Link's Blog

Last year I had a meeting with my boss at Restaurant Associates. He told me that I will become a captain in the next hiring. 

THe next hiring happend and I didn’t even got an interview. A bunch of people who has been in the company less than a year became captains. 

I was sad and angry, but then I was sad and angry at myself for letting this dead end job get to me. 

Just emailed a few people, and this month’s goal is to quit RA.

My dad opened the gates to my front porch to let me in. I walked in, barefoot, holding my shoes in my left hand and my socks in the right one. My pants were wet and sticky, my shirt was unbuttoned and my underwear had sand in it.

It was 8:30 am on May 6, the morning of my birthday. Oh what a night.

A few days before that awesome friday, my cousin Kristy called me:

-“Link! This thursday we are going out, so I will be picking you up around 10:00 pm”

I was visiting my family in Ecuador, I got to spend my birthday back in the hometown for the first time in 8 years. My family was never too fond of large celebrations, so I was used to just expecting a cake from my dad and a song from my loved ones, going out the night before was a nice surprise.

My cousin Kristy picked me up at 9:00 pm. Then we drove to her house, in the other end of the city, were my grandmother and my aunt were hanging out. While my cousin ran upstairs to get ready, I got to chat with my grandmother and she updated me on family gossip.

At 11:00 we left the house and went to the northside of the city to pick up a few friends,  and by 11:30 we were parking in front of a club.

One of our friends knew the promoter of the club so we were ushered in without having to pay the $25 cover. Even better, we were taken to the VIP area of the club (we were given bracelets) where there was an open bar. 

Once settled, my cousin and I started drinking, we wanted to have a buzz before midnight. Then we all went to dance. It was so much fun to dance again to music from the lands of banana and coffee.

At midnight, (i did not notice) my cousin and my friend Chio jumped to hug me while screaming “Happy Birthday!!!!” then one of my friends brought me a shot of tequila. 

When the police showed up, 3 out of 5 of out people (me included) were drunk. The lights went up at once and the music stopped. A cop started shouting to everybody to clear the premises while another one was taking pictures. We slowly left the club. 

In Ecuador, bars and clubs can stay open till 2 am only. The club owners has chosen to ignore the law and the cops were there at 3:00 am to shut the place down for the night.

We headed back to my cousin’s car. She and I sat in the back and one of our sober friends drove. Where to next?

-“Take the Urdesa south exit and head east towards Costa”- my cousing ordered.

-“But that woud take us to Playas” - my friend replied.

-“Exactly” - I could not stop smiling.

The 3:00 am trip to the beach was fun. we joked, we laughed, we made a pit stop for ice-cream and a piss. Finally, we made it to Playas, a beach town about 1 hour from Guayaquil.

We parked in the beach boulevard and ran to the beach. My cousin and I got undressed and jumped in the water, while our friends were more hesitant to join us.

The waters of the Pacific Ocean were warm. We jumped around and swam for about one hour. Our friends eventually joined us and we had a grand time. 

After our swim, we wandered the beach waiting to dry up. On the other side of the boulevard there was a bakery already open, so we ran across the street and bought, warm, fresh out of the oven bread, so good. 

We walked back to the beach and  found a small cabaña with a few hammocks and we laid there and watched the sunrise. The ocean changing from ink black to metallic blue is a beautiful thing to watch.

It was now 6:30 am, a few restaurants along the beach were open, and we hiked to the nearest one, where there was an old lady, who could have been our grandmother for the way she talked to us. I got a big bowl of tuna ceviche and a cup of black coffee for breakfast.

We left the town of Playas around 7:30 am. The ride back was smooth and quiet, as we all were fast asleep. 

I was knocking on the front gate of my house at 8:30 am.

Later that night, my family sang me a song and shared a cake with me. I was so happy to be with them the day of my 33 birthday.

Last night Chio and a couple of friends went to the Pink Zone of town (Guayaquil is divided in color zones, the Pink Zone is the tourist/ party district)

There we bounce between 2 clubs located right across the street from each other: “Zona Caliente” and “Guys” 

We had a lot of fun! First, it is super cheap, in one there was a $4 cover that came with 2 beer tickets, the beer selection is just two lagers, Pilsen and Brahma, but those are 1 litter bottles, so 2 beers are MORE THAN ENOUGH. At “Guys”, there was a $5 cover, but you get all you can drink beer.  Even without the beer tickets and such, a beer down here is $1.50. 

At 1:00 there was a drag show, and a contest. We all 4 got up on stage and one of our friends (A funny chubby girl) won second prince, which entitled her to 6 beers. 

The club was packed, but I did not find anybody attractive, the only hot guy was the striper who came before the drag show, he got down to only his beisball cap (to cover his junk), after the show he was dancing and making out with his girlfriend (he was straight)

It was great to laugh at the very clever drag-queen comebacks in Guayaquilean Spanish slang. I had forgotten a lot of it so it was like listening to a joke for the first time.