Montañita, Ecuador

Took a bus from Cuenca to Guayaquil and it was quite the drive. You start in the mountains and end at about sea level, passing through amazing mountain landscapes (the road goes through Parque Nacional Cajas) and thick, lush jungle and banana plantation. Quite a day.

The Guayaquil bus station is a bit bizarre in that you get dropped off a couple hundred meters from the main bus terminal. You then have to get on another bus which drives you about 50 meters past a gate and then you have to walk the rest of the way. Is a bus really necessary for a 50 meter journey?

Anyways, hopped on a really nice bus headed for Ecuador´s Pacific coast. This part of the country is called the ¨Ruta del Sol¨(the Sun Route) even though it is cloudy for most of the year. I made it to Montañita just after dark and quickly found a hostel on the beach run by a 20-something Ecuadorian who used it to fund his interest in surfing. He lives at the hostel and goes surfing every day, although he told me that he was about to move to Alberta to work in an oil field at the end of the year. Talk about a contrast.

Montañita is a really laid back surfer village. Lots of foreigners and lots of people with dreadlocks. Reggae is heard coming out of every bar, as opposed to the usual late 90´s pop music from the US which is heard in the rest of Ecuador. A nice change of pace and nice to fall asleep to the sound of waves crashing on the beach (I love being able to pay $5 for a private room with a double bed, private bathroom and an ocean view).

Woke up my first morning to some of the surfers in my hostel coming out onto their balconies all excited because the sun was actually shining. They told me that it was the first time in 3 weeks that they had actually seen the sun. Good timing on my part, but their definition of sunny was a bit generous. Spent most of the day just hanging out on the beach, watching the surfers ride the waves. Very relaxing.

At one point I saw a guy wearing a University of Michigan shirt and started talking to him for a bit. Turns out he didn´t go to UM, he was from Wisconsin, but was a big UM fan. Nice to talk college football with a fellow Wolverine. This guy had actually just moved to Montañita and opened up a hostel and restaurant. Makes me jealous. Why do I want to go law school again? Couldn´t I just take that money for law school and open my own hostel in South America?