Well I can honestly say, I never thought Ecuador was going to be as spectacular as it is. Getting stuck in customs to begin my journey gave me this feeling that is was going to be a very long 3 week. What a story that was, 3 minutes longer and John and I would have had to have void our tickets and probably missed our plane. Luckily John and I are pretty fast even in flip flops.
But what a blast it has been. I mean the people we have met have been incredible. Jonathan has had to do numerous interviews on team Canada, and our popularity continues to rise. Arjun has been the most popular…. So Thursday started off with a little salsa dancing with a large group of young girls. I'm not going to lie team Canada, pretty good dancers. After Santiago Romo, and the president of ambito tennis, and both of their families were very generous in taking us to Banos. We toured around seeing some beautiful waterfalls and Andrew debated whether or not to go bungee jumping off a bridge into the rapids below.
Eventually deciding no, we took a splash in the hot springs. And I mean HOT, almost to the point of scolding but we all toughened it out (even though most of our feet were numb after) .Finally the day concluded with a fantastic dinner at a local argentine's restaurant. Numerous dishes were served with the tenderloin steak being the most popular.
At night we discovered that it wasn't just the girls who liked Andrew but the guys as well… According to Andrew he was "touched" by numerous guys on our trip late last night. I guess red hair is attractive to the Ecuadorian. The red hair has also been a symbol from god as one elderly gentleman called Andrew an "angel" after Andrew finished exiting a local cathedral.
Friday was a very long day.
It started off with a trip to some local leather stores. Of course it was a little too early for Arjun so just the 3 guys and John made the trip. Leaving with no purchases we headed to squash. After our hit, Andrew suffered a major loss. As he thought he wouldn't get to say goodbye to Andre. However after our final lunch at la furnace guess who showed to say goodbye, man was Andrew ecstatic. We said our goodbyes and made the long trip to Quito. Having arrived late, Arjun took his time writing his greatly overdue blog. We had dinner at a local French restaurant. What a terrific dinner. Again steak being the popular choice, so good that even me a seldom steak eater had to credit the chef on a job well done.
Saturday morning we all slept in and had a terrific breakfast at an ethnic coffee shop. The morning almost went downhill as a sketchy looking man appeared to be waiting outside the shop for us. Luckily for us the owner was able to shoe him away with a free coffee. Finally the morning concluded with a walk through a local market. Coach John began to get irritated at the end as local kids kept asking for John to buy gum or to get a shoe shine. Later on us five guys squeezed ourselves into a taxi and went to the club.
This club is probably the nicest club in the world and our team played some of the nicest squash we have played. I mean this club had everything: tennis, horseback riding, swimming, squash, steam rooms, saunas, bmx track, restaurants, sushi bars etc. It would take too long to name them all. After our hit we were all pumped to kill the USA tomorrow in a test match. We squeezed ourselves again back in to another taxi. During the ride, Nick "let one rip" and the driver with some humor lowered down his window and put on the fan to rid the taxi of the smell. We had dinner at the hotel, nothing special and went to bed.
Sunday morning began with a solid breakfast at Coffeetree. After which the team was
harassed by several kids asking for money. "Shoe shine “himself cost Canada about 6 dollars and his sister about another 2. We proceeded to watch a prayer at a local cathedral. Finally the morning completed with a duet of "heaven" by Brian Adams, Tyler and Andrew.
Later the test match was a complete success. Canada dismantled the states in a 4-0 team defeat. Even coach Hill lived up to the task by drawing with the American #2 coach. I took down Chris Jung, Arjun beat Dylan Murray, Nick beat Ash Egan and Andrew beat Brandon Mclaughlin; overall it was a solid performance by team Canada. Later we enjoyed a good dinner at Tony Romos. We watched as two birds in the bush rookies Martin Heath and Adam Hammel battled it out for pushups. Eventually a poor call by Adam forced him into 20 grueling pushups. On the other side of the table the group was playing a movie, actor game called bomb. This one
again went to the lone Canadian Andrew Schnell who knew the most movies and actors, who took the top spot from 8 other Americans …well done Schnell. And this concluded the dominating performance by Canada over the states Sunday afternoon and evening.
Monday morning was a very early morning as we had to get to the club by 10. We all had a fairly light hit just touching up on any loose edges to our game. Afterwards we all wanted to relax in the pool but to our dismay, the whole club was closed. We then spent the longest cab ride of our life, as the driver was unsure of where our hotel was. We enjoyed a nice lunch at ethnic coffee then were off to the market. And what a surprise we found there "shoe shine" and his friends had returned for some more cash. Finally after 10 minutes of their harassment, Nick paid them off with a few cents. We all bought sweaters at the market. We all looked pretty good; I think John looked the best though. We then went back to the hotel and relaxed, a few of us unlucky to still have the runs. Most of us fell asleep ranging from 2-3 hours. Dinner was served again at the local French restaurant. And again steak was the hit dish.
By Tyler Osbourne
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