The last weekend that I was in Manta a group of us visted another really small beach town called Canoa. Conoa is about a three hour bus ride North of Manta...There were seven of us (Myself, Alec, three of my roommates from Florida, and two other students from my school). This town reminded me of Montanita, although slightly smaller. We were there Easter weekend, so it was packed..we were told that it was much more packed than usual, Canoa is supposed to be a tiny fishing town with not much going on except a huge beautiful white sand beach...it did have the beach, but also a lot more. The town had a similar party, beach town vibe as Montanita. The town was slightly more spread out, but still tons of hostels, bars, restaurants, etc. The one thing that I liked a little more about Canoa over Montanita was that a lot of their restuarants and bars were directly under huts on the beach.
We arrived in Canoa early in the day so we were able to spend the whole day doing typical touristy activities, including trying all of the different pina coladas around the town in order to find the best one, swinging in hammocks, swimming, eating and wondering around.
The nightlife in Canoa was also pretty happening. There were lots of restaurants and bars lining the sandy streets. Some of the main bars were all located right next to each other, so the streets were just packed with people as well. We actually spent a lot of our night sitting on a log down by the water drinking really cheap liquor (3 dollars for a bottle!)....yes, disgusting....
The town of Canoa was beautiful, and the scenery surrounding the town was amazing. The huge white sand beach was surrounded by towering green mountains, and there was a beautiful mist around the hills that gave the small town an earie but beautiful vibe. I really felt like I was in the middle of nowhere on this amazing beach. The water was great, the waves were perfect for surfing and swimming (Alec and I rented boogie boards!). The beach was shallow for a long way out, and there was wave after wave, sometimes four at a time. Alec and I spent a lot of the morning swimming, and had a really hard time forcing ourselves to finally get out of the water. I really felt like I was in paradise. I would like to go back to the town... I know that if I do it will be a much different experience (we hapenned to be there one of the busiest weekends of the year).
Monday, April 20, 2009
Ruta del Sol & Montanita
The second weekend I was in Manta, a group of us went on a road trip south on the Ruta del Sol (a highway following the coastline). There were seven of us...our Ecuadorian friends had a car, and we rented the other...it was so nice riding in a car after all that time riding in the bus! We were heading towards Montanita to spend the night, while on the way we stopped at various beaches and small traditional Ecuadorian towns. We stopped at a small town just about a half an hour South of Manta for lunch. The town was tiny, there didn´t appear to be many people, especially tourists there, but we stopped at this really cute hostel-restaurant to eat. The ceviche there was delicious! The hostel was directly on the beach....the beautiful empty beaches were one of the main things that surprised me while on the trip. The whole ride to Montanita we were able to view the never ending beaches with beautiful white sand, and completely empty! It was crazy, if these beaches were anywhere in the States they would have been completely packed, it was quite an awesome experience.
We stopped in another really small town along the way to go for a swim. The water was so amazing, perfect temperature, and perfect sized waves that we were able to body surf on. We then stopped in the National Park Monchalilla. There we went to an amazingly beautiful beach called Frailes. Once again, almost completely empty. After the beach we went into a small town where only native Ecuadorians were living. We took a tour with a guide (he didn´t know any English, so we were only able to understand about half of what he was saying). On the tour we were able to explore some really beautiful remote Ecuadorian land...beautiful hills, forests, and gardens filled with all sorts of tropical fruit trees and other gorgeous terrain.
We finally made it into Montanita around 9pm. We were easily able to find a hostel, located directly in the midst of everything. The small town of Montanita was amazing! I had never been to any town similar to it. If you have heard anything about it, most of it is probably true...it´s a tiny town with a massive white sand beach, famous for surfing. The town itself is located just beyond the sand of the beach, although the main roads of the town are also covered in sand. There were about three blocks to the main area, all of which were blocked off from cars. The blocks were lined with bars, restaurants, little shops, and hostels, and tons of vendors on the street selling anything from clothing and jewlery to suveniers, food, and drinks. The town of course was filled with tourists. It seemed like the kind of place that hippie tourists would move to and get by by selling things on the street.....
The nighlife was crazy...pretty much everybody partying in the town was staying in a hostel in the main area, so there were just tons of people going from bar to bar drinking and eating. We bar hopped quite a bit, then headed down to the beach, where there were tons of people sitting around their fires that they had built. We sat on the beach for a bit, then headed back to a dancing club where we danced until about five in the morning....when we went back to the hostel, there were still a lot of people out partying.
We were only there for one night, because we had to get back to Manta to watch the big soccer game (Ecuador vs. Brasil). But I definately am planning on returning to that town before I head back home.
We stopped in another really small town along the way to go for a swim. The water was so amazing, perfect temperature, and perfect sized waves that we were able to body surf on. We then stopped in the National Park Monchalilla. There we went to an amazingly beautiful beach called Frailes. Once again, almost completely empty. After the beach we went into a small town where only native Ecuadorians were living. We took a tour with a guide (he didn´t know any English, so we were only able to understand about half of what he was saying). On the tour we were able to explore some really beautiful remote Ecuadorian land...beautiful hills, forests, and gardens filled with all sorts of tropical fruit trees and other gorgeous terrain.
