So much for chill time....
Well we finally escaped the tranquil days and chaotic nights of Mancora with 1 last BBQ storm, followed by a few last Maracuya (Passionfruit) Pisco Sour's (gonna miss those things) @ Iguana's and a bit of Johhny B Good Rocketfuel on the beach.
Home to pack the bag, I`m shoking at not having anything organised, a kip rather than sleep before we were up again and on our way. The bus taking us onwards into Ecuador supposedly comes between 8 & 9:30, usually arriving in Mancora at around 8:15 for the onward journey. So we get there about 20 minutes early in time for breakfast which really hit the spot, back across the road and into the shade to wait & wait & wait & wait, by this time Lilla has fallen asleep leaning against her backpack on the footpath and it was about 9:15 when I start to lose my patients and go and ask the lady in the office what's going on. 'It will be here in 10 minutes', so about 20 minutes later it finally arrives and we were on our way to Guayaquil, the biggest city in Ecuador and a real shit hole. The plan was to get in and get the hell out as soon as we could headed straight for the coast.
After a couple of hellish border stops and pretty much nothing else we finally arrived in Guayaquil around 6ish, as opposed to our 3:30 ETA (not bad for Ecuador apparently). We grabbed our stuff and headed straight for the bus station for a direct service to Montañita, to no avail, wouldn`t you know it that if we had of arrived on time we would of made the last direct service at 4:30. We had the option of grabbing a bus to some small crappy town and changing across, but the last thing we really felt like doing was spending a night in the middle of no where after the hellish day we had just had, so we grabbed tickets for the following day and headed, on Lilla's request, to the Sheraton! Who says that backpacking has always gotta be about shitty dorm rooms and cold showers?
Driving through the city we could really notice the effect that the introduction of the US$ has made on the country. Lots of big US Brands everywhere and probably plenty more poor people than what there was 6 years ago. The Sheraton was just what the doctor ordered, it was pretty funny rocking up showerless with an hours kip the night before, sweating like pigs at the bus station and probably pretty stinky, not to mention Lilla coughing and sneezing all over the porters with our poorly packed, dirty back packs over one arm and a whole heap of last minute things that didn't fit in, in plastic bags in the other into this $200 a night hotel. A wickedly hot shower, some mini bar action and cable TV did it for us perfectly before heading across the road to Ecuadors biggest mall, still on the hunt for an i-pod charger and some beard/hair combo clippers.
It was unbelievable, the first shop I spotted in the mall was an apple shop and had anything you've ever dreamed of, including a charger, which is weird considering no one in Peru even knew that they existed. Found some beard & hair clippers, but no combo action. Think the hair and beard is just going to have to grow freely until Miami. Upstairs to Tony Roma's Ribhouse (big US chain) for dinner & I went straight for some Buffalo Wings & Baby Back`s, thanks for the advice Craig which I think came from some conversation in a Restaurant in Auckland somewhere. Back across the road to the Sheraton for some more cable and about the comfiest bed in South America.
A nice little sleep in, left only 1 thing to do before check out; ROOM SERVICE! And I tell you what that $14 was like the best $14 ever spent since my deposit on my round the world ticket. We ate until we could no more, then grabbed our stuff and headed back to the bus station where we were finally on our way to chill time in Montañita. We spent the afternoon admiring the sunset
& taking it easy in the hamaka
before heading out for dinner and deciding that Montañita was a pretty relaxed kind of place, even though there seemed to be more restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs & gringos, everything seemed real tranquil & chill and it shouldn`t be too hard a place to wind down from our non-stop Peruvian party mode. That was until we bumped into an Aussie guy called Tim that we had met in Brasil and he pretty much told us that we couldn`t be any further from the truth. Oh Shit!
We decided to call it a night and headed to bed early still feeling the full affect that Mancora left on us, and catch up on some R&R. That was until about midnight when the local club opened up and the beats came a pounding through our window, we both spent the next 7 hours tossing and turning until it finally closed for the night.
Montañita basically means hours on the beach, so when we finally dragged ourselves out of bed and the sun was shining we fely blessed and headed straight there for the day. A mid afternoon nap put us around drink time (it was Saturday afterall), a quick run to the bottle-o and the plan to have a few quities around home before we head out turned out nicely when we met a couple traveling together in the hostel who we continued to party the night away with. A few too many drinks saw everyone in bed early except me which is when I bumped into this shady Dutch characters
along with Timmy boy and a few other misfits at the hostel across the road.
