Canoa is a Carnival!

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It’s CARNIVAL!! In my head carnival was going to be a huge thing with dances and parades and enough craziness for all. Well, this notion mostly came from the pictures I’ve seen of Carnival in Rió de Janeiro and as I discovered, this is the place where Carnival DOES go wild. Since we had neither the money nor the time to go to Rió, we opted instead to follow seemingly all other Ecuadorians and go to the BEACH!!

About 8 hours on the bus and 45 minutes in the back of a truck got us to Canoa, a beautiful little community on the Pacific. As it was Carnival and everyone and his dog seemed to be on the coast, there were no hostels to be had. Luckily, we planned ahead and brought some tents with us, which we pitched right on the beach with full view of the ocean. Great view, but not so nice when EVERYTHING is sandy and people start to arrive at the beach at around 7:30 in the morning (not to mention the oven the tents created when the sun came up).

We spent our days just relaxing on the beach, swimming in the ocean, which was really warm, chilling at Bambu, our adoptive bar which allowed us to use their bathrooms and showers, and avoiding the mid-day sun, which burned me in about 10 minutes. The weather cooperated until the last night when it poured all night. Pierre and I had been boy scouts and therefore, always being prepared, had bought tarps for our tents, which were not waterproof. Darren unfortunately had not, and he and Emily slept in a river.

There’s really not too much more of note…it was a fantastic holiday, and a great time to get to know some of the other teachers, and experience an Ecuadorian beach for the first time!

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Photos

Getting our Carnival on
In the truck on the way to Canoa: a VERY welcome break from the hot and neverending bus ride!

Beach Buddies
Jehanne, Pierre, Emily, Me, Darren

Emily Makes a Call
From our campsite. Notice how CLOSE it was to all the people on the beach. We were unaware when we originally pitched our tents!!

Looking at our 'site' from the other way
Luckily we weren't trampled by horses.

Getting some Much needed rest
It was very hot and so sleeping was hard to come by at times!! This is right before we got up, around 7 am.

Climbing
Darren, Pierre, and I decided to climb to a cave that we'd heard about over sharp jagged rocks

Our new jobs
So we hung out at Bambu so much that we became honourary bar tenders including staff shirts and bar privilages! hehe

Waiting for the Bus....
It was hard to leave and EVERYONE was trying to get out.. holiday traffic...ugh

Comments

[yoyo]

it is
terribly funny! i didn't know you are such a humorous writer~~ it also reminds me my beach party experience on Lammar Island last semester... minimal, alcohol, no tents, sandy eyes and mouth, no beautiful sunrise, rainy morning, drunk white boy, no boat back... haha!

[Christine]

so lucky!
Hey Ian, I'm so jealous! I've never been to Carnival anywhere before, so even if Ecuador isn't Brazil, you've still got one up on me! :)

[Maria Cescon]

Hi Ian
I've never sent a comment before - but thought I would try this technology just to say Hi to you and let you know that we are enjoying your travels. All the best, Maria