02/11/2022 Montanita
What to expect
Montanita
Homeless – again
The 11-hour-night bus ride from Banos to Montanita went surprisingly well! I pretty much slept the entire time. I don’t know why we thought it would make sense not to book an accommodation in Montanita when we’d get there at 6.30 a.m.. Most of the accommodations weren’t even open that early. Don’t you just love being “homeless” when you’re coming off a long bus ride in a new town?
Overcast Montanita
After walking through the empty town for a bit, we found a nice hotel room ($9 p.p.). We went out for a tasty acai bowl and then explored town and the beach. I loved being back at the beach! The only thing that could have made it even better would have been blue sky. But we did hear that Montanita is usually really overcast.
Go partying
…or not
Montanita is Ecuador’s number one party town! But when we went out for dinner and cocktails that night, the town seemed deserted! Blake, however, had to remind me that it was only 7.30 p.m.. Fair point, I guess. So what to do until the big Wednesday night party in the “Hidden House Hostel” was about to get packed? Of course: sleep!
Am I getting old?
Big mistake, because when Blake woke me up at 11 p.m., I was very grumpy. All I wanted to do was sleep further. Somehow he could motivate me to get out of bed again. (Also because I did not want him to hold against me that I’m all “washed up”.) The party wasn’t actually too bad.
We caught up with another Canadian guy who we had done the Quilotoa crater day trip with, the Amazon tour and the Cotopaxi National Park. And we even met two Belgium guys who we had met in the Amazon. Of course you run into people you met in the Amazon – makes total sense…
Night club only for one of us
At 1.30 a.m. the party moved from the hostel to the big night club in town. But I felt like I had done my deed, while Blake checked out the night club – a classic case of “fomo” if you’re asking me 😉.
03/11/2022 Montanita
Waking up hungover free, I knew I had made the right decision of not going to the night club after the hostel party.
In the morning Blake and I grabbed a fruit juice from one of the many little stands in town.
Start your day with yoga
Afterwards I walked to the yoga studio close to the beach. The 75-minute-yoga session felt good and again it showed me how very inflexible I am.
Do a beach walk
After yoga Blake picked me up and we walked along the beach until sitting down on a big sunbed with some drinks. Mind you, I was sitting here in my sweater, with my hoodie on. And the drink wasn’t a cocktail – it was a hot tea. I feel like we (or rather I) have become very weak after sweating for the past three months in Central America and in Colombia. So now 21°C feels very cold to us.
Go wild at one of the streetfood stalls
On the way to our hotel, I grabbed a cr̻pe with oreo, nutella and bananas which was the size of my head Рit was awesome!
Have a drink at cocktail alley
Later that night after a tasty curry dinner, we walked to “cocktail alley”, which are lots of small stands next to each other with many different types of alcohol. In the meantime music was blasting out of every bar and night club behind us. It was clearly a sensory overload!
04/11/2022 From Montanita to Guayaquil
After checking out of our hotel, we went to our little fruit juice stall again for some fresh juices and an omelette.
Relax at the beach
Afterwards we did another beach walk. After a while we relaxed in two beach chairs and watched the surfers catch some waves (to be honest, it was a bit too cold for us to go surfing here – our time would come again though).
And while we were sitting there, the sun came out and within a few minutes the entire sky was blue! Who said Montanita is always overcast?? (Actually every backpacker we’ve met on this trip.)
From Medellin to Montanita
After getting our backpacks from our hotel, we caught up with a Danish girl who we had met on the food tour in Medellin. It was great seeing her again and hearing what she’s been up to in the past three weeks since we had last seen her.
Bus to Guayaquil
And then it was time to catch the bus to Guayaquil. Since Guayaquil is supposed to be one of the most dangerous cities in South America, we were not planning to stay there long, nor did we want to explore the city.
But we needed to get here in order to make one of my biggest dreams come true: Tomorrow we are going to fly to the Galapagos Islands for 8 days! 😀
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