Mancora: Crossing the border from ecuador

Location: Mancora, Peru
Decided to move on, though i had not exactly seen and done everything i wanted in ecuador, but thene again i think i might need an entire lifetime to accomplish that. (watch this space hehe)

also i was hearing so many reports of good weather in ireland and though the climate is very warm in the ecuadorian coast, it was just cloudy as hell in monañita so i started to fel a little jelous of you folks back home , so i decided to compete by heading for Mancora. a surfers town in northern peru with ...oh...around about 365 days of sun, and i can now vouch for one of them.

i took a bus directly back to guayaquil from montañita. funny enough guayaquil didnt seem like the unfriendly boiling pot the second time round, in fact i found the place and people to just as cheerful and talkative as anywhere else in ecador, and it wasnt too loud or hot to sleep either. perhaps i am more aclimatized now having been a week on the coast but it goes to show how first impressions can be a little distorted and if you want to give a proper picture of a place it may well be better to hold off until the adrenalin wears off. but i suppose one of the reasons im keeping this blog is to record those first impressions while they are still fresh in my mind,because memories like that will surely be lost over time.

i took an overnight bus at 11.30pm from guayaquil to mancora (with CIFA). i was enthsed by the word "buscama" (bed-bus) . basically you can put the seats back further which is nice but i would have killed for just 2 inches more leg room so i could alow my feet to dangle just as the little woman to my right was so luckily able to do. i was in front of the TV screen though so mine was the best seat for an hour, while they showed some old mexican cowboy movie.

the border was tedious, it took two hours for everyone to get through the ecuadorian side, and another hour for the peruvian side. this whole ordeal broke up the night sufficiently so that just as i was ready to doze off properly (at 8am) , i realized we were almost in mancora, so i stayed awake until they dropped me off there.being my usual organized self, i had no idea where i was going to stay and and no peruvian money but that all fell together in seconds. avoiding the barrage of pestering rickshaw drivers i just went to the first place i saw and its starting to look like i have one of the better deals in town. i have a huge double room in a new building for 30 soles, and have now located all the elements required to sustain life such as . interenet, cash machine, restaurants, beer and friends! met some travellers i knew in montañita!

ahhhh..life is good

Peruvian border control 6.30 AM

the pan american highway goes right through mancora

My home (today) brand new building, it was a perfect find for me getting right off the bus, at 30 soles i think its a good deal for here, the only downside is there are no other guests, they are all in the dearer places on the beach.

Montañita: One Sore throat 2 hippies and 40 winks

Location: Montañita, Ecuador

i woke up yesterday morning with a slightly sore throat. i had decided it was time to move on to another town later in the day. so i proceeded to pack my bag and left it on storage so i could nip out for breakfast. after about an hour though a wierd feeling began to come over me. i felt that heavy fuzzy feeling, aching bones etc that nearly always means a flue. my energy was zapped to 20% its normal level. i went to the internet cafe to research the nearest towns such as salinas,puerto lopez and guayaqil and decided today was not the day to move to a hectic built up area, i am better off recuperating in a tranquil country town like montañita. given that my bags were packed already and also i had killed a cockroach last night in my room i figured i may aswell move to another hostel (yes i know about the eggss ,sorry!) so anyway i checked into another hostel. met a nice couple there, the girls accent had a twang so similar to friends back home that i almost felt she was a friend from the off. she is from donegal and the boy is english.they are coming to the end of a 9 month trip and she was quite amused to hear my coloquial idioms that she said she hadnt heard in a while. we chatted for a a long while in the communal area of the hostel. which is a shabby building with lots of holes in the floor, i dont think it would survive a year in a harsher climate, but here it would probably last for decades and obviously has. the only thing that bothers me about holes everywhere is the possibility of rats....... and sure enough i was stopped in mid conversation as a rat ran accross the floor in the kitchen. i told the owner and he set a trap for it i think.
but on the plus side the actuall bedrooms are in another better building with stone floors so i dont think any will come into that part of it. the couple are on a tight budget and insist on using the kitchen to prepare lunch .. i would be reluctant to even have a cup of tea in there now.
but it is still a nice hostel and the owner is very nice guy so i will stay a little while.

