We haven't seen the sun for a while, the sky is grey and foggy and it drizzles at times. The road leads inland sometimes and gets hilly, the forest jungly and thick and then again we hit the coast - sky still grey and foggy, but the road is flat and the ocean is our steady companion again. The afro population has completely disappeared and we are amongst a spanish, latino culture - friendly and supportive never the less.
We spent a couple of days in Canoa at the easy going Bambu hostal right at the beach and though the skies were NOT BLUE there was absolutely nothing to complain. (note about the weather: We are supposedly in the dry season in this region which lasts from May - December and the temperatures are cooler, the sky cloudy and it can be foggy. The wet season shows heavy rain showers every day, but the sun peeks out and it gets hot and humid)
The beach was HUGE and the roads all sand, the food incredible and we got to enjoy some tourist services like internet and german ice cream. Easy living, easy riding.....and then the road had us back for a few hours and we rolled into San Clemente to spend a very comfy night with some locals who shared some of their traditional food with us.
We rolled along the next day to Manta and the sun greeted us for the first time in days......the more ghostly looking villages on the way looked even more bleak under the grey sky and it is hard to tell what Manta (which is actually a town in it's own right - populated with some 180.000 people) is really like, since the sun surprised us and made things look quite cheerful for the afternoon. Lunch at the beach: Yoghurt, chocolate, bananas, bread and cream cheese with honey (we go shopping at the markets and stop to eat all those goodies where ever we feel like it) oh, and a strange fruit we are carrying around and haven't eaten yet
....seems like it should be softer than it feels to the touch right now to be eaten but we have NO CLUE what-so-ever .....a little challenge for something new we picked up at the fruit stand. (I hope I remember to let you know what it turns out to be and what it tastes like and so on and so forth when the time has come and we have gotten brave enough to actually dig our teeth into it.)
We've been riding no more than 50km in a day at the most.
It's been easy, nice, pleasant and warm and I very much enjoy this phase of our trip right now..what can I say?
