Jesse's Roatan island trip

The following is adapted from our friends blog. Visit it by clicking on the link to the right¨: Eshlemans

You Know You're in Ecuador When...
- multiple children run up to you at one time to shine your shoes (flip flops, converse, green suede vans..)
- Futbol is more important than anything
- If you don't have nausea at least once a week, you must not be eating.
- If the doors on the bus can still shut, there's still room for more
- Milk and eggs aren't refrigerated
- You can't breathe at an intersection
- $3 for lunch is really expensive
- No vehicle (car, bus, police motorcycle, ambulance, bike) stops for a pedestrian. They do however honk to let you know they're coming.
-You can buy 100 limes for $1 on the corner, the bus, the street...
- You can go from sweating to freezing in 30 minutes
- You can get 120 songs on one CD for $1
- New release movies (still in the theater) are $1.50 on a DVD at the store right next to the theater
- Rice is served at every meal, every day
- The view of the mountains never gets old
- Coca-Cola is the new water - and even tastes better
- Pinguino Ice Cream - they sell Magnum bars!
- $1 for 25 roses
- Old ladies and children are the best pick-pocketers. Watch out!
- Most buses have curtains and tassels - classy.
- KFC is one of the most popular restaurants
- You have your "own" panaderia, pirated DVD store, movistar man, and tiendita where you know the workers by name
- Halls cough drops are considered candy
- Aji (spicy salsa) makes everything taste better
- Regaton (music) is played at all hours of the day/night
- Only 80's-90's top 40 music has made it on the radio here
- Even the poorest of the poor have cell phones
- You have never thought white bread could be so tasty!
- There is a different key for EVERY door in your house
- Family dogs always seem to be hanging out on the roof
- You throw your toilet paper in the trash, not the toilet
- You have been involved in a city bus race
- You have witnessed a political protest
- You haggle with Taxis for a mere 50 cents
- You put popcorn in your soup
- You drink juice with every meal
- When somehow drivers make 3 or 4 lanes out of 2 lanes
- Mothers silence their crying children by flopping our their äll natural¨ pasipher in the restaurnat, bus, street corner or anywhere really that the child can grab for it
- You are overly excited when a bathroom has toilet paper, soap, paper towels and a SEAT!
- Toilet paper is scented because you dispose of it in the waste basket, not by flushing it in the toilet
- The Isuzu Rodeo is branded with Chevrolet here
- Gas is $1.48 a gallon, Diesel is $1.03
- When a man wants to marry a women the parents of the man go with him to ask for her hand from her parents (to show that his family accepts her).
- There are more than 3million Ecuatorians in the US.
- They are obligated to vote... When they vote they recieve a ¨card¨saying so. Without it they can not buy any big purchases such as a car, house, drivers licence, passport and the list goes on...(Imagine the outcome or fraud involved with indigenous people who do not follow politics. Political parties promise tons of food and supplies to the poor country people if they vote for them and they win)
- Ecuador is in the process of voting on accepting a new constitution! Big deal to be decided by ¨vote¨Sept. 28th
- Men are obligated to join the armed services
- The average monthly salery is $250! (Imagine rent of $80 and a phone bill of $50 what you could do with the rest! Maybe food or school uniform and books for your kids...)

Oh how the list can go on...