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Published: February 28th 2012
Theft in the Night Apologies for starting this entry on a serious note, but for those reading this who may travel Ecuador, I figure it's important to include.
During our journey from Baños to Montañita two Argentinean's (not travelling together) had their day-packs stolen; here is how I believe it happened and the simple way to prevent it.
There were two times during the hot and horrible journey when the bags were most likely taken. The first point was on arrival in Guayaquil where every single local left the bus, leaving only backpackers on board to carry on towards the coast. It was around 5am and so myself and the rest of the backpackers were in various states of sleep making it easy for an opportunist to grab a bag left on the floor wit little risk of being stopped. The second point occured around 10 minutes later as the bus was leaving Guayaquil. The bus pulled over in a suburb for 4-5 men to board and proceeded to walk the length of the bus before returning to the front and climbing off. They were not police and the only logical explanation I can think of for their
presence is the existence of a deal between our driver and the men in order to steal from sleeping tourists.
If you ever find yourself on a bus in Ecuador keep what's in your day-pack to a minimum and keep it on your lap. If you're going to sleep, stick an arm through a strap to be extra safe. The thieves are opportunist and will grab a bag on the floor or from the overhead storage, they are even known to slice a bag open if it's on the floor, leaving your bag there, but empty. Seeing the two Argentian's crying over their lost passports and more devastatingly, their lost photos is something I don't want to see again and so I hope writing this will help a tiny bit.
Sleepy Arrivals and Baseball Bats We arrived in surf and hippy town of Montañita tired and under the assumption that our hostel would be one of the many located near the beach. After far too long we realised that it was nowhere near and we found it sitting on the edge of a stagnant pool of water on the outskirts of town. The impending
threat of mosquitos, the location and the general shabbiness of the hostel led to a quick decision that we'd move the next day and we left to find some breakfast.
My original reason for going to Montañita was to meet Renee, a super-nice Canadian I'd met in Quito. As we walked onto Montañita's main street I spotted her in a restaurant and she joined Mor, Shay-li and I for breakfast. Catching up with Renee was great, she had plenty of stories to tell after spending the previous two weeks volunteering on the Galapagos Islands, in fact by the time we'd finished eating I'm fairly sure everyone was jealous. Not that I had any doubts, but I was happy that Renee and Mor got on well and we agreed to meet on the beach once we'd sorted outselves out.
It took a while, but we made it to the beach in the afternoon, joining Renee and enjoying the remaining sun by bathing, swiming and reading. The beach at Montañita is the best I have encountered on the Pacific Coast so far, lengthy with great surf and people who will happily bring you beer. Definitely no complaints.
In the
evening we met on the beach once again, joined by a number of other oeople different people had met at other places in South America. Certain things breathe backpacker and Montañita had one of these in Calle de Los Cócteles, or Cocktail Street. During the day the street is a quiet walkway to the beach, but eveything changes in the evening when the street is laden with small stalls piled high with fresh fruit and bottles of liquor. It was at these that we brought cheap but strong drinks to take to the beach where our group sat, spoke and relaxed. At some point Mor up, having decided to talk a walk along the waterfront and I got up to join her.
We walked and talked the length of the beach before turning to head back. Once close to the others we decided to continue on past them so we could continue talking - as usual I was happy to simply be with her and to have the feeling that for this period of time, she was mine. We spent so long walking together that by the time we tried to rejoin the others all we found was a
message written into the sand telling us that they'd gone onto a night club. We walked toward the club but decided against going in and sat down at one of the cocktail stalls and ordered a pair of cocktails ploughed with alcohol. Before long we both had one of our random hunger twangs and so we finished our drinks and headed to one of the many burger stalls that line Montañita's main street.
We were just off the main street, standing at a burger stall when we heard an increasingly large noise. We took a step back as a large angry mob of 20-30 people wielding 2x4's, baseball bats and a variety of other crude weapons marched past us on their way down the main street. Mor and I grabbed our food and quickly left for the hostel. We had no idea what was going on, but we knew that whatever it was, we wanted no part in it.
