Surfs Up! Montañita and the Ecuadorian Coast

Puerto Lopez

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Lil' crab!

Parque Nacional Machililla

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I don't know how many times I saw this bird before finally getting a half-decent photo of it. It was only inches from my head so many times, but this was the most close up I could get with a camera.

Puerto Lopez

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You can clearly see why people built a town in this location. I was so ignorant about swimming in the ocean that I decided to paddle myself past the break while swimming one night down on the beach. Only I didn't realize how the undertow acts on a crescent-shaped bay. There's so much more water being forced in than could possibly wash out evenly, making for a really heavy undertow. I guess that's why I found myself completely alone past the break! Anyway, here's to not drowning.

Puerto Lopez

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This was the lookout I hiked up to one day. A real nice Ecuadorian family I met there offered for me to tag along their day trip all along the coast that day.

Puerto Lopez

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Hitchin' Ecuador style. Most of the time I hitch-hiked was on the roof of trucks.

Puerto Lopez

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...Where the best view is.

Somewhere On The Coast

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They brought me with them all the way to this natural swimming pool (not the stagnant pool you see in front, but the nice one, just past the donkey) for a dip and some watermelon straight from the patch just a few metres away.

Kamala

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Back to sunsets...

Kamala

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The simply awful conditions we were forced to exist in... We had this place almost entirely to ourselves, except, of course, the night 800 other people came for a beach rave. Sunset of said-night with Mike, predictably, enjoying Ecuador's plant-life. Also Robyn (a Swiss guy I travelled with) and a super-friendly Belgian couple.

Kamala

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OK, CLEARLY, somebody had too much time on their hands. Although I guess that's almost everybody in this country (...continent), for that matter.

Kamala

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WAY too much time! But I definitely thought it was funny enough for a picture. And NO, I didn't have anything to do with making these sand sculptures. I was too busy with Mike studying the local plants.

Kamala

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Finallly, the big party. I wish I could explain this picture, but, well nothing made sense that night, or morning. Did I even take this photo? I remember one guy claiming to have known me from the previous weekend ruckus: "You ever tried E? Really? I'll FIND YOU later..."

Kamala

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Paying for it the next morning. (ok afternoon.)