In Search of the Sun

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#4- The Southern Coast of Ecuador- Friday, September 16, 2005

On from Quito to the large, busy coastal city of Guayaquil to the famous surf beach of Montañita; from there moving onto the quiet fishing village of Puerto Lopez before returning to Guayaquil and escaping the coast to the colonial beauty of Cuenca.

After spending about 10 days in the Galapagos, I returned to Quito accompanied by an itch to return to the coast. The ocean was calling me, and my pasty, white skin needed sun after the unsuccessful search for sun on the Galapagos. I spent a couple of days in Quito gathering up the gear I left behind and a small farewell party with Andrew and Larse (fellow passengers on the Guantanamera).

Our party started at Larse’s place, and we conversed with his roommate over two bottles of rum till 2:00 am. His apartment was on a hill overlooking the city and afforded beautiful views of the city at night. At 2:00am we decided it was time to go out for a little fun, and we found ourselves at an after hours bar. More rum was drunk until around 6:00am when we finally decided to return to our hostel. The late night was no problem for Larse and I, but Andrew had to get up and go on a three day tour at 8:30 that morning. He slept in and his tour guide had to get him out of bed at 9:00am- I wonder if he got any sleep at all. I felt badly for him because he was to hike two mountains in three days and the first one was that day.

I slept in late that day and gathered all my belongings for the trip to Guayaquil that night. The night bus was most definitely better than the one I experienced on my return trip from Lago Agrio a month ago. However, sleeping on a bus is never a good sleep, so once I found a good room in Guayaquil, I had myself a little siesta to catch up on my beauty rest.

Choosing a good room in Guayaquil is more time consuming than I originally anticipated. The budget hotels are mostly located in and around the city center (and the city of Guayaquil is not the most beautiful of cities). I checked out the first three places recommended in my travel book and found them to inhabit more cockroaches than people. Finally I found a good place that had an unoccupied room with a window over- looking the street. As a result of the traffic, noise was more prominent in this particular room, but I prefer a bit of a view and at least semi- fresh air.

My reason for travelling to Guayaquil was to meet a friend I previously met in the Galapagos. She is a local girl from the city and she was to show me the few nice places are to visit here. However, it took me a good day and a half to set up a meeting with her, as the locals have no sense of time (or at least a different one).

Within that day and a half of waiting I did very little. I slept a lot and managed to luck out and step into a sports bar for dinner just before the Ecuador/Bolivia soccer game. It was an important game for Ecuador seeing as they had a shot at the glorious World Cup.

Upon entry to the place I was given an Ecuador headband and a card to predict the outcome of the game. I’m sure there was a prize for guessing correctly, but, honestly, I was only there for the food. I watched the first half in the bar/restaurant and the second half in my room. The city pretty much shut down during the game and when Ecuador scored in the second half you could hear the cheering throughout the streets. Ecuador managed to win and there was a small celebration in the streets afterwards. I could hear a lot but saw little of the party from window of my room.

The following day I hooked up with Denisse (my local friend) and we walked the Malecón (the waterfront promenade) and Cerro Santa Ana (a hill on the coast overlooking the city with a small church and a light house on the top). Both places were designed to draw tourists to this otherwise boring city. It was a nice walk but was a little difficult, as the temperature of the city is regularly hot a humid with little chance for relief.

The following afternoon I set off for Montañita accompanied by Denisse. I was through with the unattractive city of Guayaquil, and since Denisse had a few days left of her vacation she wished to join me.

The bus ride was hot and humid, and we had to switch buses half way in the town of Santa Elena before heading north to our final destination. We arrived shortly after nightfall and were guided to our hotel of choice by a young boy on a bike. Cabañas Pakaloro was situated close to the main tourist area with a view of the coast and a nice little cabaña equipped with a porch and hammock.

I spent five, maybe six days in Montañita. The coast seems to absorb time and memory while you are there. Denisse left on the third day as she was skipping out on her job, and they finally caught up to her. I guess her “vacation” wasn’t a vacation at all- mind you it could be a result of the difficult communication between us. She spoke very little English, and I speak very little Spanish. I am thankful for the time spent with her, as I was forced to learn and practice more Spanish than I knew. I learned a lot in those short, few days.