Shay-li arrived at the hostel shortly after us, where we were speaking to a couple of guys about the mob and they told us what they had heard. According to rumous a girl had overdosed and died. Some of
the local people have over time become weary about the negativities that heavily weigh down the positivities of having tourists in town and had decided that they wanted to try to clear some of the problems from town. This first action of this was to take revenge on the drug dealer who had sold the drugs to the girl who had died. We had come to Montañita for some Christmas fun, but this was disturbing, but it got worse a few moments later as someone shouted into the hostel that the mob were heading our way. Myself and the girl headed upstairs and I told them to get in the dom room whilst I waited atop the balcony and that's where I was as the mob entered the hostel.
Several guys entered the ground floor of the hostel and began to furiously search a couple of the rooms before questioning the two guys that we'd been talking to a short while before. Fortunately they appeared somewhat satisfied and left in the same aggressive fashion that they had entered. It was stupid of me to have remained on the balcony, but at the time I felt I had to be
there just in case things turned for the worse. I was standing in case I was to be required as a pitiful barrier to the girls. Mor was not impressed.
We returned downstairs and listened to the stories of an Australian dealer who had alleged he'd faught some of the mob whilst trying to protect a friend who the mob had accused of being the dealer. Mor, Shay-li and I had had enough and went to bed confused.
Easy Living We moved to the same hostel as Renee, Tiki Limbo, the next morning. It was a big step up and in particular we all grew to love the huge balcony that overlooks the main street below and was lined tables, chairs, hammocks and a pool table, giving the perfect space for the start to a night out and recovering during the day.
We all headed to the beach and spent our time lazing in the sun and as a perfect day drifted by, the chaos of the previous evening began to seem increasingly like a false memory. Every once in a while a hawker approached us with ware of varying standards - three
of which stood out. The first and a favourite of almost everyone on the beach was a girl selling a pizza like wrap made of decent quality ingredients that was called Rasta Pan. It become a daily staple for most of us. Hawker two was bizarre and spent his day wandering the beach carrying two giant lamps with the power carrying dragging behind in the sand. Hawker three and my comedic favourite spend his sadly hopeless days trying to sell shabby looking wooden seagulls attached to a piece of string. He would wave one of the in our face, making the wings move up and down. He never saw him sell a single one and I wondered whether I should buy one out of pity. If only he had chosen one of the thousands of incredible birds that populate Ecuador for his inspiration instead of a manky seagull, perhaps he would have had more luck.
In the evening we gathered on the balcony for drinks. Thanks to our vantage point above the main street, every once in a while our group would spot a familar face and our number grew steadily until we all made our way to Cocktail
Lane, the beach and ultimately to a club where the floor was simply sand and perfect for dancing.
Mor and I left the others behind the next afternoon to watch the sunset somewhere quiet. I had alread hopelessly fallen for Mor, but I think it was during this sunset and those in the days after that we became truly close, we shared much.
During the evenings in Mor I seemed to struggle to end up in the same place as Mor, we always seemed to talk to different people, or she would want to dance before I was ready to be in a club. On this night I went to both clubs late in the night, but couldn't find Mor and so I gave up my evening and returned to the hostel where I found her and Shay-li in bed. It took little effort to persuade her from her hammock and down to the balcony where we swung in a hammock until Renee appeared, looking a little out of sorts.
Not surprisingly considering I had dragged her out of bed, Mor was tired and went back to sleep, leaving Renee and I. It hadn't been hard to
see that when she had arrived, Renee needed to talk to someone and so I was happy to stay with her. I've written of my affection for Renee a couple of times before, she's intelligent, open and friendly and we ended up talking until the sun began to rise. We covered almost every possible subject and from the first time I met Renee in Quito I found her incredibly easy to talk to and I opened up to her and told her many things that I had never spoken to anyone about. By the time I finally made it to my bed I felt like some weight had been lifted from my mind and I was looking forward to the day.
Christmas Eve Capers For a lot of Christian nations December 24th is the big day and by the time the day had ended we felt it.
It began in the usual beach way, in the sun and with the usual wait for Rasta Pan lady to make her appearance. I decided to try to record a video to send to my family for Christmas Day but after several awkward and poor attempts that
led to Mor gently mocking my feeble struggles I gave up. I believe I still have the failed attempts if anyone would like to witness my bumbling attempts to show off my Christmas destination.
In the afternoon Mor and I found a quiet spot where we settled to watch the sun set with a couple of beers. Shortly after the light had sunk below the horizon a man appeared, introduced himself and asked if we would like to buy some space cake.
