First things first

South America » Ecuador » West » Montañita
July 16th 2008

Published: July 16th 2008

Hola from Ecuador! And so begins the blog of my South American adventures. Unlike many people, I never bought into the whole blog/myspace craze in high school, so given my lack of any blog experience I can’t promise that this blog will be entertaining or interesting at all. Still I figure it’s a good way to recount my travels to my friends and family together, rather than having to tell each and everyone of you the same story (not that each of you isn’t worth my time). And if anything else, it’ll help me remember all the great (and perhaps not so great) things I did and places I visited.

For those that don’t know, I’m traveling with Allen, a friend from UCSD. For the most part we’ll be going around together and doing similar things...except when I’m kicking back and relaxing while he churns out secondaries to med schools that aren’t even that good, like Harvard and UCSF.

Our journey began when we took off from LAX at approximately 2 am Monday morning. Our destination was Guayaquil (GYE), a major port and one of the largest cities in Ecuador, with a short stop over in Panama, which by the way has free wireless internet in the airport. Seriously, the US needs to get with the program and stop charging for internet at airports. I think some (SD, San Jose, Sacramento) already offer this, but I know SFO and LAX don’t. Damn you, T-Mobile hot spots. We reached GYE around 2 pm local time, but since we’re 2 hours ahead here, the total trip was only about 10 hours…not bad at all. The tough part came when we had to get to the bus terminal, which is probably about a 10 minute walk from the airport, but took us at least half an hour to find. And a half an hour carrying a heavy backpack while rolling two rolling bags in hot and humid weather is no fun. Clearly our Spanish isn’t good enough, because we got sent in different directions by different people multiple times, but eventually we found the place. I guess that’s what we get for not paying $3 for a taxi to take us there, but when you can get 5L of bottled water for $1.25 or two mojitos for $4 during “happy hour” (which runs 24 hours), $3 seems like a lot.

We were pretty tired when we finally got to the terminal, which is actually a mall on the first floor, with bus stops on the second and third floors. We met some people who told us that the terminal is actually quite new; the old one didn’t have a mall, air conditioning, or even a roof. I guess we came at a good time. The terminal was very Americanized. They played English music and had stands for common fast foods we get in the US like hot dogs, burgers, and pizza. There weren’t too many vegetarian options, which I presume will be a common theme in this trip (I’ll manage somehow), so I opted for a McFlurry con Oreo at McDonalds. Allen and his carnivorous self were able to try some South American dish with meat and eggs, which he said was really good.

If you ever happen to visit the GYE bus terminal, be sure to bring nickels. In the bathroom, 5 cents will buy you 1 meter of toilet paper, which must be thrown away in the trash can after usage. The toilets and sewage system aren’t as sophisticated or powerful here, so the toilet is only for bodily wastes. So the bathroom smells like poop since the trash is filled with toilet paper with poop on it. Good to know right? I can tell you all are jealous of my trip already.

While we waited for the bus to Montañita, our current location and residence for the next 4 weeks, we met a few people from America / Canada discussing the best film trilogies of all time. The Godfather, Lord of the Rings, and Three Colors (Red, White, and Blue) were all tossed around, but for some reason they forgot to mention Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which is a pretty obvious one for me. If The Dark Knight is anything like they say it is, Batman might have to be up there too. Speaking of which, maybe Allen and I will try to go back to GYE this weekend and catch a screening at the Cinemark teatro where we can watch movies subtitulado (subtitled) or cambiado (dubbed). As for choosing between the two options, I’m pretty sure we’ll stick to The Dark Knight and not El Caballero Negro for now.

The guys we met also told us about their travels and gave us some ideas about where to go. They just came back from Cuenca, which they described as a pretty colonial town also home to the world’s most famous Panama hat maker. Apparently these Panama hats sell for up to thousands in the US, but only up to $200 in Ecuador. I don’t really know why anyone would pay even a hundred bucks for a hat, but then again, I’m not really sure what a Panama hat is. I’ll find out eventually when we go there.

Most of the people we met were pretty nice, but one of the Americans, who happened to be a med student, was kind of a loquacious jerk. As Allen put it, “I didn’t even know him and I wanted to punch him in his face.” Still it was fun meeting English speakers the first day, and I think it kinda helped our transition into an entirely new and different environment.

When you get on the bus to Montañita, they take every one’s pictures using a camcorder as a way to record everyone traveling on the bus, in case of an accident. I don’t know about you, but I find it quite comforting to know that at least they would be able to identify our remains in case our bus, you know, blows up or something.

Although only 3.5 hours, the bus ride seemed like forever. The fact that they chose to play Daredevil on the bus’ TV/DVD system didn’t help either. I hadn’t watched it before and I wish it had stayed that way. At least the bus was pretty comfortable and the roads were mostly paved, so the ride was smooth.

We finally got to Montañita around 8 pm and checked into our cabaña, which I have to say is pretty sweet. It’s basically just a small hut consisting of a room with a bathroom. The construction is very tropical, the place is clean, the beds are comfortable, and the showers are warm. Each of the cabañas also has a small porch with a hammock that looks onto the center of the plot where the pool and hot tub are. There’s also a small living room with a TV and a kitchen near the pool which are shared by all the cabaña residents. As I re-read what I just typed I realize that I made this place sound like a resort, which it isn’t. It’s not third world, but it’s still on the edge of a relatively small and somewhat poor coastal pueblo. So while we’re not truly roughing it, we’re not exactly livin’ large (or “doin’ it big” for you Boondocks viewers out there) either. I’d say it’s more somewhere in between, a slice of simple life with just the basic necessities (electricity, water, four walls and a roof, internet…) Ok so the cabañas don’t have internet, but a short walk into town yields a bunch of internet cafés that charge about a buck and hour for internet usage. Of course I’m typing all this up beforehand so I don’t have to pay for all the time I spend crafting each and every word of this post.

Allen will be staying in the cabaña with me for the first few days until his homestay opens up. I of course couldn’t do a homestay because none of the families are vegetarian. But that’s ok, I’m liking my cabaña just fine.

So as I swing in my hammock listening to the waves on the west, the jacuzzi bubbling on the east, and Rodrigo y Gabriela on the iPod, I think I’ll end here for now. I’ve typed so much, and I haven’t even described the town of Montañita…I still have a ways to go in catching you all up. I’ll upload pictures soon, I promise. Until the next update, hasta luego!

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