Montanita

Friday, February 20th 2015
Our hotel, the Swisspoint, is on the main road leading north along the coast. We're 5 minutes from downtown and not more than 2 minutes walk from the beach, which is down a little dirt road just across the main road. Our room is small but it has AC which is good. There is no hot water but the cold water isn't really that cold so there's no need. We're quite close to the road so there is vehicle noise, dogs, cats and roosters at all hours. We can just barely hear the music from town which doesn't seem to stop until 4 am. Our AC has several speeds: loud, louder and loudest. If we keep it on the lowest speed it drowns out all the other noise and we sleep just fine. Our room door opens onto a small backyard patio with little pool. It's a great place to relax. The owner sets out coffee and tea on the patio by 9 am every day. We're quite happy here for $50 per night, including tax. We also have small friends here.

Yesterday morning we walked into town for breakfast at Papillon, one of the many bar/restaurants. Their "Americano" was okay for $3.50 each but not that great and the service was very slow.
After breakfast we applied liberal amounts of sunscreen and went for a walk on the beach. In Montanita it's board shorts and no shirt for the guys and bikinis and maybe a cover-up for the ladies all day and into the night. It's hot by 8 am so more clothing seems inappropriate.
There are numerous street vendors. The juice vendors turn into bars by mid-afternoon. When you buy a beer ($1.50 for a 608ml bottle) at a bodega, they ask you if you want it opened before you go out onto the street. Drinking on the street or the beach is very common. There are several pedestrian streets so the whole town is a party.
The beach is very flat so at low tide it's the widest we've ever seen, and we know our beaches.

 The sand is light brown, not white which is our first preference, but it's hard packed and great for walking.
We first walked north up to la punta, a rocky point with bigger waves. We watched the surfers for awhile but the best surf at dawn and dusk.
Then we turned south and walked past the town that way. Finally we came back and found a spot to sit on the beach for awhile.
The Dharma Beach hotel is one of the biggest and looks nice, although a little strange. There are also countless more modest hotels and hostels in town.

After happy hour back on our patio, in the late afternoon we walked into town to Pigro, which is an Italian restaurant. They had 2 specials for $8 each so we ordered one of each. Fresh, homemade pasta and sauces with fresh seafood in each one and each included a soft drink or water. With a beer and tip we spent less than $20. It was so good we're going back tonight. After dinner, we walked the beach again to see the better surfers and watch the sunset. There are a lot more people on the beach at sunset than at noon. Not everyone gets up as early as we do.
This morning we walked south on the beach to the next town, Manglaralto. On the way, we saw the parasailing boys pushing their big heavy boat out into the water. The beach is so wide that there are no piers so the boats are pushed manually out over the tidal flat on log rollers. It takes a lot of manpower.

Further down the beach we watched some fishermen haul in their nets and their boat. They loaded everything onto a big truck and sat in the boat on the truck so it wouldn't fall out. Again, it took a lot of guys and looked very labour intensive. Anita waved at them and they all waved back. Despite the crime statistics most Ecuadorians seem very friendly and helpful.
After we walked back, we sat on the beach for awhile and then retired to our patio for happy hour. Tonight we're going back to Pigro. It's too good.