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| Our Charriot |
Every now and again, people need to get away. Not just from
their lives and work, because if you’ve been reading this blog you know that we
have been very fortunate with our vacations. I mean get away and be with a
hoard of humans that are the same gender as you. Recently Shannon went on an
annual girls trip organized by some teachers at our school. Last weekend, I went
on mine…
It is tradition at our school to have one trip per year
where groups of friends, co-horts (high school with high school, etc) are
abandoned and we all get together as a “guy’s group” or a “ladies group.” The ladies
went on a nice trip to the mountains and we went…back to the beach.
Shannon and I have already had two nice beach retreats since
we’ve been in Ecuador and I was excited for a third. All arrangements were made
by a guy named Greg so each guy’s only responsibility was to pack a bag, pay
$170 for everything (food, hotel, transport) and hit the road.
We left straight from school last Friday on a private
charter bus. There was a total of 20 guys ranging in age from 27 to 55. As we
got on the bus we were all handed hoagies (for you non New Jersians that’s a
sub) and every four feet in the main aisle, a cooler full of beer was placed. It
is not illegal in Ecuador to drink in a motor vehicle, as long as the driver
isn’t drinking.
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| Canoa beach bungalow bars |
We quickly hit the road at 4:05 and had some food and
refreshments as we wound down the mountain roads that have been detailed here
before. We stopped a few times for pan de yucca, which I just realized is
something that I haven’t addressed yet in this blog. Pan de yucca is a South
American treat that is beautiful in its simplicity. Yucca is a potato like root
vegetable that basically tastes like a denser potato. Pan de yucca is a bread
roll made from the stuff. There is a slight potato-y flavor to it but it also
is cooked with a ton of butter and cheese inside. The end result is a buttery flaky
outside, cheesy buttery soft chewy inside. It’s fantastic and can be had at any
street corner or restaurant in Ecuador. Anyway, as we were driving through the
little shanty towns, the bus would slow down and ambitious entrepenears would
run alongside the bus and exchange a fresh bag of 6 or 7 rolls for two dollars.
We didn’t even have to stop. Good times.
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| Cabanas for everyone! |
When we finally arrived in Canoa, the beach town we were to
be staying, we realized that it was a
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| Canoa retreat...complete with hammocks on the roof |
Anyway we got in after a 8.5 hr drive and some of the guys
went out. I decided to stay in and go to bed. We had rented out 8 rooms from
this little beach hotel and I was both tired, and didn’t mind having first
choice on bed options. I fell asleep relatively quickly ignoring the mosquito
nets attached to the top of each bed and man did I live to regret that.
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| Should have used those mosquito nets the first night. |
The next morning I woke up with about 39 bites all over me,
including one the side of a dime smack dab in the center of the bottom of my
foot. That was unfortunate. I did not make the same mistake the next night. We ate
at the hotel and went straight to the beach after breakfast.
The beach in Canoa is a bit more populated than Ayampe and
Same so naturally there were people there trying to make a few bucks. We ended
up renting two cabanas for the day ($4 each) and having coolers full of beer
brought over on ice (9 beers and deliver for $12) all day. Not a bad gig. We
all spent the day either hanging out in the cabanas, swimming in the warm
currents of the Equatorial Pacific Ocean, playing Frisbee, surfing, or just
napping. It was a nice time and a large enough group that no matter what you
wanted to do, you could find company or solitude.
We had some great meals full of fresh seafood and a good
time all around. It was a nice bonding experience and something that I look
forward to next year.
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