Montañita and a few characters

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I would like to sincerely apologise for the last advertisement, i obviously offended someone as i have one less subscriber than before!

In my last week in Ecuador i realised i hadn't been to the coast so i took one final road trip via Cuenca to buy panama hats. I only had a few days on the coast and i knew immediately the one place i had to go as it had been recommended by most travellers i had met...Montañita. Montañita was first recommended to me by a trio of Israeli travellers in Colombia. At that point i was a bit skeptical as i had realised from my last trip that when a group of Israelis recommend a place it is invariably because there are a)lots of Israelis who live there or b)lots of marijuana there. Montañita falls under category c) all of the above.

On our (i was travelling with an Irish guy called Mark) first venture down the main road we were offered weed then saw a hostel called "The Promised Land" (yes it was run by an Israeli family) and we were then offered cocaine (yes it was by a Colombian immigrant). After my first night in Montañita i realised the town made money in three ways:
1.Overpriced Fish (we are on the coast why is it $4?)
2.Overpriced drinks ($2 for a beer sent me back to Heart of Darkness in Cambodia when we ran out of money...remember Bea?)
3.Overpriced drugs (Not that i took any mum, purely journalistic research)

It was the drugs issue that both made Montañita such a fun place but also a sad one. Any place that attracts large groups of white rastas selling handicrafts while sitting on the curb with a bottle Zhumir (Ecuador's poor man's spirit) has a sad element about it. Also i soon realised that the people were incredibly friendly but only when they thought you were a business opportunity. The first night we were constantly greeted with the surfer's salutation (a side Hi-5 followed by touching fists) and "Bienvenidos a Montañita"...."como estas" and then "do you waan saam weed" or "i got goood sniff, from Cali". By the second night they had realised that when i said "maybe later, i'm just walking around" i had meant it in the latino sense which is "no, F-Off" and although they continued to say hello it was definitely with less enthusiasm than before.

Originally i was going to write a basic chronology of the three nights in Montañita but i realised it would be pretty repetetive. We woke up late, had a pizza, slept some more as it was cloudy, had some beers over a few games of pool, had 2 for 1 cocktails in the Promised Land, went to Cañar Grill (the only place open late) and danced till sunrise with drugged up locals or rich Ecuadorian tourists. So instead i thought i would introduce you to a few of the people i met while in Montañita as their stories sum the place up better than my chronology ever could.

Jorge a.k.a "El Cubano": Jorge was the very person we met in Montañita, as we stepped off the bus he wanted to show us his hotel. We obliged politely but apart from the place being an overpriced dump it was also on the main road which he said "means it is far from the noise of the bars" but i had come to the beach to hear 'the waves' rather than 'waves of traffic'. While showing us round Jorge introduced us to two Swiss girls, though later that night when we saw Jorge i noticed he referred to every girl as Swiss...i still don't know if is was some kind of Cuban code. When we saw Jorge later on the first night he was very high on coke, at first he had a go at us for not staying at his hostel but soon calmed down and thrust a bag of coke into our hands..."just to try for free" he said and then followed that lie with "if you like it $10". We politely declined his offer and after that night didn't bump into Jorge "El Cubano" again.

Pablo a.k.a "Dominican Republic": Dominican Republic is a massive black guy with dreads and wore the same pair of shorts for the three days i was there. When we wanted to buy some weed (sorry mum) he was the first person i suggested to Mark. He looked at me with a look that read "that is a pretty racist stereotype Ralph"...I understood his look and said "Just look at his eyes, they can't open". In fact for the three days that we saw Dominican Republic his eyes were always half closed and he often seemed to have half a beer in his hand. Sure enough Dominican Republic did get hold of weed for us and from that moment we were his best friends, in fact Mark was adopted into his family. Every time he saw us he grabbed Mark and squeezed his cheeks "Look at my white son...he is exactly like me but white" he would slur excitedly then letting out a deep laugh. For the record Mark isn't a massive white guy with dreads who wore the same pair of shorts for three days and can't open his eyes.

Jorge a.k.a "El Colombiano": This is definitely the saddest story. We met Jorge while we were having a sunrise spliff outside our hostel cabin. It was pretty impressive spot by Jorge as we were in the cabin furthest away from the street and he was clearly pretty hammered. But we were happy to share Dominican Republic's goods and happy to listen to Jorge chirping away about his Ecuadorian wife which he joked was not "La amor de mi vida" (love of my life) but "la amor de mi Visa". In fact Jorge was a very witty guy and i think that was part of his charm, he also constantly called us "brother" in such a sincere way that it felt we had made a real friend. That night Jorge told me in Spanish how he ended up here. His dad had been a judge in Bogota, Colombia and oversaw the trial of the ELN guerrillas who stormed the Government HQ in the mid-1990s. That meant his dad received death threats so they were forced to leave everything behind in Colomiba. They emigrated to Switzerland where Jorge was put in an international school, hence the grasp of English and good education. Something happened in Switzerland with his family which he didn't elaborate on but he was compelled to return to South America but obviously couldn't go back to Colombia. So Jorge ended up in Montañita with his wife that he alledges is for his visa but when i probed further he admitted he has 3 kids by her! The next night we saw Jorge again and for want of a better phrase he was "off his tits" on cocaine. Jorge pleaded to borrow $5 and although Mark and I both knew what is was for he still lent the money. I thought it was a bit stupid but as Mark reasoned "it's worth $5 to find out if he really is an honest person". Jorge had promised to return the next day with $5 and if we weren't around he would slip it under the door. The next day we woke up at 4pm and found a piece of paper that i personally think is worth $5 for the laughter it provided us with. The following is not a translation it was written exactly like this...

"Excuse brothers, I have your money. Call me in your mint and i will give. Sorry i little drunk. Excuse other night. Jorge S"

If anyone has an idea what mint means, please let me know!
But of course we never saw Jorge again, which is pretty hard in a town like Montañita that only has one main road where everyone hangs out. I relayed the story to Jessica the hostel owner who had seen "your drunk Colombian friend leave a note". She frowned and said "he is chevere (cool) but i think he has problems with addiction". I think that is an understatement. It was weird i hadn't thought about Colombia in so long but Jorge was a reminder that despite its ever improving situation, Colombia's civil war has left long lasting scars and some people probably won't ever recover.

The last list of characters i am going to introduce you to are just a handful of many similar in Montañita.

Steve, Andy, Carlos no aliases i'm afraid: These guys are evidence of how Montañita lures you in without you realising it. They had all been there over a week (Steve over a month) and all said they were going to leave. In the end i think Carlos got out, not sure about the other two guys. Steve was the funniest case, he didn't do anything...literally nothing except walk round and have a couple of beers on the street before going home. I would have understood more if he had got addicted to coke and was getting mashed every night but the guy was just rotting on the beach. A real shame as he was without doubt the funniest person i have met since travelling.

That was Montañita a really fun place, but a very dangerous place. I was glad i had a flight to catch in Quito or i could have seen myself celebrating my 23rd birthday with Steve and Andy by eating fish and going to Cañar Grill.

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Photos

View from a room
The Pacific Ocean

Travel Buddy
Irish Mark

Guayaquil Girls
Our neighbours, typical of the rich Ecuadorians who visit Montanita