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spanish classes continue on the coast, new years week

ECUADOR | Wednesday, 4 January 2006 | Views [566] | Comments [3]

surfers in montanita

Still recuperating from new years week at the beach. I left last Sunday night, taking the all night, 8 hour bus ride from Quito to Guayaquil (the largest city in ecuador) with my spanish teacher, Annabell, and my friend Atiya (lives in Germany, but she is enrolled in the university here taking spanish classes for 1 year).

ALthough the bus costs $8 and a flight costs $60 each way... in retrospect the flight would have been worth it... no puedo dormir en bus.. nada! Nonetheless we arrive monday morning in Guaya at 6;30am... Annabell has a suitcase you could live out of for 1 year, bc she is going to visit family and work after the beach.. this makes the trip through the terminal very amusing... we get a taxi, talk to the driver about hotels in the center of town, and 20 minutes later we are checked into the Hotel California.. whats funny about this is unlike the song (you can check out anytime but you can never leave), our problem was the opposite; once we checked in, and left to walk around, buy something, etc, we could never seem to find our way back... walking in circles around the city bc nobody thought to write down the address, hopelessly lost ...

after sleeping until noon, we make our way down to the marecon, the boardwalk with cafes, markets, clothing, etc. we eat a monster sized plate of fresh seafood, rice, beans, papas fritas, and finish off a 2 liter bottle of cola. Guayaquil is not very impressive. its very commercial, nondescript, and humid. in the evening we find ourselves on the other side of town in a shopping center type complex with dance clubs, all of them empty. One place is somewhat crowded, but it´s full of 18- 21 year olds... needless to say, it was a strange night. We were ready to leave for the beach asap.

Tuesday we take a 2 and a half hour bus to Salinas up the coast to the north. The ride is quite pretty, desolate, costal culture, you can feel the tranquility in the air. Upon arriving, we look for a hostal, and find something decent for $10 a night- per person. Its right on the beach, no worries. Cevicherias abound. Fresh seafood is hard to resist.. cheap, and tasty!

Salinas is fairly modern, large hotels, condos along the beach.. it´s full of families, and also youth, 18-22 years old. There is a dunkin dounuts one block from our hostel! we get settled and head to the beach, reserve an umbrella and relax. Later on, our friends from Quito, juan carlos, his girlfriend from germany, verana, and estaban and his girlfriend from PA (chester county), arrive and join us under the umbrella for $1. 24 oz bottles of pilsener...

in the evening we find a club to dance, it´s fun. I meet Jorge, a sweet kid from Cuenca, a dance instructor and we salsa for close to an hour straight, ah dios mio... que divertido!

Friday we decide to check out Montañita, another 2 and a half hours by bus up the coast. We arrive in this tiny beach town, full of extrañeros, beautiful beachy types, cafes, hostals, hemp jewelery, todo. We secure a simple dorm room away from the hubbub.There is a shower, but bc of the shortage of water in the town, there are 2 large containers and buckets to use to bathe with... ok.

we eat some pizza, and head to the beach. This is the kind of town, you visit for 1 week max... party, eat, drink, sunbathe, walk around with a surfboard under your arm, then go back to reality. In the evening we dance until 5 am, regatone, rock, salsa, everything... as the night gets later, the guapos become more available.

Sadly we leave this paradise on Saturday afternoon and head back to Salinas for new years.After a horrible bumpy bus ride, we get back around 9pm, and already new years celebrations are in full swing. The main strip along the beach is blocked off and full of people. A stage surrounded by inflatable beer bottles is set up right in front of our hostal.

The night is full of music in the street, fireworks until 6am... mucha gente. At midnight, all of these paper mache dolls (most of which are characters from american movies, the incredibles, chicken little, hulk, etc),that people have been making and selling all week get thrown into ginat bon fires on the beach. There must have been 50 fires going at once. I´m not sure about the significance of all this... I´m sure to learn soon enough. but it was crazy. and then all this crap burns up and gets washed away into the ocean... it was a crazy night, no sleep, only dancing... peoplestill wondering around with beer bottles at 7am the next morning.

Exhasuted we get coffee and start our journey back to Guayaquil and eventually, after much exasperation in the bus terminal, we arrive in quito monday afternoon. (with an additional unexpected stay in the hotel caliornia).

all in all, a successfull week.. but I´m ready for another vacation.

Tags: Adventures