Blogs from Montañita, West, Ecuador, South America - page 11

So gestern Abend sind wir von unserem ersten Ausflug zurückgekehrt. Am Freitag ging es los vom Terminal Terrestre Richtung Küste nach Salinas. Am Terminal (riesiger Busbahnof) war natürlich die Hölle los und es war leicht chaotisch einen passenden Bus zu finden, aber irgendwie klappt das hier alles ohne Stress. Allein die zweistündige Fahrt war klasse. Endlich mal das wahre Ecuador: raus aus der Stadt über Land. Wahnsinnig viele neue Eindrücke, die man in der Stadt und vor allem in unserem Viertel nicht bekommt. Salinas soll der beliebteste Strand der Ecuadorianer sein, aber um ehrlich zu sein, fand ich es ziemlich hässlich. Ein enger Sandstreifen der von einer Mauer begrenzt wird und sich wegen Flut am Abend auf etwa fünf Meter Breite zusammenschrumpft. Haben uns dann das nächstbeste Hostal gesucht: war an sich ganz ok aber ... read more

We thought that the beach with friends was a better idea than staying in Cuenca during carnival. Ecuadorians like to throw water balloons, buckets of water and douse everyone with big squirt guns. And a big ball-headed gringo makes a great target. So off to the beach we go. From Cuenca to Olon the road goes through the Cajas around Guayaquil and up the Ruta del Sol. Driving down out of the Cajas is a spectacular trip with picturesque views at every turn. About 90 minutes out of Cuenca is Restaurante Mirador de los Andes, it is a little road side café that does a omelets for breakfast or a nice three course lunch. On a clear day you can see the Volcano Chimborazo at 20700 ft sticking its snow capped head above the clouds. ... read more

Well hello again...just making our last entry before xmas time...which in Ecuador is celebrated in the evening of Christmas Eve...so tonight we will be eating langoustine with about 50 other Ecuadorians and then tomorrow will be making sacrificial mermaid totems to burn on the christmas day bonfire we are going to have on the beach, with our bloated seafood bellies We have bought each other a kinder egg to open on Xmas day and will wait to see if Santa Claus pops down the chimney we have conveniently set alight in await of his arrival in our beach lodge..we await with baited breath. Life has been good over here, we have discovered that all the other gringos that we have not met on our travels (we´ve hardly seen any!) have moved to Montanita to all live ... read more

After the exhausting jungle trip Miguel and I agreed that we needed the beach and sunshine again. The girls mentioned that they were planning to go to this little beach city on the coast and mentioned that we should go with them. Even though it was a bit of a back-track, we didn’t care because it was the long weekend here, and apparently everyone rolls into this little town. So, after returning to Baños for one last night, we found a bus to Guayaquil which would host a connector bus to Montañita. We decided to take a day bus for once so we could see the Andes as we traveled through them. We left Baños at 11am. The bus we were on was just as weak as the last 8 lol. Whatever though, we’re on ... read more

So when we got to the bus station in Guyayaquil, it was super busy, there were so many people. Even before we went to buy our tickets, like 10 different people asked us if we wanted a ride, yeahhhh kinda sketchy, but we got a direct car ride with a nice couple from Guayaquil for like 13$ each, the bus ride was like 5$ but yeah we wanted to get there ASAP... so they took us there in like 2 hours, kinda psycho driver... but yeah it was pretty OK. So as soon as we got there... me and Darren looked for a hostal, I wanted one on the beach so we took the first one we could find. So that night we got some food, drinks and so on and we partied on the beach. ... read more