i went to the farmacy this morning to see if they could help with my flue, as with many shops and restaurants here i could see into the familys kitchen from the shop front. there was a huge furry cat asleep on the counter. the lady came out when she noticed me, and when i described my symptoms, the she seemed to know exactly what was wrong with me. she gave me two kinds of pills (and when i asked "can i drink beer" she chuckled and said "no!" ).
i have to say, i feel a little better now, and hopefully will be ready to party again by friday.



a stroll around to see what was going on this wednesday on the carefree streets of Montañita.

living the dream
after a few days here there seems something quite idylic about finding a nice spot on the street and sitting down with a nice girl a nice dog and just making stuff!

also the dog reminds me way too much of our dog "Zach" at home ... how i miss him ..



man catches 40 winks. good beach to do this on, you wont get burned and you wont get cold.
but you might get photographed! hehe




this is the street im currently waking up to. music and laughter never seem to be far away. there are lots of children, stray dogs and even hens and gooses walking around.
just to the left of here there is a restaurant, they had some kind of party there last night.. the salsa music to was raging all night long while i sweated my flue out in bed just a few doors down , apparently they didnt finish up till 8am. this was fine until a baby started roaring at 9am (for an hour) which broaght my sleeping to a bitter end.






this goose followed me after i took her foto, the family found it amusing.


volleyball.

Montañita: Rasta Potatoes

Location: Montañita, Ecuador




its difficult for me to find words to describe montañita , as every place so far in ecuador, it has surprised me. unlike the sierra where you can easily distinguish an english speaker across the street merely by the color of their hair, there is not a noticeable line between ecuadorian and foreigner here. there are people here from all over the place, and many people come here from other parts of south america for a holiday or for the weekend. its a true coming together of cultures under the common interests of sun, sea, sand, starfish, salsa, spanish, smoking, music, food, parties and... well you get the picture. combining that with the fact the air is warm day and night, and the sea waves warm too. and you can wear what ya like. if there is a heaven, i do hope it is something like this.


oh and i was wrong , it does get sunny here this time of year (occasionaly)

"Rasta Papas" (rasta potatoes)
fried potatoes adorned in rasta colors from various homeade sauces including the smoothest homemade mayonaise imaginable.

and apparently its one of the less tasty dishes at restaurant "wipe out" .. droool!

hammock-cam

i spotted a few fireworks go off for some reason unknown to me in the early evening.


Hostal buddys, Some ecuadorians up from Guayaquil for the weekend. the guayaquil accent is a stumbling block for me, they slur those words out at break-neck speeds and skipping some key sylabils along the way.. and they dont say it any slower the second time.

Cool landlady. so relaxed. Anita runs "hostal del Amigo" Montañita. and finds stories of drunken antics very amusing.


todays song, i heard it playing on the street somwhere and though its about australia, it seemed so fitting for the atmoshpere in montañita. i think it will forever remind me of this place.
(ctrl & left click to open in new window)
men at work: land down under

Montañita: party time

hen takes a stroll around mellow montañita




It seems to be cloudy here all the time, apparently they get sun for 3 months in mid winter or is it summer i cant remember hehe.
the temperature here is so nice , even the sea breeze is warm, you could sleep under the stars (well...if you could see them)


me, Carol (chile), Sandra (chile), Rob (USA), Natalia (chile), Kent (Canada)




Band plays some really entertaining ska covers, such as "Prodigy-outer space" and "Pink floyd- time"
afterwards DJ crossover playes a "crossover" of thumping techno and reggaeton until some un-godly hour.

Montañita: First impressions

the bus pulled away leaving me in a sandy seaside town.
i took a strole around with the bag on my back and was spotted by a little boy who insisted on tagging along to help me find a hostel. in fairnesss to him, just as i was about to try ans shake him off, he got me a good deal. double room for $5 a night and a stones throw from all the action.
my room has no window, just a mesh where the glass would be.



the people here seem to be a mix of travellers, surfers, hippies, locals and anything in between. life seems very relaxed here. the music is playing non stop. the little old lady who is my landlord said something like "this place is lovely.. parties every night! " hehe


can catch up on the latest "telenovelas" (south american soaps) on the neighbours tv from my hammock hehe.


the evening air is warm. theres hardly even a need for walls.


one of the nighclubs was playing techno so i popped in to check it out at about 11.40pm
its the first time i have seen a nightclub with a sand floor, a campfire , a hammock.....