We finally made it into Montanita around 9pm. We were easily able to find a hostel, located directly in the midst of everything. The small town of Montanita was amazing! I had never been to any town similar to it. If you have heard anything about it, most of it is probably true...it´s a tiny town with a massive white sand beach, famous for surfing. The town itself is located just beyond the sand of the beach, although the main roads of the town are also covered in sand. There were about three blocks to the main area, all of which were blocked off from cars. The blocks were lined with bars, restaurants, little shops, and hostels, and tons of vendors on the street selling anything from clothing and jewlery to suveniers, food, and drinks. The town of course was filled with tourists. It seemed like the kind of place that hippie tourists would move to and get by by selling things on the street.....
The nighlife was crazy...pretty much everybody partying in the town was staying in a hostel in the main area, so there were just tons of people going from bar to bar drinking and eating. We bar hopped quite a bit, then headed down to the beach, where there were tons of people sitting around their fires that they had built. We sat on the beach for a bit, then headed back to a dancing club where we danced until about five in the morning....when we went back to the hostel, there were still a lot of people out partying.
We were only there for one night, because we had to get back to Manta to watch the big soccer game (Ecuador vs. Brasil). But I definately am planning on returning to that town before I head back home.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Manta
My trip so far is about to drastically change....
Arriving in Manta, Ecuador (more to come)
March 16th
I arrived in Manta on Saturday....finally!!! The city was not quite as I expected...a bunch of buildings (not very pretty), not much in terms of sight seeing or entertainment...but here I am, one month after I arrived. If it weren´t for all of the great people I have met I would not have stayed here nearly as long. I am living in an apartment for students at my language school. I love my apartment. It is in the same building as the school, just one floor above it. The first week I was here, I had the four bedroom apartment all to myself because all of the other students at the time were living with host families. Although a little boring at first, it still felt like a luxury living in such a nice place...especially after spending the first month of the trip constantly in and out of hostels (some had no hot water, no showers, or shared dorm rooms with five other people). My apartment is well furnished, nice big bedrooms, big living room, big kitchen, and the best part about it is the large terrace right on the top floor of the building. The only other rooms in the apartment are the school, and a doctors office on the bottom floor, so past business hours, I had the whole building to myself!
I was a little concerned about meeting people when I first got here, but after starting classes on Monday, it was easy to meet some nice travelors. I met my friend Alec at the school, who also started classes the week that I did. I have been hanging out with him the most since I arrived in Manta. I am really fortunate to have met him because he introduced me to his host family who have been really great. His host sister is about my age, while the group of us (including more locals) have been hanging out..By the second week, it was hard finding any free time between going to class, studying, and hanging out with friends whether it was going out for some beers, cooking, going out to eat, going to the beach, or going to the cinema. The second weekend a group of us went to Montanita (I will be posting an entry about that).
The first week I was signed up for surfing classes..but unfortunately there were not many waves while I have been here, so I was only able to go out once....so then I tried to take kitesurfing and realized that it wasn´t really worth paying for two weeks of lessons when I wouldn´t really learn much, so I quit (sorry Brandy!).
Manta is located in a central area on the Ecuadorian coast, so it is really easy to get to many other beach towns along the coast on a super cheap bus ride (it costs about 2 or 3 dollars to get a bus from Manta to a town about 2 or 3 hours away). The local Ecuadorians that we made friends with have cars, so we were lucky enough to get to drive down the Ruta del Sol, which is the highway that runs right along the coastline, a road that buses do not take. There are lots of beautiful beaches within a half hour drive from Manta, so we took advantage of seeing other beaches instead of going to the beach in Manta the whole time.
I have been in Manta for a month so far, and tomorrow I´m getting ready to go to Quito for two more weeks of language classes. I am going to miss Manta, but I am excited to see more of Ecuador, especially the high lands!
Arriving in Manta, Ecuador (more to come)
March 16th
I arrived in Manta on Saturday....finally!!! The city was not quite as I expected...a bunch of buildings (not very pretty), not much in terms of sight seeing or entertainment...but here I am, one month after I arrived. If it weren´t for all of the great people I have met I would not have stayed here nearly as long. I am living in an apartment for students at my language school. I love my apartment. It is in the same building as the school, just one floor above it. The first week I was here, I had the four bedroom apartment all to myself because all of the other students at the time were living with host families. Although a little boring at first, it still felt like a luxury living in such a nice place...especially after spending the first month of the trip constantly in and out of hostels (some had no hot water, no showers, or shared dorm rooms with five other people). My apartment is well furnished, nice big bedrooms, big living room, big kitchen, and the best part about it is the large terrace right on the top floor of the building. The only other rooms in the apartment are the school, and a doctors office on the bottom floor, so past business hours, I had the whole building to myself!
