MONTANITA

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JULY 20. MONTANITA. RUTA DE LA SOL. MORE LIKE RUTA DE LAS NUBES. SEA LEVEL

Billy Jean is not my lover, she´s just a girl who thinks that I am the one...but the kid is not my son
RIP MJ

Leaving Guyaquil behind for now. With Scott and Camillo in tow we throw our bags and our serious hangovers on board a bus bound north for Montanita. Anybody reading this expecting some intelligent, insightful look into Ecuadorian beach culture may as well turn the page...scotts girlfriend and some of Camillos friends are meeting us there later this afternoon and things are guaranteed to get ugly..

After enduring yet another brutal Canadian winter I couldnt wait to get my beach on, especially seeing that the remainder of my trip will get progressively colder the further I move south. I didnt touch the ocean until the 3 days later. Pretty much got off the bus and headed straight to the bar. Montanita is a funny town. Its on the Ruta De La Sol but apparently the sun never shines and while I was there all I did was drink (Im going to blame it on Nic and Scott).

After knocking back a couple of bottles of rum we walk(stumble) the 3 blocks from our hostal up the sandy streets to the main drag. There is an interesting mix of people here...backpackers mixing it up with the locals, well to do families from Guyaquil driving through the crowds in there SUVs passing the hippy artisans selling their wares streetside.... in between braiding each others hair.

On one side street which we liked to call ¨cocktail lane¨, row upon row of stalls were set up selling all kinds of cocktails....blasting Micheal Jackson on every available speakers. Took a seat there and sipped (knocked back) a couple (A LOT) of caipirinhias before heading into the discotheque...kinda weird dancing with dogs weaving between your legs on the sandy dancefloor but hey..welcome to Montanita.

In all Honesty, Montanita is not my favourite kind of place. If the cliche hippy traveller scene is your thing (think Koh Samui in Thailand..jugglers, knife throwers, fire twirlers and all) then you will probably love it. But dont come here for a relaxed chilled beach town, because there is no sun on the Ruta De La Sol , and in a sleepy beach town with shitty weather the only thing to do is......drink.

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Comments

[Cindy]

quest for sunshine
If sunshine is what you are after, you visited the Ecuadorian coast at the wrong time of year. The coast is covered by clouds all summer long. Beach season is from January to May, and the sun does come out then, as does the heat!