We continued to fiestar with the best mobile cocktail unit in town
before I called a night and went home for another long sleep in.
Sunday & Monday were spent in much the same way, beach during the day, dinner and a few drinks at night. We keep looking for hostels that have a kitchen so we can save a bit of money and cook (not that it happens very often), but the food is just too good and cheap in a lot of these places, that it just seems like a waste of time. Monday night turned a little bigger when some Maltese lads got involved in the shenanigans and things got a whole lot messier from there. I did happen to meet a cool guy out though named Bamba,
he was the Judo champion in Senegal and competed in the Sydney Olympics, he has moved to South America to learn Caiporera (Brasilian Martial Arts/Dance) and kick my arse
(all friendly of course) About 4 Lilla gave up the chase and headed home, I crawled into bed after a sunrise and some final beers on the beach around 9:30. So much for chill time.......
Beach, dinner & drinks continued the week away until we decided that we really had to move on to quieter times and headed North to a quaint fishing village called Puerto Lopez on Thursday. We came up here to check out the National Park Machalilla, it's beautiful beaches and islands nicknamed 'The Poor Persons Gallopagas', cause we just aren`t going to make it there this time round.
After an early night on Thursday (finally), we went and checked out Los Frailes beach in the Park yesterday which was a real nice change to the stereo pumping, table and umbrella ridden beaches that you usually come across in these parts of the world.
A very beautiful and relaxing day was had followed by an awesome dinner at this Italian joint last night with 2 of the shady dutch characters, Florence & Stuart (or something similar in Dutch) that followed us up here.
Up early today for a horse ride along the beach and through the mountains,
leaving us very soar and tired. An afternoon kip led us to the local net cafe (these things are in serious abundance in even the smallest towns in SA, it's crazy!) to blog it up before ringing mum for Mothers Day, heading back to the best pizza in town and maybe a few drinks out. Off to one of the 'Poor Islands' tomorrow for some hiking, snorkelling and kayaking. Which then leaves me with the toughest decision to make for the week, should I go scuba diving on Monday at the other 'Poor Island' or should we just head back to Los Frailes and soak up the sunshine before heading back to the mountains and onto Quito? It's a tough one I know.
Home to pack the bag, I`m shoking at not having anything organised, a kip rather than sleep before we were up again and on our way. The bus taking us onwards into Ecuador supposedly comes between 8 & 9:30, usually arriving in Mancora at around 8:15 for the onward journey. So we get there about 20 minutes early in time for breakfast which really hit the spot, back across the road and into the shade to wait & wait & wait & wait, by this time Lilla has fallen asleep leaning against her backpack on the footpath and it was about 9:15 when I start to lose my patients and go and ask the lady in the office what's going on. 'It will be here in 10 minutes', so about 20 minutes later it finally arrives and we were on our way to Guayaquil, the biggest city in Ecuador and a real shit hole. The plan was to get in and get the hell out as soon as we could headed straight for the coast.
After a couple of hellish border stops and pretty much nothing else we finally arrived in Guayaquil around 6ish, as opposed to our 3:30 ETA (not bad for Ecuador apparently). We grabbed our stuff and headed straight for the bus station for a direct service to Montañita, to no avail, wouldn`t you know it that if we had of arrived on time we would of made the last direct service at 4:30. We had the option of grabbing a bus to some small crappy town and changing across, but the last thing we really felt like doing was spending a night in the middle of no where after the hellish day we had just had, so we grabbed tickets for the following day and headed, on Lilla's request, to the Sheraton! Who says that backpacking has always gotta be about shitty dorm rooms and cold showers?
Driving through the city we could really notice the effect that the introduction of the US$ has made on the country. Lots of big US Brands everywhere and probably plenty more poor people than what there was 6 years ago. The Sheraton was just what the doctor ordered, it was pretty funny rocking up showerless with an hours kip the night before, sweating like pigs at the bus station and probably pretty stinky, not to mention Lilla coughing and sneezing all over the porters with our poorly packed, dirty back packs over one arm and a whole heap of last minute things that didn't fit in, in plastic bags in the other into this $200 a night hotel. A wickedly hot shower, some mini bar action and cable TV did it for us perfectly before heading across the road to Ecuadors biggest mall, still on the hunt for an i-pod charger and some beard/hair combo clippers.
