Beautiful Ecuador

I have been happily surprised at how beautiful Ecuador is! Our adventure to Ecuador began at 5am on Friday morning. Our friend Nito, a taxi driver, picked us up to drive us up to the border. It was a sad goodbye to our dog Rex and to Ben (for Keri). We had pretty much adopted this dog named Rex (no we did not name him). The man who runs the rental properties, William, also owns a store/restaurant in Punta Sal. Well Rex is kind of the store dog but he also has the run of the town. So he started hanging out with us at our beach house. He was so sweet and good natured, you just couldn't help but love him. He was only 8 months old so he had the energy and affection of a puppy. One day, it just broke our hearts, we went into Mancora for money and groceries and Rex followed us into town from the house as we walked. Then, when we got into the mototaxi (think of a motorcycle with a little 3 person covered seat attached to it on two wheels), he jumped right in with us. So we had to go through the motions of getting him out and then him jumping back in and so forth three or four times. So we take off in the mototaxi and he starts running behind us. It was terrible! He followed us for a good 5 minutes before giving up. But sure enough, the next day, he was back at the house with us! Anyway, he became our house dog and it was like he knew Keri and I were leaving because there he was at 5 in the morning, cuddled all up next to my legs so that if I moved, he would have fallen over. Ben later emailed to say that Rex was just whimpering during the day because we were gone.

Anyway, Nito picks us up and off we go. It took just under 2 hours to get to the border. Thank God we had Nito with us. We were joking that Nito was our "Coyote" and that he was going to smuggle us across. There were tons of people loitering around the immigration area on the Peru side trying to tell us that they were Ecuadorian and they would get us over to the other side. Nito just kept telling them to go away, that he knew what he was doing. I guess most taxi drivers just drop you off and leave you to your own devices.

It was actually really strange. So we stop in Peru and get stamped as leaving the country, but then we get in the taxi and drive another five minutes or so before parking and then walking down this road that is the official border. So you get into Ecuador and have to go quite a ways before actually being processed in Ecuador. Nito took us to a little bus station and we got tickets on a van to Guyaquil. From Guyaquil, we planned on going to Montañita. Also, on a side note, why did I have no idea that Ecuador uses American dollars?? Who knew?? It was strange to take US dollars out of the ATM.

So then Nito gets us in a taxi to take us to the Ecuador immigration point and we say our heartfelt goodbyes. He is such a great guy. We process in Ecuador, catch our van and off we go! The first thing that strikes me about Ecuador is how fast the people talk. I mean, my Spanish comprehension is pretty fluent right now and I have a hard time understanding these folks. The second thing that strikes me is the absolute beauty of the banana farms and the surrounding forest hillsides. Coming from the dry, sandy desert mountains of northern Peru, it was like stepping into an oasis. For the 4 hour drive to Guyaquil, there was hardly a time when I didn't have banana trees on either side of the car.

Guyaquil itself reminded me of a south Florida city like Miami or Tampa. Keri and I liked it immediately. Much prettier and cleaner than Lima. We were dropped off and had to find our way to another travel agency that drives up to Montañita. So we figure that out and also figure out that we can't go directly to Montañita so we book a van to Santa Elena and from there we are told we can get a bus to Montañita. We grab a quick lunch (by this time it is 1pm) and then hop in our other van. We get to Santa Elena around 3pm and instead of waiting for the crowded public buses, we say screw it, lets just take a taxi. So our final hour or so of travel was along this beautiful beach highway speeding along in a taxi. We shop around for places to stay up the beach from the main town center of Montañita. We had enough partying in Mancora. We found a room for $15 each a night with A/C and cable tv! The A/C is a godsend. The cable tv is perfect since we just want to chill at night. Most other places were charging $20-25 each a night with no A/C or tv. The bugs here are gigantic!

We had to change rooms from our first one because there was an infestation of huge crickets. They were everywhere! Everyone who knows me also knows that I do not like bugs. I can handle crickets and grasshoppers and stuff because they generally don't crawl all over you and bite you (like spiders) but an infestation of anything is pretty disgusting! So now we are in a suite that is nice but for the same price. It is the low season here so there aren't many people around. It allowed us to bargain a bit on the price.

The beach here is beautiful. Much prettier than Mancora and Punta Sal. Keri and I are in heaven. We've already dropped our dirty clothes off at a laundry place, we had awesome fish tacos for $1.50 last night. I can buy fresh juice anytime I want from the juice vendors. It is awesome. I think we are going to meet up with some of my college friend Betsy's Ecuadorian cousins either today or tomorrow. That should be a lot of fun. Today there are a lot of people on the beach. Where we are staying is known as one of the best suring areas in this part of the world. I think there is a competition today. By Sunday night, I'm sure it will be dead again once the Ecuadorians go back home for the work week. I have to keep reminding myself that we are in Ecuador and not Peru. They definitely use different words here but we are still able to communicate just fine.

Our plan is to stay for the week and just relax. The lack of sleep has given me a cold and bad sore throat so I just want to chill and feel better. Last night we were in bed by 10pm and didn't get up until close to 9am. The A/C felt amazing.

I will try to download some photos in the next couple days. I got some really good ones of the sunsets off our deck in Punta Sal. Plus, there are some really funny ones from our fishing trip. Which I just realized I forgot to write about. It was hysterical. We were expecting a nice fishing boat like you might find in Florida or wherever. Well, you will just have to see the photos because I can't really describe what our boat was like other than small and wooden. However, the fisherman and his two teenage sons who took us out were so nice and funny. We were out for 3 and a half hours and Keri was the star fisherman. I caught 2 fish but Keri caught like 4 and an eel! We didn't use poles but actually just used drop lines. So you drop the bait and weight down on the line and let it go for awhile and just wait until you feel something and then start grabbing the line up with the hopes that the fish is still on it! Difficult but fun.

The neatest thing happened on the way back in though. Keri and I were sitting at the front of the boat and we all see hundreds of sea birds circling this one part of the sea and dive bombing in for fish. Well, as we get closer, we notice all these dolphin fins as well. So we drove through it and I swear there were at least 100 dolphins swimming through this school of fish. There were big ones and baby ones. It was so beautiful. It was straight out of National Geographic. We were in awe. It totally made the day even more perfect. So we paid some man on the pier to clean our fish and filet them for us and off we went with a nice big fresh fish dinner to cook.

That is a novel for today. Hope it doesn't bore you.