I went to Montanita (beach) with 4 other VT girls and two Ecuadorians. One of the Ecuadorians is the host sister of one of the girls that went so we relied on her for plans- bad idea. Just like the concept of "Ecuadorian time" there should be a concept of "Ecuadorian planning" which means that there are no plans and you live minute to minute. My family knows that I'm high strung and I like plans, so this was kind of a nightmare weekend. Don't get me wrong, I had fun; I just wont ever repeat it.
To start the journey off, we almost missed our bus. Thankfully we got there just in the nick of time and boarded for our 8 hour long bus ride. I had some Z-quill with me to knock me out but even the z-quill couldn't cover up the screams of a baby for the WHOLE bus ride. The mom didn't do anything to stop her baby and I wanted to scream at her. After about 5 hours of crying the mom fed her child and that helped a little bit. After the bus, we were supposed to meet the Ecuadorian girl's family friend who was going to take us to their finca [farm] for one day and then we would head to the beach. He showed up on his motorcycle so we clearly had to get a taxi. The ride to the finca was fun because it was through a really small pueblo [town]. Everyone gawked at us when we rode by [well people kinda do that everywhere] and we felt like aliens invading their land.
The finca was very fun, although bug filled. The rooms weren't air conditioned so the humidity of the coast made me feel constantly sticky. We got to play with paintball guns but none of us particularly wanted to get shot so we only did target practice. I have surprisingly good aim and was really excited to shoot the targets. After that one of the workers at the finca took us around the farm on his motorcycle [very slow and safely]. The farm grows papayas and something else and has a pool and lot's of rooms. It was really cool that the family friend let us stay there and I had a good time! I forgot to add, the finca had 2 peacocks and my friend and I chased them until we got pictures. When she posts the pics I'll steal them for you all to see since my camera is still being dumb.
The next day we caught a bus to another bus to a taxi and somehow ended up at the beach. We didn't have any per-purchased tickets and just ended up places and asked random people for our next step. I was kind of nervous doing this but somehow it worked out. We got to the beach about 5 hours after we left the finca and went on our search for a hostel. A friend of the host sister found us a room for $15 a night and we took it. The beds were comfortable and the room wasn't necessarily dirty but wasn't clean either. It was the kind of place where you have to ask for toilet paper because it's not automatically provided...
The beach was super fun! It was a big surfer spot and the waves were pretty big, The waves closer to the shoe weren't bad so it was still fun swimming but the far waves were huge and it was exiting to watch people surf. No, I didn't try surfing because I didn't want to be eaten by a shark :) but I didn't swim in the ocean for hours so I wasn't a huge chicken. The second day at the beach was VERY hot, like you're outside for 5 minutes and you feel like you're already burning. The shower in our hostel was nasty so used the salt water as our shower. I have never felt as stinky as I was on the bus ride home. Since it was Carnival, people were spraying each other with foam left and right. I got sprayed a few times but I was already in my bathing suit so it was fun!
The buses began to sell out the day we wanted to leave so the VT girls and I figured out our own plan to get home and parted ways with our Ecuadorian friends who wanted to stay a little longer. We took one bus from the beach to the main coastal city, Guayaquil and this was the best part of my trip. I got hit in the head with a water balloon [Carnival tradition] through the window of our bus while I was sleeping but I have to give credit to the person who managed to hit me through the small crack in the window. One of the girls made friends with the bus driver so when we got off of the 3 hour bus ride, we didn't have to pay at all! Our last leg of the journey was a 9 hour bus ride home. I slept most of the way and got to watch both Air Force One and Taken in Spanish. The Spanish voice dubbing definitely took the intensity out of Taken and I was very unimpressed but it was better than sitting in silence. We took a taxi back to our homes from the bus station and I FINALLY showered!
I will steal my friends pictures as soon as I can and try to fix my camera this week since I'm going to the amazon this coming weekend. Surprisingly there's a Sony store on my walk home so I'll stop in there on Wed. for some camera advice [if I can work out the Spanish dialogue before hand].
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