Gone Fishing

Hello everybody. I am a few cities behind since my lost blog. The "Mr. Allen goes to the beach" blog was from a small beach town about half way down the coast called Canoa. If it was too cryptic, well I don´t apologize, but I wanted to try something different.

From Canoa I travelled south along the "Ruta del Sol" a highway that runs along the coast. I don´t think the highway got it´s name from this time of year--a guy in Canoa told me that he has seen about 6 sunny days in the last two months. I had one while I was there. I spent maybe two hours in the sun and came in with first degree burns on my shoulders. I am still peeling. Even without sun the ride along the "Ruta" is pretty stunning, especially coming through Parque Nacional Machalilla, the only national park on the coast of Ecuador. The road was pretty crumby but views of the ocean winding through thick vegetation was great.

I wound up in a town two hours(ish) south of the Parque called Puerto Lopez. Puerto Lopez is a small town, but it´s bigger than Canoa and it´s growing. Fishing and tourism are the industries there. Lots of boats leave for Isla de la Plata (poor man´s Galapagos of shore of the Parque Machalilla) and to go whale watching. I guess humpbacks come through Puerto Lopez on their tour de mating, or eating--they go through anyway. The high season for whale watching is June through August but there were still boats leaving when I was there. One day sitting on the beach two tour operators trying to convince me to go whale watching pointed out a whale out there, sticking it´s finn in the air, waving, and then spitting water up through it´s blow hole. It took me a while but finally I saw it. I didn´t end up going whale watching but I did go fishing-snorkeling-bird and other animal watching. It was an overcast day, and the water was choppy and cool but we had a good time. I caught two fish. One using a rod and lure, letting it trail the boat as we puttered about (this fish was very small and we didn´t even end up eating it). The other fish I caught using a string with a bit of sardine attached to it--no joke. You throw the string with weight and bait as far as you can from the boat, let it sink for a while then hold the string and when you feel a nibble you pull. I am either really bad at this technique or fish just didn´t like my bait for some reason--must have been the bait! Anyhow my other shipmates, Rueben (the tour guide that convinced me to go), El Capitan Tira Loca (a former fisherman with gold front teeth, apparently he got the name Tira Loca from flirting it up with a young gringo girl--sounded fishy to me), and a young kid maybe my age who I took to be Capitan Tira Loca Jr, all were pulling fish in frequently, plopping them into our red bucket. Rueben especially. He would laugh while hauling one in. "Que pasó George." All I could do was shrug my shoulders. I did catch one. And I had one on the line that must have been really big, the line was slipping through my fingers and tearing at my hands. I fought with the guy for a while and when I thought I had him close to the boat he broke free. My shipmates maintaned it was a rock, but I know better. My heart wouldn´t have been racing so wildly if it was just a rock...right?

After we filled our bucket we stopped off at Isla de Salango, and island just south of Puerto Lopez off the coast of the town of Salango. If the Isla de la Plata is the poor man´s Galapagos then Isla de Salango must be...well I donno you´re not really poor going to either one, and I got to see some blue footed boobies hanging out on the side of a rock face on Isla de Salango. It´s true they have blue feet. And they most definetely are boobies. We threw down the anchor by the Isla and I went for a swim amongst the fishies. The waves battering the rocks beside me churned up a lot of stuff so it was hard to see at times but when the water cleared up there were some excellent fish to see. Those fish that look like they have been squeezed together really tight, they kind of look like a plate on it´s edge, swimming around, colored in tiger stripes of yellow white and black.

When I came up from snorkeling, the water was cold I could only stay out there a half hour or so, Rueben was busying himself cutting up our catch and preparing ceviche. He marinated the white meat in lime for 30 minutes or so then added diced up pepper, onion, and cucumber, then added some mustard, a bit of catchup and some more lime. It was great. Really the best seafood I have had yet. So fresh, so tender, and with those veggies--served with chifle, banana chips and a soda. Really a great meal.

From Puerto Lopez I went further south along the Ruta del Sol. I stopped at a surfer town called Montanita, and intended to stay there for a few days but most of the hotels were full and prices were inflated. It is a tourist town but minus the "adventure" trips that places like P. Lopez offer. So I decided to hop on a bus to Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador. The ride was pleasant. I sat next to a couple of Ecuadorian children who loved the movies that were being played--Babies Day Out, and Vipers--twice. Don´t see either. Unless you really like Tara Reid. In which case watch Vipers, twice.

Guayaquil is really big but you don´t really notice it. I think it sprawls out pretty far...The main downtown drag is pretty posh. It reminded me of Chicago, Madison Av (?)--the main commercial drag in Chicago. Lots of expensive shops and fast food restaraunts (the other popular fast food chain besides KFC is Gus. Yes Gus. They serve basically the same thing as KFC. Greasy chicken). The drag runs east-west, to the east is the River Guayas. Along the river is a newly installed boardwalk called the Malecón 2000--I think it commerates the meeting of Simon Bolivar and San Martin--it´s a very nice boardwalk riddled with ice cream vendors and play things for children. I walked around the Malecón on Friday night, which was Día de los Muertos (South America´s equivalent of Halloween except with arguably a richer tradition, honoring the dead various ways--an indigenous tradition?). The Malecón was full of families, kids dressed up as super heros or princesses. Not too many parents were dressed up. Some women had devil horns on. It was a nice night to walk around. Guayaquil is hot during the day, very humid, but at night a pleasant breeze blows of the Malecón. Perfect long pants and t-shirt weather--and ice cream and or cold beer weather. The other "event" of Guayaquil was walking up the old barrio to the north called Las Peñas. It´s a little neighborhood of pink, green, and yellow houses with tile roofs. Narrow stairways lead you up through the neighborhood to a church and lighthouse at the top where there are some great views of the city.

I´m in Cuenca now. The third largest city in Ecuador, some 400-500,000. Cuena´s a very pretty city. Reminds me of Europe because of it´s narrow cobblestone streets with those second floor iron balconys that peak out onto the street. I made some friends with a group of girls who picked me up totally randomly and took me to a carnival. The Día de los Muertos weekend in Cuenca is a big celebration because Monday is their independence day. No one has school and everybody parties. I went on a couple sketchy rides and ate some empanadas. The girls were very nice. I went to one of their houses and got introduced to the whole family. Their mom was a hoot. She liked to say Oh My Gosh, and It´s so Cold!

Last night I watched the elections in a bar with a bunch of other gringos. I sat next to a dude from Portland who graduated from Reed. I walked back to my hostel around 1 or so, glowing from the election results and the quiet colonial streets.

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