Christmas in Montanita

December 20^th-26^th

 The 3 hour bus ride from Guayaquil to Montanita was relatively pleasant.  The terrain became more arid as we approached the coast, a far cry from the lush rainforest mountains from yesterday’s ride down from Alausi to the big city.  The road paralleled the coast heading north to the small surf town of Montanita, a popular tourist destination. 

The Guayaquil bus terminal, it's three levels and almost like a shopping mall inside.

Getting closer to the coast:

The Pacific:

As soon as I arrived at my hostel, Casa del Sol, I knew that I had made a good decision and I was going to enjoy my stay.  I mean come on…reception is the bar!  A tall female New Zealander, Athena, greeted me, guessing my name before I could say it.  There was a fair skinned, blonde guy working on his laptop at the bar and he was super friendly.  Turns out he is the manager.  Jackson is originally from Grimsby, a town near Niagara Falls, and he was surprised that I happen to know it.  I had a couple of engineering work terms in that area back in my university days.  Athena checked me in, gave me a quick tour and showed me to my hut, an A frame building with a thatched roof of dried palm leaves.

The outside of Casa del Sol:

The eating area:

A big Buddha inside:

The yoga studio on the right:

My room was the one on the left:

Once settled in, I returned to the bar and there was a new bartender on duty.  Lauti hails from Argentina and is a super friendly and fun guy.  After a few beers, I wandered out to check out the beach.  Access to the shoreline was through a nearby restaurant called Shankar which specializes in sushi and Thai food, and their food was good!  I ate there over the course of my 6 days more than any other place as it was delicious.

The hostel is situated on the north end of the beach, about a 5 minute walk from town which is to the south.  A bluff walls off the beach about a hundred meters away.  Various restaurants, guesthouses and even the odd little hotel line the beach.  I immediately had flashbacks of Arambol Beach in Goa, where I spent the majority of my time while stuck in India.  The best surfing happens to be near the promontory so there was often entertainment to watch while eating at Shankar.

Looking north on the beach:

A beach restaurant:

Yup, sure feels like India!

A nice sunset the first night, supposedly the first one in a month or so.

Enjoying the evening ambience.

Personally, I’ve given up on surfing.  It seems like a lot of work for very little reward.  Even the best surfers here would get a maximum of 20-25 seconds of glory on a good run.  I’d rather kite surf now.  So I didn’t venture out into the water while I was here.  I had some relaxing days, hung out reading, chatting with people and occasionally some day drinking with cocktails in town with some other foreigners.  Oh yeah, I also went paragliding, but I’ll do a separate post on that.

I hung out with a few characters staying at the hostel.  The first night around the bar there were 3 bearded guys, I jokingly called them the “bearded brothers” but they didn’t know each other before arriving in Montanita.  There was Joschi and Simon from Germany and Benat from Spain, but he specifically would say the Catalan region.  Then there was mustached Alex from Florida who was a regular.  He figured he’d visited Montanita, and specifically this hostel about 20+ times.  He liked the area, but really liked the people at Casa del Mar.  Another interesting guy was Mattias from Sweden.  He was the Casanova of the place, dating numerous women that he found online or on the beach.  There was another fellow Canadian, a woman from the Sunshine Coast named Tammy who I enjoyed hanging out with too.  And as previously mentioned, Lauti, who worked the bar.  All of them were awesome people.

The streets of Montanita:

Out for cocktails with Joschi (and Alex):

The common activity around the bar was playing Yenghaa.  No, not Jenga, Yenghaa, a knock off.  It was challenging as the blocks were not sanded, but they were also very regular in their shape.  This meant that on some games you’d have 3-5 levels that had nothing that would budge.  Also, since they were rough, the tower often swayed while trying to extract a piece.  Lots of fun.

Yenghaa!

I have never seen a dog successfully dig up a crab before...until this.  But it seemed like a good standoff.

Another nice sunset:

Mattias and Kristina at the hostel bar:

Christmas Eve morning: Lauti and

Christmas day on the beach:

Casa del Sol is owned by a Canadian woman, originally from Alberta, named Tamara.  Both her and Jackson’s parents were visiting from Canada, and they put a lot of effort into preparing the awesome Christmas Eve dinner which ended up being for over 40 people.  It was a fantastic dinner and a lot of fun.

Christmas Eve sunset drinks.  From left to right: Tamara, Franco, Alex, Athena, Joschi, Tammy, Benat, Simon

Pre-dinner speach by Jackson:

Lauti rocking some shades:

Mattias' turn:

There were 3 dogs living at the hostel.  This is Theo.

The backyard bar area:

Lauti and Jackson singing along to something...

This huge iguana fell out of the tree but was able to grab on to this mesh netting.

A strange statue near the hostel:

Someone parasailing on Christmas Day.

And a motorized hang gliding trike flew by at sunset too!

Casa del Sol was by far the most fun hostel I’ve stayed at during this trip.  The ambience, rooms and décor were great, but it was the people who made it.  Tamara and Jackson…keep doing what you’re doing…you guys rock!