Canoa (Easter Weekend)

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).