Big, Dumb, Dogs

So, as expected, I´m feeling better today, that´s nice. I just got an email from the woman from Sweden and we are going to meet up later for a beer or some dinner and I look forward to that. I went walking for about four hours yesterday which was really great. I went to the Natural Science Museum and that was good. I got some great photos but forgot my camera cord so I will post some later.
I found a wonderful little restaurant where I had dinner last night and breakfast this morning. The woman who owns it says something loving every time she talks to you. Cariño, dulce, mi amor, princessa, and she means it. And she is so smiley and I told her she looks like she should be a salsa teacher because of the way she moves and she laughed and said that she is. So I am going to try to take a salsa class or two from her. I have been wanting to go dancing, but I want to go with a girlfriend or two. I´ve been invited dancing by a few men, but it is so easy to get yourself in a situation you didn´t mean to be in. Especially if they want to pick you up in their car and then you are kind of trapped. Much better to go with girlfriends and be able to spin away at the end of a dance with a smile and a wink. I am hoping that if I can take classes from her that I will find some lady friends to go out with. I will have to dig my dress out of my luggage - no salsa dancing in overalls and tennis shoes!
Oh, there goes another car alarm. When Geoff was here we would call them Gringo alerts, sure that it was tourists in rental cars, but the longer I am here, the more sure I am that Ecuadorians just delight in their car alarms. I´m pretty sure they set them off on purpose every time they go to the car and stand and listen, in love with all the pretty noises. Seriously, there is always always at least one going off. This would make sense since they are also in love with car horns. They honk all the time, for no reason at all, just to hear their cars make noise I think. "Hey! Here I am, I have a car! And it makes noise! Cool!" I have, in fact, seen public service announcements on TV about not honking all the time - good luck with that campaign. Sometimes it grates, but I´m starting to be able to just put it into the background flavor of the country and it is starting to just make me smile.
One of the volcanoes close to the city started erupting the day after Geoff left - good timing as it closed the airport for a bunch of days and people were stuck. I´ve been trying to see it, but the skys are so cloudy that so far, no luck. It´s interesting how matter-of-course it is, nobody seems all that concerned by it. I guess when you live in Volcano row, you become accustomed to them. I am still going to try to go see if I can see it belching though.
I tried buying food to cook for myself the other day and just gave up. It is so much less expensive to just eat in a restaurant (depending on which ones of course). For example, this morning for breakfast I had two scrambled eggs, two pieces of toast with fresh, homemade jam, coffee with milk, and a huge glass of fresh squeezed pineapple juice for $2.50. How is that even possible? But, I like it.
All right, I´m going to head out and find a different hostel for tonight. So far I haven´t found any that I´m totally in love with so I may as well keep moving around every couple of night so at least the scenery changes. Except, the one I stayed at the last couple of nights has a dog named Bruno that I spent a lot of time loving on last night and this morning. I´m pretty sure my improved mood has a lot to do with that dog. He is a yellow lab / sharpee ( i don´t know how to spell that) mix and is just as big and dumb and loving as dogs come. Because dogs aren´t vaccinated for rabies down here, and are mostly used as guard dogs, you have to be really careful about approaching and petting them, so Bruno is the first dog I´ve been able to really love on since I got here. Animals really are amazing for improving spirits.
Love you all!