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Published: August 4th 2014
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Our Arrival The bus from Puerto Lopez dropped us off at the side of the highway in the town centre which was just over the brdige at 12:20pm. It is easy to walk to the hostels from there.
Where We Stayed Hostal Alta Montanita - $12 for a double room with shared bathroom. Warm showers and internet worked well. Rooms were a bit threadbare and chilly at night as weren't sealed and only a sheet was provided. There was a much needed mosquito net. What was weird was that they didn't provide toilet paper in the shared bathrooms. When we first arrived there was some there but it soon ran out. We asked for some more and they told us that we would have to buy it! It is located just over the bridge (back towards Puerto Lopez) on the main road which can be a bit noisy. There was a kitchen available for use (the sign said Mon-Fri only but everyone was using it on Sat when we were there) and camping as well.
Where We Ate The food in Montanita seemed a bit pricey so we cooked. There is no supermarket in the town but lots of minimarts and bakery's. The fruit and veg shop next to the church seemed to be a bit cheaper than the one on the main drag to the beach.
We got sausage rolls from a bakery for 60 cents.
A 4 litre bag of water cost 60 cents.
Beer was $1.25 for a Pilsner large bottle with 25cents bottle deposit or $1 for a slightly smaller Brahma. There were shops right next to the hostal.
What We Did It was nice to finally get a sunny day at the beach so we sunbathed and played in the waves.
About Montanita Montanita is very touristy for both locals and backpackers. We hadn't seem so many backpackers since Cartagena.
The beach has a very high tide. In the middle of the town it goes right up to the wall so if the tide is in head to the South end where you can still lie on sand.
We got some laundry done for $1 a kilo which was back the same day. This was right next to the small bus terminal on the road running parallel to the main highway.
Beware of strong currents.
Where We Went Next We headed over to Cuenca so had to go via Guayaquil. There is a small bus station on the main road that sells direct bus tickets to Guayaquil. Buses leave at 4:45am, 5:45am, 10am, 1pm, 3pm or 5pm. The ticket price is $6. It is best to buy a ticket the day before as when we travelled the buses were all full.
We got tickets for the 5:45am bus. It left at about 5:55am. The bags were tagged and there was a toilet on board. We arrived in Guayaquil terminal at 8:40am.
From Guayaquil we caught a bus to Cuenca. It seemed there was only one company going there at the time which was Alianza/Super Semeria whose ticket window was 51. It cost $8 plus 25cent terminal tax payable at the ticket window. Buses left every 20 mins. We got tickets for the 9:20am bus. On the ticket window were directions to the platform as there are two different floors of platforms and it was different to what was printed on the ticket. It left from Nivel 2 on the 2nd floor, platform 88. We didn't actually leave until 9:30am and got into Cuenca at 1:25pm.
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