Puerto Lopez. And Montañita. Once again. One last time.

Back in Quito I wasn’t too motivated to have big action going on. Most of the time I spent in my room, reading, chatting, watching movies. One needs time to digest all those incredible impressions I collected throughout the last month.

My friends still made me leave the house every once in a while, may it be to host a radio show on Ecuadorian Tourism Radio or to see Manu Chao live. Even though it rained cats and dogs, we enjoyed the performance underneath our 1$ rain ponchos.

And Bea and I mixed our first Ecuadorian cola beer. :) (Including a free 50% or so re-fill.)

I don’t know, how it came, but somehow our two mates Madhuri & Malte told us to hurry up after Manu Chao had played its last song, to still jump into a bus as long as they weren’t completely overcrowded. Unluckily, that tactics didn’t work out: The last bus had already left, the next one was supposed to arrive in an hour or so. Madhuri, Malte and Sarina decided to take a cab, Bea and I decided to safe those dollars and walk. And get lost in endless discussions. Awesome.

When I finally arrived back home around midnight, my two flatmates weren’t there yet. I called Sarah – she told me she was still at the concert. We had obviously skipped the main gig of a band called Calle 13, pretty famous around here. Sarah reported that those dudes were heating up the stadium way better than Manu Chao had before. Sad story.

Anyway, one of the results of the discussions was, that I seriously thought about heading back to the coast. Again. Bea, Malte & Madhuri would leave on Thursday night – and, honestly, I couldn’t find any reason why not to join. Grey and rainy Quito would be way to boring should these three guys leave town as well, so I decided to join. Not a failure.

A cozy night ride later we arrived at Puerto Lopez around 5am. Everything was still closed, obviously, even though there weren’t few people hanging out on the streets. No clue what they did there. But we preferred to set up camp at the beach. Watch the sunrise. In the west. Yeah right. *g*

We finally found a hostel that sold us a room for the four of us, booked in and went to negotiate the cheapest price for a trip the Isla de la Plata, an island approximately 1,5 hours from the mainland, which got its name in a time when pirates still ruled the seas: While the Spanish crown was exploiting the mainland, the English crown simply paid its pirates to set up camp at Isla de la Plata and mug the Spanish galleys passing by. Pretty smart tactics, to be honest…

We found the tour operator of our choice, paid 25$ per head (for a full-day trip, including lunch), and began our holidays. Beach chairs were easy to organize, and everyone who offered them also sold those delicious fruit smoothies I had enjoyed with Carina only a week earlier. But there’s stuff in this world you can’t get enough from… (Chilling out is one of them…)

To be honest – we didn’t really leave the beach that day. Neither did we stop consuming fruit shakes. And I’m not sure if we spent more than 10$ on them per person… :)

The next day we started with a self-bought breakfast, bread, cheese, watermelon. All you need. And then we prepared for our island trip: Sunscreen (really important, as Bea burned herself really badly the day before), towels, hats, swimming gear, water bottle, camera. Don’t forget a pack of blue sky and sunshine. And go.

The local fishermen were already up and hard-working, when we boarded the boat.

Around 16 tourists were on board, around 5 nationalities present. Plus two guides and a captain.

Upon arrival we left the boat, refilled our water bottles and started walking. Straight up the hill. Too exhausting for an elderly, Peruvian lady, who returned with her daughter. The others made it up to the first resting point, where we divided the whole gang into two groups – a faster one and a slower one. The faster group were basically us plus three other guys, amongst them an Argentinian lady who maybe should have chosen the other group.

Still, we enjoyed the amazing nature…

…a fascinating landscape…

…and an astonishing abundance of wildlife – amongst others loads of blue footed boobies…

…as well as their relatives, the Nazca boobies.

The island never got really inhabited due to a lack of freshwater. There is some, but not much. And it is absolutely essential. We sweated like the Russian national soccer team after playing overtime in Saudi Arabia…

But hey, we made our way back to the starting point, boarded the boat again and got a watermelon snack in-between. And as sharing is caring, our guides showed us how to feed turtles with the leftovers…

Some 10 minutes later we reached our snorkeling spot, and jumped straight into the water.

The gear wasn’t the best, and so wasn’t the spot itself. Okay, I might be spoiled since the Galapagos Islands, but still, there wasn’t much to see. So Malte, Madhuri and I enjoyed taking pictures of ourselves…

…while Bea was up on the deck to treat her sunburn… ^^

We snacked a little, I napped a little, and then we snacked again back on the mainland, while sitting in our beach chairs, sipping fruit shakes and admiring the sunset.

The following day would be our last in Puerto Lopez – for now. We decided against heading to Los Freijles and against Agua Blanca – but we wouldn’t leave without another oreo shake, our favourite. :)

Next stop: Montañita. Once again. *g*

We found a cozy place right at the beach front, where hammocks on the terrace swing and where one can rent a mattress on the top floor for 5$ per night. The mattresses weren’t thick (in fact, we even had two each), but the top floor was not closed by walls – a fresh ocean breeze would blow underneath the roof. Amazing.

