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Published: April 4th 2007
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Montañita
Silhouettes 25 March, Sunday... Oh my. I am so hungover today. Why did I drink all that rum? Why? I spent most of the day sleeping then decided to head out to the old town (Quito viejo) to see some of the churches and take some photos. The old town is pretty but there's not much to do there other than just wander. Feeling slightly better I braved the drink once more and had a couple of beers and even ended up dancing a bit, until 2.
26 March, Monday... Mmmmm things might start to get complicated. Thom's talking seriously about not going to Venezuela and rerouting to see New York. I can see his point, it would work out very cheap to go to New York now rather than as a separate trip from England, but I think the states might prove to expensive for me so I might stick to the original plan. I've heard Angel Falls are dry this time of year and the country can be a bit dangerous. I think that's why Thom don't want to go.
Thom checked out the deal at the LAN office. It seems to go to New York it'll
cost $125 plus any taxes and to change the dates of the existing route it's free. And we can make all these changes after we should have caught the plane. That being the case we decided to miss the plane this evening and arrange tomorrow after giving it some serious thought. And tonight there's free rum and coke in the hostel but I think after two boozy nights I'll take it easy and just have a couple.
27 March, Tuesday... Woke up not feeling great. No I didn't drink (much) last night I just think the rum was super cheap and nasty. Well, we dragged ourselves out to the LAN office with Thom much worse for wear. I'd decided to reschedule and stick to the original route, Thom had decided to head to New York for a long weekend at the end. His worked out at $230 or so which isn't bad for a flight to NY. We celebrated our imminent separation with a curry which would later make me feel rather ill. What else to do next but head to an organ recital with some friends? We didn't know it was organ music before we got there, the
Guayaquil
Steps, that wasn't part of the deal adverts just said 'concert' but it was in a church so maybe we should have realised. Fifteen minutes later we ran off, I hate the sound of the organ even played well, and went to get a beer instead. Beer was followed by Paisa, an aniseed kind of meths I suppose, which made me violently ill in record time. That's not good as I had decided to take a bus this evening to head to the beach. Figuring that it was drink rather than actual illness I went to rest at the hostel for an hour and then went to take the bus and say goodbye to Thom.
28 March, Wednesday... Bus, bus, arrive Guayaquil at 8am or so. Time to see some of the city before getting another bus. Went for a walk via a juice bar to the malecon which is the promenade along the riverside and is quite pretty and also super hot. Where's the shade and where's the suntan lotion? Oh well, I know what would be a great idea to climb that big hill (Cerro Santa Ana) and see the Las Peñas area. Lots of steps later there were more steps to climb and
a lighthouse at the top. Nice view over the city from here. Back down the 400 odd steps and it was much faster going down and I bought a much needed drink (soft drink of course). A bit more walking on the malecon to go back to the centre, a brief venture into a market and it was time to take the bus to Montañita. This bus was a bit more cramped and my seat had a mind of it's own, deciding to recline on every bump in the road, sorry to the person behind me. Arrive, hotel (only $5 - bargain), food, sleep. Beach tomorrow methinks.
29 March, Thursday... Hmmm. The weather doesn't look that great. Went for a walk up and down the beach. It seems to be a pretty beach, just a shame it's overcast today. Killed some time, drank some beer. They had some guys twizzling firey sticks too and some girl doing some weird dancing on the street. Enough fun for me, time to go to bed.
30 March, Friday... All right - sunshine! Chilling on the beach isn't that interesting to read or write about so.. woke up late, ate (mmm batidos), went to beach, beach too hot, got beer in shade, went back to beach, went to take shower to remove excessive amounts of sand stuck to my body, ate, drank, danced (a little), slept.
31 March, Saturday... Woke late, ate (I think I'm getting addicted to batidos: fruit, milk, ice, blend - it's that simple), beach, too hot so... beer, beach, eat, sleep. It is a very pretty beach. The sun sets right over the water but my word it is hot during the day. Something to do with being near the equator. Oh well, Pilsener is a good beer.
1 April, Sunday... Woke late, ate, went to beach, went to pack bags, caught a bus to Santa Elena then to Guayaquil then to Quito (again). Montañita was good, relaxing, hot and sunny. Why am I going back to cold, wet Quito?
2 April, Monday... Arrived Quito, slept (no sleep is possible on these buses), went to the market to buy some souvenirs/gifts for my family - the end of the journey is coming you know? Really good food for $1.50 - I like this place. Then... copious amounts of rum and coke before crashing out. Quito's great.
3 April, Tuesday... Slept 'til early afternoon - this rum and coke thing doesn't seem to agree with me too well maybe I have an allergy. A batido and a soup for lunch. Right, what's left to do in Quito - Mindo (too far needs a full day) and the park. Went to the park (Parque Carolina) to wander and even visited the botanical gardens where they had an orchid house. Then to some huge shopping centre (Quicentro) nearby where everything was far too expensive for me and the food was a bit dodgy. Then... out for a few beers. Went to a new bar which had a live band playing salsa music then to a bar called No Bar which does have a bar and was absolutely rammed.
4 April, Wednesday... I just want to sleep but this'll be my last day in Ecuador and I want to buy some fake t-shirts and things. Out to the old town again and I did some shopping. I even got a haircut which only cost $1 but was probably the worst haircut I've ever had and took about 45 mins. Would I go back? I don't know, it's kind of irrelevant anyway. Time for some local cuisine - fanesca - there was a fanesca festival on near gringolandia so I went there to get my bean soup with added fish bones (I think it would have been fish if I'd paid more). It was very tasty and pretty filling once you removed the fish skeleton. Then it started pissing it down, thunder, lightning the whole shabang but I was safely tucked inside a taxi on my way to the airport. First a flight to Lima then a 12 hour wait then a flight to Caracas. Smashing.
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