*more or less* 3654 corns of various variety, 4 hangovers, 10 bowls of meaty soup, 3 packets of $1.70 menthol cigarettes and a lot of "Yo hablo muy malo espanol" and i'm still hanging on.
Ok so some of that sounds bad. It's not. Ecuador is very very very different to Britain and it's taking some time to get adjusted.
The food.
We have the standard KFC, McD's, Pizza hut etc etc etc. This is great for something familiar but the Ecuadorians keep their traditional food going strong. Typical lunches referred to as 'Al Muerzos' nearly always consist of a soup (sopa) starter, a broth with a small piece of usually off cut meat, loads of veggies and sometimes a bit of avocado. No problems there but after this i'm usually full, being accustomed to having my main meal in the evenings. Following this is a plate, again with another kind of meat, then rice, small salad and a form of potato. Basic but usually nice, oh and always with loads of aqi, or chilli sauce (this is South America after all). People eat this every day though, I am craving bacon sandwiches. And cheddar. I'm also looking forward to hunting down a Big Mac this week.
Breakfast is a whole other ball game. At home on the little old Isle of Wight, or back in Brighton, i'm used to a bowl of usually chocolate themed cereal, or maybe a bit of jam on toast, occasional pan au chocolate. Or very occasionally that mid morning breakfast us Brits love, the full English.
No full English here.
Every day breakfast is early. No leisurely sunday breakfast after a couple of cups of tea to waken your senses from the wine/vodka/tequila shots/beer that is still circulating your blood stream from the night before. You wake up. You eat. So far, breakfast has always consisted of gargantuan portions of either mashed corn, mashed plantain, tamales, or crushed potatoes. Always with cheese. Always with some form of egg incorporated. Thank the Inca gods that it's all washed down with galleons of delicious sugary black coffee. So. Much. Food.
Saying that, after blearily chomping my way through it keeps me going all morning, definitely no need for elevenses.
Dinner isn't really a thing, unless you go out, as you have already eaten SO MUCH throughout the day. As I write this I can hear my adopted Ecuadorian family mention the words Pollo and Arroz (chicken and rice). However when dinner is a thing it's something i'm much more used to. Pizza, pasta, chinese, etc.
As for drinking, juice is inhaled by the galleon by the Ecuadorians. No issues there, I love juice and lots of it is made fresh. I had the most amazing mora, or Blackberry in English, juice yesterday. Apart from juice they eat tonnes of fresh fruit. There are Fruiteras everywhere supplying a range of exotic fruits that certainly don't grace the shelves of my local Sainsburys at home. At $1 for 3 pineapples why the hell not. And snacks mostly include ham sandwiches and loads of sweets, always sweets. So i've bought some to take to work tomorrow. The Ecuadorians are generous beyond belief so I thought i'd share the love.
Chow for now
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