Cantaclaro with your Canelazo with your Zhumir with your energy drink

Saturday June 8^th, 2013

In classic me fashion, I slept in really late because I really just suck at waking up early every single day, in addition to the fact that my week had finally caught up to me and all the mate and tea in the world couldn’t help me stay awake.

I’d barely had time to put pants on (no, who am I kidding, I wore a skirt) before it was already time to go out to dinner for Jessie’s birthday. At first we were thinking La Casa Lojana which is a little more upper crust. It is a hotel/restaurant area that serves sushi. We glanced over the menu and while they had a decent selection, it still seemed a little ridiculous that a California roll was going for almost $8. Ainhoa had pointed out another sushi place that seemed a little more in our price range and style—it’s called Sushi Cat. In addition to having a cute name, the way it was decorated inside was cute with koi and origami decals on the walls. I don’t even really like sushi that much, but I was sold. They even have a roll with Dorito crumbs to give it a panko effect—but hey, when you don’t have panko, you gotta improvise!

On our way out of Sushi Cat, we ran into Juan and made plans for later on. Not much later, the Juans were outside our front door ready for a booze run to Megan’s favorite place, Hipervalle. Hipervalle seems to be one of the most erratically stocked stores of all time. Some aisles are practically exploding with goods, while most others have gaping holes. Luckily their alcohol selection was sufficient and we bought two bottles of Zhumir which is basically a really strong wine cooler, coming in at 15%. Aka, the perfect beverage of choice for babies like me. Oh and I guess they mix it with energy drinks sometimes, too. Hello Four Loko…

We made a sophomoric trek to a mirador (viewpoint) of the city and enjoyed our baby booze to the sounds of Blink-182, reeeeeally making me feel like I was back in high school—but in the best way possible and hilariously aided by the fact that we were drinking legally in an illegal way. With energy drinks. It was one of those moments where you laugh at jokes you haven’t made yet with friends you’re still getting to know but you feel you’ve known for years. We debated over who partied hardest: Ecuador, Spain or Argentina with the Juans trying to get Ecuador in the lead, but Megan and I argued that because the bars are legally obligated to close around the time the Argie and Spanish bars are just getting going, they were out for the count. Argentina’s clubs made my eyes bleed. So maybe they win. Or lose…

Being watchful for the yuta, we took our final sips staring out at all the little lights of Loja and became some of them as we made our way back to town to meet up with the rest of the group at the bars. But not before I sophomorically snuck Cantaclaro in my purse…

Cantaclaro is effectively Ecuadorian moonshine. It tastes horrible and is totally unnecessary but added to our jar of canelazo it was even more ridiculous. But again, it went with our theme of legally drinking illegally. We felt as blurry as all the pictures I was taking and headed over to Juan’s house where we were trying to be quiet, but also dance to salsa music—an impossible combination. I would never say I was a good dancer and I took salsa lessons just once in high school, so I was surprised to mostly be keeping up, especially given the cantaclarelazo effect. But one by one, we started to look as dazed and bored as people who have too much money on a hot day. I finally settled into bed, already knowing that Hangover was ready to snuggle me until tomorrow afternoon…Ooooh my head…