Montañita

We took a night bus to Guayaquil, where we changed at the bus terminal for the three hour bus journey to Montanita. Our first impressions of the Ecuadorian coast were as to how green it was, after the deserts of Peru it was a welcome change to see all the banana plantations and palm trees! We got off the bus at the small station and set about finding accomodation, after splashing out in Mancora we opted to go budget here so ended up in a hostel for ten bucks a night! After dumping our bags we headed off to find breakfast and explore.

Most of the day was spent on the beach here, playing bat and ball and chilling in the sun. Its at night that the town really comes alive...we had heard a lot about the place and were looking forward to checking it out! We hit cocktail alley that evening, a road lined with shacks which will whip up any cocktail you fancy! Then it was on to some of the clubs to check out the local music and dance the night away!

Unsurprisingly we weren't up particularly early the next day! We made it to the beach around midday, just in time for all the food guys who go up and down the beach at lunch offering anything from sandwiches, burgers, empanadas and ceviche! So we didn't have to look too hard for our lunch! That afternoon we decided to hire surfboards and put into practise what we had learnt in Mancora....unfortunately things didn't go quite to plan. The waves in the afternoon became pretty strong and a particularly engulfed Lynne knocking her off the board while paddling out, the board then came up and smacked her on the face before the current dragged her under! When she came back up she had a broken and bleeding nose and a severe loss of pride!! Once the bleeding had sopped she was left with a swollen nose...not a great look! Needless to say we didn't do too much that night, just heading to a local restaurant for some cheap Ecuadorian food.

The next day we were heading back inland to Cuenca, although we managed a morning at the beach before we left. After buying some empanadas for the road, we were back on another bus to Guayaquil, where we would change to reach Cuenca.