We met up with Julez, to then follow him to the beach and watch him giving surf instructions to a group of Danish youngster, all of whom had just graduated from high school.

Because we were on holidays, we stayed out on the beach until the sun set. That is when hunger made us look for a place to feast – and that again was when I showed everyone the way to Rastapan once more.

The rest of the night was spent at the beach again, under the stars, lost in endless discussions…

How would you guys start a day in Montañita, if you have read my previous blog posts?

Yeah, right, with a massive vitamin bomb…

Because Julez’ boss didn’t want to rent us some surfboards in the early morning, we just took it easy, hung out again, surfed the internet instead, bought our bus tickets back to Quito and enjoyed our last day at the beach. Malte, Madhuri & Bea would fly back to Germany in two days’ time, we had to return. Unfortunately.

Bye Julez, bye Montañita, bye Ecuadorian coast. I don’t know when I’ll see the ladder two of you again...

Exploring Ecuador’s miraculous coast: Montañita & Puerto Lopez

Manuel, the owner of the Oceana Hostel in Montañita, had redesigned Julez’ room a little during his absence: It now features the old bed and a new bunk bed, enough space for a family. Or for Carina, Julez & me.

We talked with Manuel for half an hour or so – he turned out to have a super interesting past! I would have loved to listen to him for a little longer, but Carina had to get to know Montañita.

We had dinner at some Thai place, where they discover half an hour after you ordered your food that they are currently out of the necessary ingredients. But hey, flexibility is the key to a happy life in South America. And in the end the food didn’t taste too bad.

Our first cocktail at hand we wandered along the beach, wondering how few people were around. We got told that we had just missed a massive razzia by local police for some three days, when immigration office, drug police and health ministry had all sent their people to clear out the village. Given the fact, that Montañita’s charm requires illegal street vendors, drugged hippies and rules in general are a little bended here, the town was shockingly charmless those days. At least my favorite cocktail vendor Emilia was still around…

…and once we entered the Caña Grill to bar feet dance the night away in the sand, we found that some people were still in town. For sure enough to have some decent celebration. :)

Waking up at 3pm the next day had not been planned. Carina and I originally imagined we would hitchhike further up north, but given the fact that the sun was almost about to set again, we spontaneously decided to stay another night.

We would take it easier that night – but didn’t take it easy on the breakfast: Another massive fruit salad-yoghurt-cereal-honey-mix went down to fill our stomach well. Really well. Top rim of the lower lip, as my dad would say. ;)

Julez’ boss found us sitting there, sat down with us and filled us in with all the village’s gossip and stories of the past few days and weeks. She is German, too, and seems to love little village life. Everyone knows everyone, and everyone knows what everyone else did last night. Crazy stuff.

The three of us went down to the beach. After some sun and a chilled beer, Julez left for work. Carina and I updated ourselves on the internet, walked around, picked Julez up from work, had a shower and went for dinner. While Julez met with his Dutch friend Gwen to dine a little pricier, Carina and I opted for the Rastapan option, a delicious, pizza Calzone like treat.

After a cake and a doughnut for desert we reunited again and headed towards the beach to watch the sunset.

But not without passing by and stopping at our favorite cocktail stand before. ;)

Gwen left us after a while. Carina left us a little while later. And Julez and I once again were the last men standing. Two friends under the bare stares, glaring at and listening to the nocturnal waves at Montañita beach. It’s the small things in life that are priceless.

Julez had to leave for work early the next morning. Carina and I took it a little easier, and found the next fruit saladed cereals before putting the thumb out at the road again. I think I have seldom had that much fruit in such a short amount of time before.

We were lucky that day, never had to wait longer than 20 minutes for a ride, and a friendly sun tanned our skin while waiting.

A pick-up brought us into some small village, where a banana truck picked us up a short toilet break later. We ended up in another, even smaller village, and decided to stroll around a little.

Well, not much to see. One main street. That’s it. Usually. But that day was big soccer tournament. So we stayed, had an ice-cream and watched some matches. As I said before: The really good memories are those no one can buy for money. :) (And, unfortunately, no one can properly picture them either.)

A small car finally brought us to Puerto Lopez, our todays’ destination. We booked our bus tickets back to Quito for the next day, chucked out stuff in a hostel room and hitchhiked up to Los Frailes, maybe the most beautiful beach on Ecuador’s mainland coast, situated in a National Park. As luck was with us, we got picked up by a park ranger, who drove us all the way straight to the beach.

The only problem at Los Frailes is, that there is no shade. Well – hardly any, at least. Two trees. That’s it. The shade they gave was packed with people. We didn’t mind, started to stroll along the beach – and found a tree trunk, which just gave enough sun protection for two persons. You know, there are those days, when things just work out perfect. This was definitely one of them.

I immediately fell asleep, and got woken up by two park rangers asking us to leave. The National Park would close in half an hour. So I quickly dipped into the water and we took off.

Again, luck saved us some walking time: A school bus brought us to the main road, where we paid 40c to a commercial bus driver to bring us back to Puerto Lopez. No worries at all.