...and a cat.... ( see thats why i like cats , they appreciate the finer things in life)



.. some fire tricks.
the club soon filled up. stays open until 4am on weekdays, 8am on weekends.. sounds promising!

Guayaquil: Quick Escape

Took a walk around Guyayaquil, spotted some of the sophisticated and beautiful Guayaquil people going about their morning business. I was in search of a new t shirt as i had had no luck in finding a laundrette and had recently ditched my "universal sink plug" which seemed to fit no sink in the universe. some of the prices on main shopping streets are reminiscent of Europe, though i eventually got one t shirt for $5.

then i took some fotos of the recently modernised waterfront area before high-tailing it out to the countryside on whatever bus was going anywhere!






bus parking lot. guayaquil is huge.
i think the bus terminal is bigger than dublin airport. (and better organised, needless to say)


the suburbs of Guayaquil. note the rubbish. i have seen parents just throw a plastic bottle onto the road in the middle of a town. not sure if a litter campaign is on president Correas agenda for change.. hope so.

The bus leaving guayaquil was ultra modern and clean with superb air conditioning (which was a first), i got to watch some american blockbuster (subtitles in spanish), they left me in a dusty town called Santa helena, where i immeditaly was courted onto another bus, what a change, my bag was lumped on the roof of this old rust bucket, full of latinos and full of character with some great salsa music blasting out on the old DIY speaker system the whole way. the scenery also changed to almost carribean looking seaside towns from there on, the bus driver weaved the occasional pot hole and i discovered just how well belanaced the bus was as he dipped off the edge of the road to make room for other vehicles. they stopped regurlarly to take or leave some passengers (one of which was carrying the wheel of a car in his arm), and also ,as usual,some venders would get on the bus from time to time selling things like potato crisps and ice pops. the lady beside me opened up conversation, and i knew i was back in friendly Ecuador. i wouldnt be the first set of blue eyes to catch the bus to Montañita.

Gyauaquil: From Highlands to the Coast

Some sights on the road down through the Andes between Riobamba and Guayaquil




Guayaquil

took the bus from Riobamba to Guayaquil today.
suffice to say this city is quite a change from sleepy little Riobamba.
its smokey, noisy and extremely hot.
for just $4.75 the bus takes you on a 4 hour trip down through the Andes to the western coast, where unlike the lukewarm highlands, this is where you get the kind of temperatures you expect from being on the ecuator. you could compare it to going from northern france to southern spain in four hours.
having been five weeks between 1800 meters and 3500 metres, the air at sea level feels like a thick syrup, i went half deaf for a while during the journey the way you do when your on a landing airplane.

by the time i arrived i was already in need of a change of clothes.
the hotel offered me a choice of a room with hot water or a room with air conditioning, the fact that they even gave me that choice led me to think that air conditioning might be the better option.

anyone i have spoken to so far has had quite a snappy not very helpful city slicker attitude whichcertainly suits the intensity of this place but differs greatly from the chatty and warm highland people. however i also know some wonderful people from here so im sure Guayaquil will show its better colors in time , better be quick though cos im tempted to hop on the morning bus to Montañita beach if only for some peace.

View from my balcony window in Hotel sander, Guayaquil

Riobamba: Christian Parade, Fruits & Chinchulines

Locaton: Riobamba, Ecuador

Christian Parade in Riobamba

And as every week, the city is filled with activity and color for the saturday market.

"Hostal Oasis" $10 for a double room ensuite, also own cooking facilities.

the owners are friendly.

Chinchulines (chin - choo- leeness)

pieces of fried loveliness at the side of the road mmm. makes my mouth water now hehe

made from bits of cow i think, not sure which bits at that.