I was a little concerned about meeting people when I first got here, but after starting classes on Monday, it was easy to meet some nice travelors. I met my friend Alec at the school, who also started classes the week that I did. I have been hanging out with him the most since I arrived in Manta. I am really fortunate to have met him because he introduced me to his host family who have been really great. His host sister is about my age, while the group of us (including more locals) have been hanging out..By the second week, it was hard finding any free time between going to class, studying, and hanging out with friends whether it was going out for some beers, cooking, going out to eat, going to the beach, or going to the cinema. The second weekend a group of us went to Montanita (I will be posting an entry about that).
The first week I was signed up for surfing classes..but unfortunately there were not many waves while I have been here, so I was only able to go out once....so then I tried to take kitesurfing and realized that it wasn´t really worth paying for two weeks of lessons when I wouldn´t really learn much, so I quit (sorry Brandy!).
Manta is located in a central area on the Ecuadorian coast, so it is really easy to get to many other beach towns along the coast on a super cheap bus ride (it costs about 2 or 3 dollars to get a bus from Manta to a town about 2 or 3 hours away). The local Ecuadorians that we made friends with have cars, so we were lucky enough to get to drive down the Ruta del Sol, which is the highway that runs right along the coastline, a road that buses do not take. There are lots of beautiful beaches within a half hour drive from Manta, so we took advantage of seeing other beaches instead of going to the beach in Manta the whole time.
I have been in Manta for a month so far, and tomorrow I´m getting ready to go to Quito for two more weeks of language classes. I am going to miss Manta, but I am excited to see more of Ecuador, especially the high lands!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Memorable bus ride to Ecuador
Tuesday, March 10th
Wow, again I get ready to begin an even longer bus journey BACK north to Ecuador...I was not originally planning on traveling South to Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, but that´s whats so great about traveling with little plans (each day is a new adventure!).
Here, Ruby and I part ways...she decided to stay in Argentina for longer, but I was feeling anxious about getting more Spanish practice, and wanted to start language school in Ecuador...so...
Here begins the adventures of traveling solo across South America...which turned out to be a great experience! I made it to Cordoba, Argentina after an overnight bus ride from Montevideo Uruguay. Here I had to stay for the night because they didn´t have any open spaces in the direct bus, may I emphasize direct?! to LIMA! The next day I started my three night bus ride all the way BACK to Lima, Peru where we started. Although the bus ride was ridiculously long, and I wouldn´t chose to do it ever again, I do have some great memories from the trip. First of all, I was the only person in the whole bus who did not speak Spanish (well at least not very well), and not one other person spoke a word of English...so as you can imagine it was quite the ride. There were probably about twenty people in the bus (mostly Peruvians, and some Argentinians)...I knew this, because as you can imagine, after three nights in a bus with the same people, you get to know a little about everyone!
It was good practice for me to be with all Spanish speaking people, I made friends with some really nice guys who were sitting next to me, we had a great time trying to understand each other. I spent the whole bus ride not knowing exactly what was going on, because the bus attendent would make all of his many announcements in Spanish (so I never knew exactly where we were, when we were gonna stop, how long we were gonna stop for, and what the heck to do at all of the border crossings), but I just went along with it...and after three nights finally made it to Lima!
I ended up getting a plane from Lima to Guayaquil, Ecuador so I could make it in time to start classes on monday.
Wow, again I get ready to begin an even longer bus journey BACK north to Ecuador...I was not originally planning on traveling South to Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, but that´s whats so great about traveling with little plans (each day is a new adventure!).
Here, Ruby and I part ways...she decided to stay in Argentina for longer, but I was feeling anxious about getting more Spanish practice, and wanted to start language school in Ecuador...so...
Here begins the adventures of traveling solo across South America...which turned out to be a great experience! I made it to Cordoba, Argentina after an overnight bus ride from Montevideo Uruguay. Here I had to stay for the night because they didn´t have any open spaces in the direct bus, may I emphasize direct?! to LIMA! The next day I started my three night bus ride all the way BACK to Lima, Peru where we started. Although the bus ride was ridiculously long, and I wouldn´t chose to do it ever again, I do have some great memories from the trip. First of all, I was the only person in the whole bus who did not speak Spanish (well at least not very well), and not one other person spoke a word of English...so as you can imagine it was quite the ride. There were probably about twenty people in the bus (mostly Peruvians, and some Argentinians)...I knew this, because as you can imagine, after three nights in a bus with the same people, you get to know a little about everyone!
It was good practice for me to be with all Spanish speaking people, I made friends with some really nice guys who were sitting next to me, we had a great time trying to understand each other. I spent the whole bus ride not knowing exactly what was going on, because the bus attendent would make all of his many announcements in Spanish (so I never knew exactly where we were, when we were gonna stop, how long we were gonna stop for, and what the heck to do at all of the border crossings), but I just went along with it...and after three nights finally made it to Lima!
I ended up getting a plane from Lima to Guayaquil, Ecuador so I could make it in time to start classes on monday.
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