Eat, art, and be merry

This day, Ecuadorian elections were being held so Ale, Giuli, the tour guides from Ecuador, and Dario

had to get up early to vote. In Ecuador, everyone in a certain age group is required to vote. This fact triggered

many discussions about human rights, governments, etc..while we were driving through the town.

I remember riding back to Bahía they way we came- everyone crammed into the back of a pickup truck. 

The adults were singing silly songs that practiced the Spanish vowels. "Tengo. Tengo una hormigita en mi orejita.  

Qué me hace mucha cosquillita... con A! Tanga. Tanga ana harmagata an ma orajata. Qaa ma haca macha 

casqaallata. con E!..." etc. etc. etc.

Also, I remember that for some reason, everybody was craving chifles, those plantain chips they sale

everywhere. We began chanting "Chifles! Chifles! Chifles!" The truck past an election banner. Then Lorna began

chanting "Vota Chifles!" and soon everyone caught along.

The last day at Río Muchacho was a day of arts and crafts. After a morning of havesting the yucca root, we cut, 

washed, and grated for our afternoon snack. The entire of experience of cooking from scratch to finish made me

processed food a little bit more. Edgar and Marcos also showed us how to make cheese.

The rest of the day, we made bowls out of gourds of the maté fruit, sand

papered rings out of palm seed, and earrings or necklaces out of another type of seed. So many of us were

absorbed in our crafts that we opted to skip the "fishing for shrimp" activity in order to spend more time 

sand papering our rings and carving designs into our bowls.

Afterward, Edgar applied mud masks to our faces. I suppose you're supposed to keep your face as relaxed

and still as possible. I ended up talking to Giuli, laughing, and taking many pictures. Opps.