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Published: January 25th 2012
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Hello! So we haven´t really had a lot of time or the means to write a whole lot lately so I will try to fill you in on the latest. We are now in Canoa but got here by travelling up the coast after Vilcabamba. We had a hard time deciding what to do about Machu Picchu. It was much more expensive and time consuming than we had imagined. We had a long debate at a mexican restaurant in Vilcabamba (you all know we really wanted to make it to Machu Picchu) so we decided to flip a coin because the decision just was not coming to us easily (one of the downfalls of a loose itinerary...one move decides the whole rest of the trip, if we went to Peru that would mean only 4 days on the coast). Heads we were going to Peru...tails was going to take us to the Pacific coast. I (Taylor) flipped it and it landed on tails...so we left Vilcabamba and started our travels up the coast. The first place we hit was Montañita after going from Vilcabamba to Loja to Cuenca to Guayauil. We met some great people along the way including a hilarious
father/son duo that helped us out a lot with getting to Montañita and showing us where to stay. I´ve never been to Vegas but Greg referenced it as being very similar to Montanita...we kind of just did the "one and done" philosophy and only spent one night there...super fun but I really don´t think I could have spent more than a night there...especially after having one of my ecuadorian nightmares come true as i reached for the bug spray in our hostal and saw the hugest live nasty spider I´ve ever seen run up and down the walls 100 miles per hour. Greg was super speedy and was able to kill it...thank goodness, otherwise we probably would not have been staying there that night but the streets were so packed with people that nearly every single hostal was full...so thank goodness. After our crazy night in Montanita we headed to a neighboring town about 10 minutes away called Olón. (this is greg now...) yo! okay oloñ was night and day different from montañita...quiet, peaceful, etc...nice contrast from the night before. because our place was only 16 bucks for the spider place...we took it up a notch and got a comfortable
spot up on the hill and it was really gorgeous. enjoyed the beach and the food, including the ceviche (fish cooked by citrus juice) a little too much and wound up getting awfully ill...both of us...but we survived and after a few nights headed north to a place called puerto lopez...a city near ecuadors coastal national park that has los frailes beach...went there for a day and it was gorgeous!!! they have strict rules out there ... and in turn the place is immaculate. so clean, a nice cove with mountains on each side and curved beach in the middle that has these huge waves just getting thrown up on the sand. it was pretty cool to see and we got some nice pictures. so we spent a few days in in puerto lopez before meeting this really cool older guy at the pool named christian...and he was heading north to his place in bahia, and since we were heading north he offered us a ride and we took it. he runs a family company that has a couple products, laundry detergent and dish soap...so we had to stop along the way at this Supermaxi (think Publix-Pick n Save, etc)
and he showed us his stuff on the shelf and was really proud and so we continued on to Bahia de Caraquez...but not before taylor got a recommendation from Christian about a great place for a cheeseburger....now i will have you know in loja we had a breakdown and were searching through google and asking the hotel staff where was the nearest burger king, mcdonalds, subway....just had a craving for some good old american food. so this was pretty much a dream come true!........alright here´s taylor again..........YUM! this whole cheeseburger bit may be a bit long but seriously- I needed that burger. It was so good. Ok enough about the cheeseburger. So we made it to Canoa and are having a great time here. The beach is clean and so beautiful and they have great treasure hunting...aka...great seashells etc and there are these cool cliffs (kind of like los Fraijles). We went paddle boarding this morning...kind of like surf knee boarding but you can stand upright and paddle too. the board is basically just a huge surfboard. we both caught some great waves after a lesson by Janna (or how she pronounces it Yanna). She was really cool and took
us way out past the waves which normally beginners have to start in the river...clearly Greg and I don´t look like beginners. it was so much fun! she took pictures of us too so we will try to post those along with others from the journey up the coast. We really like Canoa...other than having a great beach they also have cheeseburgers here...time for lunch! Hope everyone is doing well. We´ll keep updating as we can.
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austin
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shave your legs taylor
shave your legs taylor, you don't have to blend in with the locals THAT much