Carnival!

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It´s carnival in Montañita and it´s been crazy!

The prices go up and the number of people arriving in Montañita increases by the minute. They get a four day weekend so everyone from everywhere in Ecuador heads to the coast to party.

I managed to go out Friday, Saturday and Sunday but lost it yesterday and went to bed early like a loser. I´m marking Sunday as my favourite carnival day though. It started to rain on "cocktail alley" (a long street where they sell cocktails for $2.00) and where at home, we would all run inside at the sight of a drop of rain, everyone here stays out and enjoys it. They take their shoes of, dance in the mud, drink and forget all their worries. Think it had to be the first time I´ve ever intentionally stood in the rain and I loved it!

The music has been going pretty much non-stop since Friday too. I fell asleep to Ace of Base as background music and woke up to Ricky Martin. Good times. Glad I remembered to pack earplugs!

Had a few birthdays here over the weekend too so we all chipped in and bought the most amazing Oreo cheesecake from the best cake shop in town (to be found on Vegetable Alley).

Yesterday, people from the Spanish school and I walked up to the next town along (Mangloralto I think) which is a 20-30 min walk along the beach. It´s a really cute place but the food was surprisingly expensive in comparison to Montañita. Spent most of the day sitting on the beach and then started to walk back but the tide had come in. Got caught by a massive wave that came up to my waist and soaked everything I own.

I think the last few weeks have all turned into a bit of a blur. Apart from last Saturday which was quite memorable… A few of us at the Cabañas sat down to watch a film because it was pouring with rain when the power went out. We continued to sit and watch the blank screen for about an hour in the hope that the power would come back on. It didn't. And it didn't stop raining. There´s not really a great deal to do in the rain during the day here so there was a lot of card playing going on. Then it turned dark and the power still hadn´t returned! So we had to get our torches out and find light from random places. After 9 hours of no power, they finally put it on and it was practically time for bed!

Went on a couple of nice walks too. One was along the beach up to a church on a cliff and another was up a massively steep hill next to the cabañas. Both of them had amazing views and I can highly recommend walking up there just before the sun sets as you can see the coast and the whole of Montañita from both places.

I've booked Galapagos now too (you can book it last-minute from Ecuador and get a flight out of Guayaquil to the islands) and I shall be heading there on Friday which I can't wait for. Looking forward to putting all my photos up for everyone.

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