We debated for a couple of minutes, or more accurately, Mor debated - I was always going to follow the swing of her decision and in the end we purchased one between us. As promised though, it was very potent.
Back on the hostel balcony we sat with our mob as they conversed around us. I tried to join in in my stoned state my brain moved in slow motion. I made it to the balcony where a group of street performers were gathered and I ran and dragged Mor over to watch the hypotic art of those throwing breathing fire, juggling and unicycling. Once they were finished I got Renee to ask Mor about
her fan story, one that she had told me earlier and I sat laughing for the next ten minutes as Mor laughed uncontrollably whilst struggling to tell her story that should have taken but thirty seconds normally.
Mor and I went to sleep at 10pm, the mellow of the cake was too much and we slept for a few hours until we woke feeling slightly more conscious and functional.
We headed to Cocktail Lane and sat down for adelicious rum and mango combination which annoyingly reanimated some of the effects of the cake. I took an exhuasted Mor back to the hostel before deciding to head back out.
Later I found myself standing on the beach with an Aussie and a Dutchman, observing the attempts of a barmy Cornish girl to ride a bicycle on the sand with a local on the back. They got nowhere until a volunteer gave them a push and the momentum for the wheels to get unstuck and start moving. For a few seconds we cheered before a large wave swept up the beach and knocked them clear off, soaking them both. The guy bailed but crazy Cornish continued to entertain the
queue of guys who wanted to get on the bike with her until she grew tired and joined us and said something along the lines of, "I'm getting older and I want to do some stupid shit before I look ridiculous doing it, let's go to Ola Ola and jump in their pool".
We headed to the bar, but found it closed so we hesitated for a moment before the three of us ran and jumped, bombing through the balloons that covered the surface of the water, sending pieces of exploding rubber flying in all directions.
A Calm Christmas Day Christmas morning was a slow one for most people, but for some reason when I woke I was surprisingly awake and alive. I got out of bed earlier than the girls and headed to the balcony where I bumped into an Aussie guy and two Canadian girls who were already drinking heavily - one of the girls was a mess. Feeling good, I joined them and drank a beer before getting sucker punched by a delayed hangover. I slunk back to my bed.
Eventually we made it to the beach and delighted in
our Christmas dinner which was of course Rasta Pan. At sunset whilst Mor and I were in our usual spot I made her take my Christmas hat off my head revealing her first ever Christmas present, a Colombian chocolate bar. Once again we stayed for some time, just the two of us.
In the evening we gathered on the balcony as usual. The effects of Christmas Eve were evident by the lack of people on the streets, everyone was tired and it was an early night.
Boxing Day Revival We spent Mor's last full day in Montañita feeling much better and we hit the beach early and did the standard beach routine of sun, swim, Rasta Pan and a beer - I normally get bored on the beach quickly, but for a rare time in my life I was able to completely relax around Mor and time passed beautifully.
I had just found this girl that I had fallen for in every possible way and didn't want to lose her, but my attempts to persuade her to stay in Montañita for New Years failed. She knew how hard it was already going to be
to say goodbye, she'd known it from the first time we kissed in Baños and she knew she had to leave for Mancora before it became even more difficult. I continued my efforts to persuade her anway, probably unfairly, until I finally saw the futility and sadly had to accept the fact that it was our last day together.
We soaked up the remainder of the sun together and took our final dips in the sea before walking to the end of the beach and sat beneath the cliffs to watch the sky melt between blues, oranges and reds. We remained as the tide drew in, talking and watching the crabs that congregated around us. Life had dictated that there would have to be a place where we would spend a final evening together, but at the very least, we could not have been in a more perfect spot.
Eventually we made our way back to the hostel and we repeated the other great evenings in Montañita. For the last time we drank a beer on the balcony and played pool before heading to Cocktail Lane, the beach and eventually a club. Montañita nights had been fantastic and
I had loved every moment.
Last Day Together We woke late on Mor and Shay-li's final day in Montañita and packed our bags, mine was done reluctantly to say the least, us checking out was the last thing I wanted. Mor and I left the hostel together for and walked onto the beach for the last time, to an area where we had not been before and an area where for some reason few people appeared to venture. I tried my best to not appear to sad that our minutes were draining away, I just wanted to enjoy the remainder of our time and did as we spoke at length for the last time and took some final photos before heading to the small Rasta Pan restaurant. It was a fitting place to finish our time together having both enjoyed it so much in recent days and it was nice to actually sit at a table together, but of course, time is a bitch and we returned to the hostel and Shay-li before collecting the bags and leaving for the terminal.
