It's been a very busy week. I had a big paper due, my ceramics project is due soon, and I'm about to leave for Machu Picchu in a week!
Last weekend we went to Montañita, which a beach town in the south. I think it's supposed to be about 10 hours away. We left Thursday night at 8:30 to get to the bus station in the south at 9:30 so we could get our tickets for our 10:30 bus to Porto Lopez where we would catch a bus to Montanita. When we got to Quitumbe, the bus company that Ben had called told us the only night bus that left for Puerto Lopez leaves at 7pm. So we went to the next window and bought a ticket for Manta. I had seen a map with both Manta and Montañita on it and I thought they looked close. False apparently they are almost 5 hours apart. So we got on the bus, which was not a very nice one for the distance it was traveling (normally these buses are super nice and have bathrooms, air conditioning, and movies, this one had none of that). The bus would wait at each station for a long time, so needless to say it took quite a while to get to Manta.
Finally we arrived in Montañita. We looked around for a hostal and a lot of them were around $15. However, we found two for $8 and $10. We decided we would look at both and then decide. So we went to the $8 one first. It had water on the floor and did not look the greatest, the bathroom was a little grimy as well. But one person said it was okay for her so then everyone kind of just agreed to it as well. I said we should at least check out the other one first, but I was outnumbered.
So we put our stuff down and got dressed for the beach! We ate some lunch (for $1.50!) and then went to la playa! It was beautiful and the water was pretty warm. Although Montañita is known for its surfing (and hippie/foreign vibe), the waves were actually calmer then where we were in Salinas. As I was laying out on the beach a tattoo guy walked by and asked if I wanted one (people are always walking by on the beach trying to sell things from food, to jewelry, to sunglass, to pictures with snakes!). I, of course, declined. But he started talking to me and eventually sat down. Our conversation lasted for about and hour and a half. He told me he lived on an island and that I should come with him. I told him no, because that would be dangerous since I would have no way to escape. He also asked if I wanted a free tattoo and I asked him of what. He replied with his name (Darwin), he thought it would look good near my ankle. I, once again, declined.
We got dinner that night (most of our meals were seafood/fish since we can't get much back in Quito for as cheap as it is on the coast). We also went to a cool bar/discoteca. The thing about Montañita is that the bars really start going crazy at midnight and don't stop until 6am or later. So when I woke up at 4am, the music next to our hostal was still blaring. Definitely a party town.
The next day we spent all day at the beach and at night we hung out on the beach for a while. Montañita is famous as well for its beach bonfires. Unfortunately it was raining both nights, so we didn't get to experience those.
On Sunday we headed back towards Manta and stopped at Los Frailes. It's a national park that has a public beach in it. It was gorgeous and so clean! This is where I got the most sun, aka I got pretty sunburnt. We ate in Puerto Lopez and then caught a bus to Manta, where our return bus was (we bought tickets when we arrived, because sometimes they sell out). The bus we had this time was amazing. Extremely nice. But the air conditioning was on full blast and I only had so many layers. However, it was a quite fast and we got back to Quito way early than expected. Also instead of stopping at the southern station, it drove all the way to the north, quite close to our houses!
I loved Montañita and I hope some day I can get to go back!
I'm actually staying in Quito this weekend. I have a lot of homework to get done and I needed to go to a museum. The museum was mostly art from this one man, Oswaldo Guayasamin. It was quite interesting. He painted in so many different styles. He had paintings that looked like Diego Rivera, Van Gogh, etc. Many of his paintings focused a lot on the tragic history Latin America has faced. I really enjoyed the museum. There was also another part that had indigenous ceramics, which were quite interesting as well. Two of the most important things in indigenous ceramics in Latin America are duality and sexuality. So some of the ceramics are quite peculiar.
I will try to keep updating more. Like I said, it's been a very busy week.
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