- What not to pack (homework/text books)
- Never put off today what you can do tomorrow- a.k.a. buying a round trip bus ticket
- If you want something, get it. You never know when you will have to skip town in 20 minutes to ride in a shady van that gets pulled over because you are considered an illegal passenger and you miss getting that purse you really really wanted. (I know there must be a cuter, better bag out there…)
- 12 hours of traveling actually means 15+
- Never trust a bus driver
- Bring toilet paper with you everywhere you go
- Expect the unexpected
- Jumping in the ocean at three in the morning is always a good idea
- You can sit down at the dinner table with Germans, Ecuadorians, and Americans and still have amazing conversation
- Apply and reapply sunscreen or else you may find yourself traveling in very uncomfortable conditions (aka on your bottom, plus 15+hours of travel makes for some nasty chaffing..)
When we first heard about Montantito, we were told it was the best beach in Ecuador. An I know we were told it was 12 hours of traveling, but for some reason that didn’t totally register. Like most of our plans in Ecuador, we should know that the only plan is no plan. However, we always try our hardest...
From the beginning almost everything that could have gone wrong did. Our trusty guide unfortunately got really sick the day we were leaving- which can and usually does hit with no warning and with no real identifiable cause, and I know from experience when it does hit, and it will – that there is nothing you can do. Anyways, the rest of us were still determined to head to the beach, and kind of excited about the prospect of figuring it out all on our own.
The plan was to leave Thursday afternoon after classes and travel seamlessly through the night, arriving in Montanito just in time to wake up with the sun. I was so excited. I mean really really really pumped, envisioning margaritas, surfing, and some serious sun. I packed the night before, even making lists of everything I needed and fitting all of it in my jansport backpack. First of all, I packed everything but what I needed, and I put way to much homework and books in there. Also, trying to shave down space, I only packed one pair of underwear, dumb. I should have dumped the books to leave more room for the wine and snacks we bought at the supermaxi before we got on bus number 1 of 18. No exaggeration. 18 different modes of transportation. In two days. The ridiculousness started with taking a bus to Quito, then a taxi to the north station, where we needed to catch a trolley to the south station. However, along the way we either took the wrong trolley or were told the wrong directions and then had to take an extra trolley to the south station. From the south station we finally found the main terminal where we would get our 8 hour overnight bus to Guayquil and then a 3 hour bus to Montanito. However, Ecuador bus systems are run by multiple companies whose main objective is to fill up their buses as fast as they can. Therefore, if you say where you want to go, they say of course we go there and obviously its direct! Which really means, “I am lying through my teeth and if you are super lucky then maybe we won’t dump you on the side of the road..” However, we were still Ecuador bus virgins, clean, awake, well fed, and stoked to experience the transportation system.
That changed very quickly. Right before we were supposed to get on the overnight bus a group of European guys approached us saying we should wait until morning to travel because their bus had just gotten held up and violently robbed. 14, 000 pounds was stolen from them. While we appreciated their good intentions, this was not the best thing to hear right after we bought tickets and were stepping onto the bus. We boarded and everything was going smoothly until we had a bathroom break at the nastiest place I’ve ever been. I’m convinced it was some sort of prostitution pick up place- there was porn on all the tvs, all the stalls were backed up, and creepy crawly men were just lurking in corners staring and trying to pick up women at like 3 in the morning. This is where our bus driver thought would be a good place to stop. An hour later I woke up to the police searching our bus. Everyone had to get off and get searched for drugs. Thank goodness I had my I.D. with me, I had almost left it at home… Then finally we got back on the road, but then our bus broke down and we had to wait until another came and picked us up. Long story short, three busses, about 15 hours, and some sweet talking later (we had to beg the bus driver to let us on his bus because the other had left without us) we finally made it to Montanito…
And it was worth it. Montanito is a little beach town in the middle of the most destitute, poor, and random 6 block radius on the Pacific Coast. It’s in the middle of nowhere, but whoever discovered it had the epiphany of a lifetime or was just too much of a beach bum to ever want to leave. Try and picture the most hippy, colorful, tripped out town you can imagine and multiply that by a thousand. Everyone there is barefoot, dreaded out, smoking on the streets, hippy to the max, hammocks everywhere, people selling homemade bags, earrings, scarves, etc., and loving life. Bungalow thatched type buildings, music 24/7, mostly from the people playing drums and bongos on the street- that is until about 7 at night when the dancing salsa, marengue, rap tunes all mingle together in a mass of sweaty, drunk, happy, zoned out people, hostels, side bars with fresh fruit drinks made