is this cheap or expensive? should I bargian???" like that...
So, Ecuador is realllly nice. the people are really great, and speak SO clearly! wow. When we were driving to our destination we were surrounded by miles of rolling, lush, green hills and bananna farms as far as the eye could see! I bet some of them will be coming to a supermarket near you very soon! Or, they will end up in this open market here or in some other place. They will be picked from their tree and transported for miiiiiiiiiiles and miles. Free travel. Maybe I should be a bananna....
Hope you're all doing well up there!
Chau chau