I had planned on doing some surfing while I was there on the famous surf beach, but I got lazy and spent a lot of time trying to track down the only skim board in the whole town. I had done some “skimming” back in Tofino, Canada, about a month and a half ago, and was interested in being the only one on the beach doing it. It’s too bad that I didn’t track the skim board down, as this beach has a long, slight grade and is perfect for good skimming.

You might think that I spent a lot of time on the beach while I was there, but I spent only a short time. For the first three days the weather was always cloudy and a little difficult to worship the sun. The day after Denisse left, the sun came out and I got over- excited and spent over an hour sun tanning- without sun block- at the hottest part of the day no less. This is something I know not to do, but for some reason the coast absorbed that memory as well, and I turned completely red by that evening.

The last few days in Montañita were spent avoiding the sun and applying copious amounts of skin lotion on my badly burnt flesh. I managed to run into an older gentleman after my breakfast one morning and we spent some time looking at a hotel/bar for sale down the beach a ways. I had mentioned to him about a plan to check out all the touristy beach spots in South America in search for a good place to buy, and incidentally he had a similar interest. The place was very nice and had good potential, but was overpriced. Plus Montañita didn’t have the right feel for me to consider this place as an option.

I had also met a guy from Israel and his friend from Quito the following day and we hung out for a little while. My final evening in Montañita was a Friday night and we went to the only “Discothèque” in the town. It turned out to be a bar with a live band that I’ve been hearing every night from my cabaña and was already tired of their 10 songs that they played repeatedly. I left around midnight and packed up for my trip to Puerto Lopez the following day.

Puerto Lopez is a quiet fishing village situated close to Parque Nacional Machalilla. The largest tourist draw to the area is the park and the opportunity to see the Humpback whales from mid-June to mid-October. As for me, I came here only to see the whales and the island- the rest of the park had similar, less impressive flora and fauna than the Galapagos Islands, so a visit to these would be pointless.

I arrived in the afternoon and found a nice room at Hostería Itapoà. They had a few cabañas, but those were full. Luckily I got a nice little room in the back of a small building- sort of the back corner of the place. It was pleasant and calm until the people in the room next to me showed up, and I could hear everything they said. I was alone and good at making little noise, so I’m sure they didn’t even realize I was there.

After securing my room, I walked the main street, which happens to run along the coast, in search of some seafood and a tour agency to book my whale-watching trip. Both were easy to find, and after my meal I purchased a tour for $25 for the next morning at 9:30am. I was alone and the streets were less than lively, so after a few photos of the streets and the people I retired to my room and ended up practicing taking macro-pictures with my camera. I found myself a large spider, a cockroach and a small flower to photograph.

The following morning I met the rest of my tour group at the tour agency. While waiting I was approached by some Ecuadorian girls taking the tour of the National Park. They were interested in taking pictures of me, and since this is not my first time encountering such a request, I cooperated. I guess having light brown or blonde hair in this part of the world has a few advantages and disadvantages. The others accompanying me on the whale watching tour arrived from Montañita by van and consisted of about six girls and one guy. All of them had been partying the night before and a couple of them hadn’t slept yet.

The boat was small with twin outboard engines on the back for speed. Having spent time on the Galapagos, I had taken a seasickness pill for the slight possibility of encountering such a side effect. However, the group from Montañita were “ill” prepared. After about half and hour of cruising for whales, several of the girls started turning white and had expressions of pain on their faces. They moved closer to the rear of the vessel and spent a lot of time focussing on not trying to puke.

Our first encounter with a whale was from a distance. Even with a meagre 3X zoom on my camera it was difficult to capture a good photo. We spent a short time following and trying to get closer with little success before heading off to find another group of whales. The second group was about 6 to 8 strong and included a mother and small baby. Once we encountered them, we moved up close and spread the group out a bit around the boat- a group of people on the roof, four people on the bow and the rest spread out across the back seats.