It was unbelievable, the first shop I spotted in the mall was an apple shop and had anything you've ever dreamed of, including a charger, which is weird considering no one in Peru even knew that they existed. Found some beard & hair clippers, but no combo action. Think the hair and beard is just going to have to grow freely until Miami. Upstairs to Tony Roma's Ribhouse (big US chain) for dinner & I went straight for some Buffalo Wings & Baby Back`s, thanks for the advice Craig which I think came from some conversation in a Restaurant in Auckland somewhere. Back across the road to the Sheraton for some more cable and about the comfiest bed in South America.
A nice little sleep in, left only 1 thing to do before check out; ROOM SERVICE! And I tell you what that $14 was like the best $14 ever spent since my deposit on my round the world ticket. We ate until we could no more, then grabbed our stuff and headed back to the bus station where we were finally on our way to chill time in Montañita. We spent the afternoon admiring the sunset
& taking it easy in the hamaka
before heading out for dinner and deciding that Montañita was a pretty relaxed kind of place, even though there seemed to be more restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs & gringos, everything seemed real tranquil & chill and it shouldn`t be too hard a place to wind down from our non-stop Peruvian party mode. That was until we bumped into an Aussie guy called Tim that we had met in Brasil and he pretty much told us that we couldn`t be any further from the truth. Oh Shit!
We decided to call it a night and headed to bed early still feeling the full affect that Mancora left on us, and catch up on some R&R. That was until about midnight when the local club opened up and the beats came a pounding through our window, we both spent the next 7 hours tossing and turning until it finally closed for the night.
Montañita basically means hours on the beach, so when we finally dragged ourselves out of bed and the sun was shining we fely blessed and headed straight there for the day. A mid afternoon nap put us around drink time (it was Saturday afterall), a quick run to the bottle-o and the plan to have a few quities around home before we head out turned out nicely when we met a couple traveling together in the hostel who we continued to party the night away with. A few too many drinks saw everyone in bed early except me which is when I bumped into this shady Dutch characters
along with Timmy boy and a few other misfits at the hostel across the road.
We continued to fiestar with the best mobile cocktail unit in town
before I called a night and went home for another long sleep in.
Sunday & Monday were spent in much the same way, beach during the day, dinner and a few drinks at night. We keep looking for hostels that have a kitchen so we can save a bit of money and cook (not that it happens very often), but the food is just too good and cheap in a lot of these places, that it just seems like a waste of time. Monday night turned a little bigger when some Maltese lads got involved in the shenanigans and things got a whole lot messier from there. I did happen to meet a cool guy out though named Bamba,
he was the Judo champion in Senegal and competed in the Sydney Olympics, he has moved to South America to learn Caiporera (Brasilian Martial Arts/Dance) and kick my arse
(all friendly of course) About 4 Lilla gave up the chase and headed home, I crawled into bed after a sunrise and some final beers on the beach around 9:30. So much for chill time.......
Beach, dinner & drinks continued the week away until we decided that we really had to move on to quieter times and headed North to a quaint fishing village called Puerto Lopez on Thursday. We came up here to check out the National Park Machalilla, it's beautiful beaches and islands nicknamed 'The Poor Persons Gallopagas', cause we just aren`t going to make it there this time round.
After an early night on Thursday (finally), we went and checked out Los Frailes beach in the Park yesterday which was a real nice change to the stereo pumping, table and umbrella ridden beaches that you usually come across in these parts of the world.
A very beautiful and relaxing day was had followed by an awesome dinner at this Italian joint last night with 2 of the shady dutch characters, Florence & Stuart (or something similar in Dutch) that followed us up here.
Up early today for a horse ride along the beach and through the mountains,
leaving us very soar and tired. An afternoon kip led us to the local net cafe (these things are in serious abundance in even the smallest towns in SA, it's crazy!) to blog it up before ringing mum for Mothers Day, heading back to the best pizza in town and maybe a few drinks out. Off to one of the 'Poor Islands' tomorrow for some hiking, snorkelling and kayaking. Which then leaves me with the toughest decision to make for the week, should I go scuba diving on Monday at the other 'Poor Island' or should we just head back to Los Frailes and soak up the sunshine before heading back to the mountains and onto Quito? It's a tough one I know.
posted by Sanchez at 7:00 AM
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