Montañita

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Montañita is a quaint little town on the coast of Ecuador. It’s very small…you can easily walk around the entire place in 5-10 minutes. There are a lot of gringos travelling through here, as it’s a somewhat popular place to relax, surf, and party. I’ve met a few American backpackers already, and some of the students at the school we’re studying at are also from the US. Overall, it’s a very diverse place. I’ve also met people from Argentina, Peru, Canada, France, Switzerland, and Sweden. A few of the Ecuadorian residents here have actually spent time in the states and speak decent English. There are all kinds of people here too - shop owners, teachers, restaurant/hostel runners, surfers, and a surprising number of hippies. Everyone here is really chill and laid back, which is great.

Because of the diverse population in Montañita, the restaurants offer a wide variety of cuisine, from traditional Ecuadorian to Pizza to Peru/Chinese fusion (Allen says this is very tasty). Most of the restaurants also have a few vegetarian options, which is great for me. There’s an entirely vegetarian restaurant that even caters to special diets like vegan and gluten-free. It’s super delicious too. Food and drink are definitely cheaper here, and I think for the most part we spend less than $10/day on food, water, and beer…not bad. The town’s been pretty quiet thus far, but everyone tells us that Montañita goes crazy on the weekends, so we’re waiting for that.

It rained yesterday morning, which means I wasn’t able to take pictures like I had planned, but hey, I have another 3.5 weeks to get on that. I did, however, go surfing! The water here is warmer than in California, so that definitely helped. I took a 2 hour lesson, which was quite exacting. I was able to get up a few times, but I spent most of the two hours paddling around and falling off my board. Surfing is tough. Fun, but tough. We have the option to rent boards per hour, so we might try and surf an hour or so everyday we’re in Montañita. Hopefully we improve.

What else? Oh yeah, Allen and I took Salsa dancing lessons (gasp!) from Ysidro (who also happens to be Allen’s surfing instructor) since some of the girls we met at the school asked us to go with. It was surprisingly tiring, as he made us dance la salsa to “musica explosiva”, as he puts it, which is really fast. In addition to the basics, he taught us all sorts of turns/spins which we eventually figured out (I think). It’s especially tough on us guys, since we have to lead…and I think naturally girls are more fluid / better dancers than we are. Beer helps though.

Overall, it was a super tiring, but super fun day, and we’re only 3 days in. Plus we haven’t even gotten to the weekend yet…things are looking good.

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