Bad weather but great fun
Trip Start
Aug 17, 2009
1
14
55
Trip End
Jul 15, 2010
Montañita, Ecuador
Thursday, October 15, 2009
We arrived into Montanita and found ourselves a hostal and promptly fell asleep for a few hours. Travelling through the night really takes it out of you, even if you manage to fall asleep on the bus itīs never a proper sleep. We took a little wander around Montanita later on that day, it didnīt take us long. There were about four blocks in total to the village with one main street with a bunch of hostels and restaurants and loads of artists selling their jewellery, hair wraps etc. We took a walk along the beach too. It stretches as far as the eye can see up to the left and about two kilometres to the right. There was a point at the end which you can walk on when the tide is out and go around to the next set of beaches but it got a bit wild when the tide was on the way in.
When we woke up the next morning we met the owner, Ricky, a surfer who must have been about forty but who had the body of a twenty something. He offered us a different place to stay just a three minute walk from the village but for the same price. He told us that the village gets a bit crazy at the weekend and that we wouldnīt get a wink of sleep from all the music and the noise during the night. The place was lovely, five little cabins with a bed and a private bathroom, hammock out the front, which Brian was very happy with.....we were moving in. The next day we got company. A couple from Australia and a guy from America they had picked up along the way. There was also another couple from Australia staying in the place and slowly but surely our little community was forming. The Aussies were great craic, one couple more so than the other but we all got on so well. The weather was pants for the whole week and I really donīt think we would have stayed more than a few days if it wasnīt for our little "Village".
The boys went fishing a few mornings. Homemade rods made out of empty water bottles and line and weights that they found in some random little shop down in the village. Some days they were successful, other times not but we ate well for the majority of the week. The "Village" had unused land just outside the front of our houses so the boys got inventive and created a firepit. We had the most amazing meals from that pit. Baked potatoes, steamed fish, freshly caught that morning, and a whole load of grilled vegetables. YUM!!!! And it was so cheap too. One night we fed ten of us for the grand total of $1.10!!!!!! Unbelievable.
Brian took some surf lessons one of the days. I watched from the comfort of the beach. He concluded after about thirty minutes in the water that he was definitely more of a land man. He took the board out one other day but surfingīs definitely not for him. The beach was packed with surfers. Theyīd come out in their droves as soon as the tide was an hour from full which meant they got about three hours in the water. The place would be deserted until that time of the day and then theyīd all just descend on the waves. There were some local kids too who surfed and there was one guy in particular who was just amazing. He was fourteen years old and was already sponsered by all the big names and had one himself a few competitions. He made it look so easy. God only knows if he went to school .... probably not to be fair. Who needs school when youīve got sponsership and you get to surf the days away to your heartīs content?
All in all Montanita was good to us. The rum was cheap and the company was brilliant. Enevitably though talks of moving on crept up on us. One of the Aussie couples was heading to the Galapagos islands on some volunteering project. It didnīt sound like much of a volunteering thing though. They had to pay for their flight out and then had to pay a lump sum for their īkeepī for the month. They were both into the environment though, the girl was into bugs (canīt remember her official title, endemologist or something?) and her boyfriend was into conservation so this trip was right up their street. The other crowd were heading to Columbia and on into Central America, hopefully ending up in Canada to do a ski season. And God only knows what the American guy was up to. They all left the day before us so it was a quiet last night in the "Village" once theyīd all gone. They were all heading north so chances of meeting them again are pretty slim. Still it was a great week in Montanita.
