Montanita: NOAH! QUIERES UN TRAGO?

"Vamos a la playa
A mi me gusta baila
El ritmo de la noche
Sounds of fiesta!"

Every time we talk about going to the beach, invariably someone will sing this "famous" song by Loona. If you don't know it, watch it so you will never feel left out when you're about to go to the beach. It's basically a classic.

Regardless, this past weekend I left Quito in the dust and headed to the beach with my friends for my friend Noah's 21st birthday. Thursday night we met at the bus station at 8:30pm and although the bus ride was terrifying (complete with sharp turns, high speeds, and leaking gasoline...no joke), we made it alive to switch buses at 4am and then to finally arrive at the beach at 7am.

Montanita is known as "gringolandia" (the loving name given by my host dad) and is not only filled with white people, but also tons of hippies. Despite this, at 7 in the morning, the town was desolate so we wandered around and found a ritzy hostel ($5 per night) and some classy breakfast ($1.50). While it was still cloudy we walked around the beach and walked along the rocky parts (with tide pools just like Maine!).

Once the sun came out (a foreign concept while we were in Canoa), we grabbed our suits and headed to the beach. We spent the rest of the day bathing in the sun, reading, and going body surfing, only breaking to get ceviche for lunch. The weather was great and the water was also perfect. Qué suerte!

At night we met an Ecuadorian guy named Leo who was also staying in our hostel. As the sun set, we pregamed with Leo and did some more relaxing.

Relaxing in the hammocks

After walking around town, having piña coladas, and watching some street performers, we decided that we were too tired after our epic bus ride, and ended up going to bed fairly early. Little did we know, the night was far from over because our friend Leo decided to come in to our room, not once, not twice, but THREE times throughout the night. Some would say that his first visit at 4:30am screaming, "NOAH, QUIERES UN TRAGO? NOAH! ES SU CUMPLEANOS! NOAH!" was comical, but after his third visit bright and early at 5:30 in the morning, it was slightly difficult to not get up and murder an Ecuadorian.

The morning started with a run (or really, Leo started off the morning and our run was the second thing on the menu) followed by another relaxing day at the beach. When it got cloudy in the afternoon, we got lunch and wandered around the town looking at the many street vendors. Although we had some relatively awk conversations with some of the millions of high hippies selling jewelry (#casual), it was fun.

The church and one of the streets of Montanita

Gringo-landia.

At night we played a game of Circle of Death and then went out to walk around the town.

Hanging out on the porch.

The entire day Sunday was spent on buses (12 hours total, woohoo). Still, the beach turned out to be relaxing and fun and was the perfect way to mark the three month mark of our time in Ecuador. Unfortunately, this means that we only have one month left here! And so the bucket-list compilations begin...