Written Friday 11 April
There's no disputing that the people here are really friendly; strangers say 'hola' as you pass on the street (okay, mostly hombres but in a nice way, not pervy) and they try to suppress their smiles as you muddle your way through the simplest sentences in Spanish. One of the waiters in Isabela felt so bad about not understanding my (quite frankly awful) description of a watermelon that he gave me a whole plate of it for free!
However...and I don't know if this is just a cultural thing like an extension of the helpfulness or because I'm travelling solo, but some can be a little bit toooo friendly, like a random man following me down the street asking persistently whether I wanted help with my bag of dirty laundry and not taking no for an answer. About an hour later an over-enthusiastic waiter asked whether he could join me for dinner when he realised I was dining solo in his empty restaurant (probably a bad move on my part). Uh, how bout no? He was speaking crazy fast in Spanish too which didn't help - that's the other thing, people get far too excited when you carefully explain that you speak 'un poquito' (very little) Spanish and start chatting to you like you've been speaking the language for years. Yes, I KNOW...but even I don't know how I got a degree in it! In general though, people are super nice and very willing to help out - not sure what I was ever nervous about really!