right in front of you, and all different kinds of people. I mean one night we had dinner with Germans, Ecuadorians, Americans, and Argentineans and the language barrier wasn’t even a problem. After our long travels we needed a drink and some food- so we stopped at Hola Ola.. where I had the best most mouth watering meal ever. I don’t think I will ever taste food that good again. No exaggeration- I think we were also starving and slightly traumatized from the bus situation though. Then we had to find a hostel and we had been told about a good one, but there was only one room left and these other girls were trying to take it. I don’t know where this came from or how I got the room, but I firmly told the owner that we were going to get that room (all in Spanish) and we did! A very proud moment for me.. The room had a loft and a balcony and hammock and was right on the beach and came with a free breakfast and drink- all for 10$ a night.. I love Ecuador prices! We hit the beach as soon as possible. The waves were enormous and the sun muy fuerte! The water was perfect, not to hot, not to cold.. I was in heaven. A nap and a margarita later, we got ready for a night on the town, except we weren’t accustomed yet to the social norms of Montanito. The people here stay on the beach until about 8 at night, take a quick nap, eat and heavily drink and go out around 11 and party until 7 the next morning. Literally the streets are just as packed at 10 oclock at night as it at 6 in the morning. Not only are the streets packed, but the beach is full of groups of people chilling out around bonfires and playing guitar or just passing a bottle around hanging out. We decided later that night that jumping in the ocean at about 3 in the morning was a grand idea- which it was! My favorite part of the weekend had to be making our Ecuadorian friend- who told us we had to call him Rico Suave. He was the tiniest Ecuadorian I had ever seen. This is his life.. he competes and teaches surfing all day, “works” at his bar stand making delicious fruity drinks all night, where he comes and goes whenever he likes, and parties all night until he surfs, usually intoxicated from 6 in the morning until around 9.. and maybe sleeps for two hours and does it all again. He was the most energetic person I’ve ever met, and he made it his personal duty to show us the ropes of Montanito. He gave us surfing lessons for practically free the next day, and was our personal bartender, protector, and salsa teacher the entire weekend. Rico suave might have been tiny, but he was the man. Also, there was a live Bob Marley coverband from the coast that was amazing. We were going crazy! The beach was just as much fun, and we passed the rest of the time eating, drinking, and making friends with our German neighbors. After our first night out Lauren turned to me and said “this is the most intense place I’ve been”- to which I meakly replied.. “We can be intense…”
While all this was glorious, there were some bumps in the road. We were exhausted from the transportation situation and def. did not make it the whole night like the rest of Montanito, also for some reason, maybe we’re not used to the food yet- all of us had pretty weak stomachs. But by far, the dumbest thing we did that weekend was not buy roundtrip bus tickets. Our German friends informed us Saturday that everyone goes home on Sunday and we would be lucky to get tickets. With that in mind, we decided we would have to get up right when the place opened to try and get tickets on the last bus home at 5oclock and then just sleep through the night and get home just in time for classes. However, at 7 oclock in the morning, the guy working behind the desk was asleep in his basement and no one could wake him up, so we returned an hour later and everything was sold out. A creepy man came up to us, told us he had a van and that he was leaving in 20 minutes with our without us. This barely registered to us considering we all went to bed only about 2 hours before and we ran to the hostel, packed in 10 minutes and almost got left behind by this weird man. About 10 people were packed into this little shady van and the man across from me looked like he was going to hurl. I was so angry, we got gyped on a beach day, and no one had gotten a chance to buy anything on the streets. Plus, we hadn’t eaten or slept yet. Then 30 minutes into the ride we got pulled over by the cops saying we were illegal passengers and we had to get out. We were left on the side of the road to wait for a bus, and the van driver said he would wait for the police officer to stop following us and pick us up at the next checkpoint. To which all of us said hell no we are not getting back in that shady van with you, and we decided to try our luck with the bus system again. Somehow a series of connections later, we made it to Guayakil, where we had 10 minutes to order food, beg the bus driver to let us on his bus, and find a restroom. I don’t know how we made it. Finally back in to Quito in the South station- we were exhausted, and in so many places in only four days that we were confused as to if the weekend had even happened. Convinced to take another “direct” bus back for 1$ instead of a 20$ cab, it was not direct and we were escorted onto another bus that finally took us back to Cumbaya. It was 12:30 at night, and our last ride was a cab driver that took us to our homes… Def. a learning experience and weekend I will never forget. I can’t wait to go back, but I think we might fly next time…
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