Somehow, I lucked out and got the best seat on the boat- right on the tip of the bow with no one around to get in the way of my photos. One down side was the difficulty in keeping the camera steady for short video clips and the occasional spray from the sea. Aside from that, I got some good photos. The boat managed to get pretty close to the group of whales a few times for some good video. After following this group of whales around for about half an hour, we headed back to the coast for a quick snack break before returning to Puerto Lopez. I said good bye to the rest of the group that was returning to Montañita and returned to my room for the evening after another helping of seafood.

The following day I returned to Guayaquil to visit Denisse for a couple of days before leaving the coast for the beautiful area of the southern highlands. Again I found the city of Guayaquil quite boring and even more so after unsuccessfully trying to make contact with Denisse. I took a walk to the Plaza San Francisco, which is famous for its many Iguanas living in the plaza amongst all the human visitors. Another walk on the Malecón and I was finished with this city again. My second night there I tried again to contact my friend without success and then left the next morning for Cuenca.

The bus to Cuenca via Parque Nacional Cajas was an interesting one. The road headed South along the coast for awhile before heading in towards the mountains. Once in the mountains the road (half paved and half dirt) wound around the peaks on a long accent along steep cliffs and into the clouds. Once in the clouds it was difficult to see and they didn’t break until just before our arrival at Cuenca.

In Cuenca I am staying with another friend I met in the Galapagos. I was introduced to Jenny by Danielle and Sussi on Santa Cruz. Jenny has been teaching French here in Cuenca for the last year. Her knowledge of the city has proven very valuable, as she has introduced me to a few nice bars and places to eat that are not mentioned in my travel book.

Cuenca is by far the most beautiful and kindest city I’ve visited so far in Ecuador. Not to say there isn’t one that is better but this certainly has its good points. The architecture is colonial and looks quite pleasant throughout the whole city. Unlike places like Quito and Guayaquil that only have small sections of beautiful areas. The people are very nice, and I had a good vibe of the place as soon as I arrived. The streets are safe to walk at any time of the day or night and the walking is peaceful through the cobblestone streets. I haven’t done much here accept hang out with Jenny and stroll the streets and various markets on Thursday. Here I will meet up with Andrew again and head south to Loja and Vilcabamba. I hope to hit the only significant Inca ruins in Ecuador, Ingaprica, two hours from here. It will be a nice beginning for my trip to see most of the significant Inca ruins throughout Peru.

My next entry may not be for some time as I haven’t yet decided on my border crossing point. I have a decision to make in the next few days on whether or not I wish to take the road less travelled. I’m leaning towards the road less travelled because they usually lead to great stories, and sometimes difficulties.

Matthew Goldrup, Global Vagabond

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Comments

[Miny]

Bello Paisaje
Gracias por enviarme tan magnifica ventana al mundo, realmente has apreciado la gran bellaza que existe en Sur America y por supuesto has conocido muy de cerca su escencia. Cuidate y no olvides enviar mas fotos de todos tus viajes.

[melissa]

montañita nunca sera la misma
recuerdo que hace siete años montañita era una playa tranquila donde te podias fumar tus porros y hasta follar en la playa de que la noche caia ,me entristece ver que se ha transformado en un verdadero sitio turistico con hoteles a full ycon turistas divididos entre aquellos que van por pasar vacaciones desconectados del mundo asqueroso comercial y aquellos que van gastar todo ese dinero que no tienen y que al regresar de los feriados estan endeudados estan asqueroso de ver triquilandia transformada en un vertedero de hoteles tiendas y gente sin ninguna cultura. tengo suerte de haber conocido montañita cuando solo habian 5 hoteles y 3 restaurantes ,recuerdo los niños "hijos de pescadores "jugando tranquilos con el unico sueño es de seguir el ejemplo de sus padres pero ahora con tanto turista y tanto dinero que corre lo unico que quieren ser es un pinche blanco con sueño de venir a un pais triste y obscuro durante 6 meses al ritmo que vamos va pasar lo mismo que en palestina ,ellos los blancos terminaran comprando todas las casas los terrenos y propiedades hasta un dia decir larguense esto es propiedad privada mi triste pais me apena ver como se vende si quieren responderme vayan a [e-mail]