After a 2$ dinner we walked to the Puerto Lopez beach and lied down in a beach chair to watch the sunset while sipping another delicious fruit juice for 1,25$ underneath some palm trees. Have I mentioned yet how amazing life can be?

The sun and the action made us head back pretty early, but Troy on television kept us awake for another two hours. But then, finally, we gave in to our weight-gaining eye lids…

Another morning. Another fruit salad. Another late check-out. This time two hours late. 3$ is what they charged us. Capitalistic bastards. To digest our anger, we spent the rest of the day in a resting chair, sipping fruit shakes and watched thousands of butterflies pass by. Wherever they went, we don’t know. But we finally went to catch our bus at 7pm and headed back to Quito. Carina would fly out the next day. *sob*

So, there’s the question again: Why do all good things come to an end? And how can two weeks pass by that quickly?

Whatever the answers might be, here is a statement: Carina, thank you sooo much for coming over to Ecuador! It was a terrific trip! And I hope you can dream away in good memories should there ever be a boring day at your new job position in Stuttgart… :)

Pickpocketed in Guayaquil. Sun & sand in Salinas.

We arrived in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city by inhabitants, in the middle of the night. Carina found that her mobile phone and some 10$ or so had been stolen from her handbag during the journey. We went back to the bus to check if it wasn’t somewhere underneath the sear or so. But bad luck that night. That stuff was gone for good. Tiring. And super annoying.

At least, the cab drivers hadn’t gone to bed yet, and we found an acceptable, though pretty pricey room for the three of us.

The next morning, Carina first of all blocked her mobile phone. That went smooth. And to start the day happier than the last one had ended, we indulged in a massive fruit salad breakfast (ca. 2$). That’s the way to get going!

We walked along the river front to do some obligatory sightseeing. As a man in a white shirt approached us, I spontaneously decided to donate some blood. Julez had done so just before Galapagos, so he was still in his recovery period. In Ecuador, you obviously don’t get paid for donating blood like in Freiburg, for example, but the guy gave me a lolli. *ha* Well, that’s was a kind move.

But we needed more. Some real food. Some delicious McDonald’s Burger. And we found them right at the riverside as well. Maybe the most scenic McDude I have been to so far.

The following shopping trip to find a new handbag for Carina (the zipper of the old one was broken, which made accessing it involuntarily easy), but at least we found those huge iguanas in the iguana park again. All good. :)

We checked out of our hotel like 10 minutes too late, which brought a discussion of another 15 minutes onto ourselves with the receptionist and the security guard to not pay any additional fees. Hey – at least we saved that dollar in the end! ;)

And then we left. None of us really likes Guayaquil, it’s big, dirty, not the safest place nor backpacker friendly – we haven’t found a single proper hostel there yet. Furthermore we were all looking incredibly forward to head to the beach. *g* Salinas was the next stop.

We arrived, had a frozen yoghurt (for research purposes only, of course!) and walked straight to the beach. Packed all our luggage next to a pair of bins, challenged the winning team at the beach volleyball court and played cards while waiting.

Honestly – I think we were more successful with those card games than in volleyball that afternoon. We lost our first game against a team which wouldn’t really deserve to win. Given the fact, that I have played tournaments with Carina in Freiburg and kicked a lot of Papimiento farting asses on Aruba with Julez, the combination of the three of us wasn’t as amazing on the court as it usually is. But hey – at least we won our second match, which was also the last one for the day; the sun set and sight became an increasing problem. Anyway, with a better feeling for not totally losing we set off to find ourselves a cozy place to stay.

We found one: The local campground. An incredibly friendly owner sold us a double bed in the camp kitchen to match our price expectations, and we happily agreed. We would have to snuggle together a little to fit ourselves onto those mattresses, but we worked it out after we had been strolling along the beach for a little and feasted with two family pizzas. Ahhh, life is amazing! :) Good night Salinas.

After sleeping in a little the next morning, Julez and I whipped our white asses out of bed to work out. A little running to warm up, and then letting those masculine muscles play on the home trainer that we found in the patio of the campground compound.

We really deserved our massive fruit salad and yoghurt drenched cereals after that. And Carina – well – she deserved it for taking pictures and looking good. ;)

To digest this mouthwatering meal a little, we started to hang out in the hammocks and consumed another two super fresh fruit shakes…

…but only after we had washed off the sweat in that open air shower.

Around noon we had to leave, even though I would have loved to stay in that place for weeks! But Julez’ job in Montañita was calling…

A bus took us to Santa Elena, from where we hiked over to the main street to hitchhike our way up north.

In the back of a pretty shabby car we got up to a gas station…

…where two ladies picked us up in the back of their Hilux. Cruising up north with another guy and his dog in the back, we got stopped by police – these bummers told us it was illegal to sit in the back of a pick-up! How gay is that? The sun had already set, and we weren’t looking too forward to spending the night on the side of a highway.

After the driving lady had negotiated for around 15 minutes with the cops, we were allowed to hop back in and arrived safely in Montañita. The other guy in the back explained that cops often invent random rules to cash bribes. Lucky us that we were riding with locals…