Saying goodbye was far from easy, but in the moment it felt like the closing of a great chapter. I had taken a jump and asked Mor whether I could go to Mancora with her, which was the single biggest jump and the scariest thing I had done in years. In the moment it didn't matter that I wasn't going, I was happy that I'd finally had the courage to expose myself emotionally, which I had not done in any way since Jess left me alone in Australia two years before. My time with Mor had rejuvenated and reminded me how fantastic it was to love and want to be with someone. I felt sad but at peace as we hugged and kissed each other goodbye and she boarded the bus.
The peace I felt disappeared as the door closed and the barrier between us was created. I had a brief reprieve though as she got off the bus again and we were gifted a couple more minutes together before she was called by the driver to get back on and the bus pulled away.
..................................
I watched the bus leave and along with it my peaceful mood which changed into ambivalence. Part of me was happy and grateful for every minute we'd shared together and I revelled in the fact that I'd put myself out there. The other part of me realised that I was once again, alone.
I needed to find a new hostel, but I needed to talk to someone and so I walked to the beach and walked its length. Unfortunately almost everyone that I knew had moved on to a different spot for New Years, most of them in fact to Mancora as well. I felt increasingly alone as I left the beach and took the road back to town. I passed Hostel Iguana and considered entering to see if I knew anyone, but I did not. I walked past the campsite and spotted a German friend, Natasha, but decided not to impose myself on her. Shortly after i bumped into an American friend, Jack and tried to check into the same hostel as him, but unfortunately it was full.
That first hostel was the first of a long list of rejections over the next hour. I went to a huge number, but every single one was either full or accepting only groups of 3 or more people, a harsh reminder that I no longer had company.
I was thrown a life line when I bumped into Ariel, another Israeli, who I had met in Baños and we looked for a hostel together, eventually finding somewhere perfect. I say perfect, but what I mean is that it would have been perfect before I found myself alone - somehow I ended up paying less for a double room with a sunset and sea view than I had for my dorm room with Mor and Shay-li, it would have been perfect.
I left the hostel that evening, beer in hand, fully aware that I was going to get drunk. I met my few remaining friends in town and we drank a number of cocktails that I cannot remember for the simple reason that the memory does not exist. I was up in my hostel the following day in a poor state.
I spent the whole day in recovery with no desire to go to the beach where Mor wasn't. I had no desire to find any of the people I still knew in Montañita. I had to leave, I had to move on, I could not stay. Despite that fact being clear in my mind, I still didn't want to. I was desperately hanging on to a feebly optimistic hope that Mor would break, change her mind and ask me to join her in Mancora.
The second morning I packed my bag and walked to the beach for the final time to leave a message in the sand, along with my Santa hat. I had been told in the morning that the rate for my room was to double and I couldn't face attempting to find yet another hostel which turned out to be the kick I needed to head to the bus terminal. En-route I bumped into a friend who began to try to convince me to stay before reading on my face that I could not and I say goodbye.
I brought a bus ticket to Guayaquil and with heavy feelings, I left Montañita.
An Ending I have written that I left Montañita with heavy feelings, but that was only at the end. My time in Montañita was one of the best times I have experienced, travelling or otherwise. Mor was the biggest part of it and had I loved every single moment that we shared, but there were so many other fantastic times as well. Ending up in this funky beach town and bumping into so many people I'd met elsewhere in Ecuador was fantastic and gave the town a community feel. The two Jacks, the Czech, Shay-li and so many others formed probably the nicest group of people I could've spent my Christmas on the road with. As well as those, there was Renee and our time together between Quito and Montañita had helped me hugely. She was incredibly easy to open up and I found myself having deep conversations with her on numerous occasions. As I'm eventually meant to be heading to Canada, I hope we can meet up in the not too distant future.
I will always remember Mor - her smile and jokes, our canyoning, buggying, biking, our volcano and our sunsets. I will always remember Montañita and this special Christmas.
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Backpackermatt
Matt Hassam
Sun, santa, surf
I SO miss celebrating christmas in summer... I swear my next winter christmas will be my last! Glad you had a good one though; look forward to reading about your new years.