Last Trip to the Coast

Justin and I both love the beach so we definitely had to get in one more trip to the coast before leaving Ecuador in a couple months. We had a long weekend for Carnaval at the end of February, so us and group of 8 other teachers headed back to Montañita for one last hurrah.

We left right after school on Friday and headed to the airport. Then we had a one-hour flight to Guayaquil, and from there a 3-hour taxi ride out to the coast. After some delays to our flight, we arrived at the beach just before midnight. Once again, we stayed at Balsa Surf Camp since we had such a great time there before.

The weather was absolutely perfect this weekend - sunny skies with some clouds, warm air, and the ocean was cool without being cold. We had four days to spend but we quickly settled into a beautiful routine that we would wind up repeating every single day. That was:

• Sleep in until pleasantly awoken by a symphony of tropical bird songs.
• Meander down to the breakfast table for El Duke, a breakfast platter consisting of 2 fried eggs, fresh baked bread with butter and jam, a bowl of fresh fruit, yogurt and granola, and a cup of tea or coffee.
• Mosey back up to the room to pack our beach essentials for the day (towels, books, hats, sunblock, money for ceviche, and a small canteen of cheap rum)
• Traipse on down to the beach and stroll along the coast until we find a good enough looking cabana with lounge chairs.
• Pay the cabana man $10 for the use of the cabana and chairs for the whole day
• Plop down into the lounge chairs and begin reading
• Wait until the ceviche man comes down the beach and have our first snack of beach ceviche, washed down with a lukewarm Pilsener
• Wait a little longer until the coconut man comes down the beach, buy a coconut, drink out some of the water, top off with rum, swirl and drink your roncoco.
• Swim - wade - stroll - lounge - doze - repeat
• Watch the tide come up and the pink sunset before roaming back to the camp to ponder dinner plans

Now this is our idea of a blissful beach weekend.

I avoided trips into town with the group, due to it being Carnaval weekend - which means that you have a 100% chance of being sprayed with foam (ask Meagan about last year) or drenched with water, or attacked with water balloons. As I was looking for a much more chill experience, I stayed back most nights and lazily read my book, the next installment of my adored Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. The air was warm and humid and it made the pages of my book slightly damp, which I found oddly satisfying. I enjoy the humidity. I love how good my skin feels in the humidity, and my lungs loved it too. Any trace of the asthma flare up I had days before simply vanished. I take this as irrefutable proof that I’m made to live at sea level.

Other highlights of our weekend included: delicious fish tacos from a seaside hippie hostel and, also courtesy of the hippie hostel - quite possibly the best piece of key lime pie I’ve ever had (and we eat a love of key lime pie in Florida).

I couldn’t have asked for a better farewell memory of Ecuador’s coast. And I’m really going to miss beachside ceviche on a bicycle and rum in my coconut...