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Beach life is the good life. I arrived in Montañita last Friday morning after a fun overnight bus adventure from Baños where I got to change buses 3 times because our first bus broke down. Montañita is a fun little surf town on the central Ecuadorian coast that seems to only exist to cater to tourists. While most towns we've visited seem to have improved upon their tourism infrastructure or created certain touristy areas while at the same time keeping their older Ecuadorian roots intact, Montañita is the first town I've seen that appears to have been built solely and completely for travelers. The town consists of a grid of about 4 streets by 6 streets, all of which are filled with bars, restaurants and tons of vendor stalls selling anything and everything with Montañita written on it. There is also a street called Cocktail Alley which is lined with booths selling strong alcoholic mixed drinks for $3 a pop. They start bumping music in this place around 4pm and don't stop until 4am, and it can be heard from anywhere in town. Needless to say it is a party town with great nightlife any night of the week.
Lauren and I stayed here for a week and a half at a hostel called Mama Cucha, about a 20 second walk from the beach. They charged $8 a night for a double room and we had hammocks and 3 kitchens at our disposal, not too shabby. I have discovered I love staying in places where the blanket on your bed consists solely of a single sheet. That alone implies nice, hot, perfect beach weather at any time of the day or night. Also when you have giant iguanas hanging out sunbathing on the bridge right next to the hostel you know you are in a wonderfully warm environment. Erik and Aleah, our American friends we met in the Amazon, stayed in the next room so we had some people to hang out with during our lazy days (which were all of them). Needless to say I went to the beach every day and almost succeeded at my attempt to change my ethnicity via darkening my skin color. The water was some of the warmest ocean water I've ever swam in and it was pure bliss to frolic in the crashing waves. We tried surfing one day but it's harder than I remember and since I am very low on cash I didn't feel like shelling out more dough to rent a board (which cost $5 an hour or $15 per day).
One of our first days in town we ran into one of our rafting guides from Baños who happened to be staying at our hostel, so we went out with him and his friends to the salsa bar in town and danced our booties off. You'd think with all this dancing that I would actually be good at it by now, but after watching Aleah salsa dance I have come to the conclusion that I can't dance at all. Though I still find it fun and still insist on trying. The next day Aleah went back to Baños with the guys for a few days, while Erik hung around with us. He and I spent many a night drinking and wandering around town, and one night we even decided to go for a moonlit swim. I think that was the caipirinha night. Aleah and Erik got me hooked on caipirinhas, a Brazilian drink made with cachaca (an alcohol made from sugarcane), lime juice, sugar and water. It's a simple and delicious drink and one night we had the brilliant idea to make our own, which of course meant drinking half a bottle of hard liquor each. So it was only after countless caipirinhas and probably a couple beers that we decided to go for a swim. Unfortunately since alcohol lowers one's inhibitions it also seemed to us a good idea at the time to leave our things on the beach while we went for a swim in the (very far from the dry sand because it was low tide) water, which is how we got robbed. Luckily neither of us had much cash on us, but Erik did have his phone stolen so that was a total bummer. They also took my new favorite purse that I had just bought a week earlier and had already gotten used to wearing at all times. It's nowhere near as bad as losing a phone but I was really fond of that bag. People are jerks. It was still a really fun night though, and I will always remember our nighttime swim in the warm ocean with the moonlight gleaming down on us.
One of the best days was when we decided that waiting around until the afternoon to start drinking just wasn't good enough, so we started the party a little earlier. When I say 'a little earlier' I mean that it may have been 10am when Erik showed up on the beach with a bottle of vodka, some lime juice and a bottle of Coke. We went through 2 bottles that day, following the vodka with a bottle of gin. Even though it doesn't seem like it you can rest assured we aren't alcoholics, just bored. In between bottles we decided to take the hostel kayak out to see what we could do. First Lauren and I gave it a try and the waves totally owned us. We rode in on one or 2, but mostly we just kept flipping over. Consequently that is how I lost my 4th pair of sunglasses on this trip. Note to self: never buy an expensive pair of sunglasses because you will lose them! After Lauren and I failed a few times Erik and I gave it a shot with the same result. I'd say single person ocean kayaking is definitely easier.
We returned the kayak to the hostel and headed to our favorite eatery in the town: a tiny Mexican food place called Guadalajara. It was a restaurant owned and operated by one guy who made the best vegetarian tacos I think I've ever had and we went there every single day. On top of having a usual lunch spot we also had our favorite breakfast spot, which was located right across the street from taco guy. The breakfast place made the best scrambled eggs I think I've ever had in my life because they were loaded with big chunks of fresh steamed veggies. The eggs were served either with a delicious pancake or fried plantains pieces (called patacones), and either way it was always good. Almost every day we made it a point to get juice (and usually a yummy sandwich) from our juice stand people, who knew our faces very well. My new addiction is jugo de maracuya y naranja, which is orange juice mixed with passion fruit and it is a fiesta of deliciousness in my mouth. While I am not going to miss crowded stuffy buses or carrying my own toilet paper everywhere, I will definitely miss the fresh fruit juices that South America has to offer. I think I also miss our favorite food places in Montañita almost as much as the cafés in Baños, so I guess I'll just have to return to Ecuador someday.
Montañita was our home for almost 2 weeks and it was the best lazy 2 weeks I've ever had. Sun, beach, hammocks, cheap alcohol and yummy food all make for a great lazy person vacation. But alas, we could not stay forever. Next stop Guayaquil to hopefully visit some mangroves!
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