Off to Montañita - The Land of Milk and Honey?

Questions? E-mail us!

Follow us on Twitter - @JOTOinEcuador
Like Us on Facebook!

Quick Links

AND Rock and Roll!

My wife and I, quite spontaneously I might add; decided it was time for a trip.  "A trip where?" you ask.  "You just moved to Ecuador!"  In reality we have been doing quite a bit of day travelling.  You know, visit a nearby town or village, then come home the same day.  Not so this time.  This time we went on a TRIP!  No plan, no reservations, just gone baby.  I know some are thinking, "like a road trip when we were teenagers" and there is some truth to that.  Some are thinking, "No plans? AGAIN?" There is some truth to that as well.  Some are thinking, "But you have cats.  WHAT ABOUT THE CATS?!"

What about them?  They can fend for themselves for a day or two with enough food, water, and litter left behind.  We left enough so enough about the cats.  They were just fine.

We packed a small duffel bag, walked down to the Crucita Malecon, and hopped the first bus to Manta.  We had to wait about twenty minutes for the bus I think.  Manta is a large port city.  Tuna is a prime export and the cruise ship industry thrives there.  They also build trawlers by hand.  Manta was not our stated destination.  Not this time.  We can see Manta from our roof (and from the beach), but it is about a thirty minute bus ride from here.  We have been there three times now.  Once to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility (MREMH), for our new VISA's, once for just a visit and now for something else.  The Manta bus terminal and a bus change to where ever.  In this case, Ecuador's famed surfing, nightclub, and party scene; Montañita.

Full Moon Party on Calle de los Cocteles!  

Read a lot about it.  Thought we would try it out see and what all the fuss is about.  If you need some justification, we had to do some recon work anyway.  We have amigos and Familia all coming to visit this year.  We would be poor hosts if we did not know where to go and where not to go right?  Right.  My Familia is a little loco so they might like it.  My friends are loco so I know they would like it.  It is the crazy place you sometimes read about on other blogs?  Good food?  Good beach?  Good people?

So, how long to get there by bus and how much does it cost to get there?   How much to stay a night or two?  How much is everything else?

A View of Puerto Lopez from the Bus, in the Rain.

First thing.  Be prepared to start your journey very early.  The first direct bus to Montañita departs Manta at 05:00.  There are other buses that run the same route should you decide to leave later (as we did).  However, if you get a late start, you may have to change buses once or twice. There are always other buses in every town along the route to get you where you need to go.  The world is round right? You'll get there.  Also, it costs very little. About a five hour trip by bus with a little bit of taxi thrown in cost us maybe $40 round trip. Not each. Total.

Had we left earlier it would have been $30 (total for both of us) but we used a taxi for the last 25 kilometers.  There are stops for food, drink, and bathroom breaks along the way.  Vendors get on the bus and sell food constantly.  You will not starve.  You can actually eat quite well for very little cash. The bus route takes you through the Andes as well as providing spectacular coastal views.  I thoroughly enjoyed the trip.  You can sleep if you want.  You may need to on the way back home.

Street vendors selling deliciousness and beauty.

So, here we are now.  Standing in a hotel parking lot looking at Montañita and wondering what to do next. The taxi driver points to the hotel next to us and says it is bueno.  Then he goes to the front desk and tells the clerk to give us a nice room.  As it turns out, the front desk of every hotel is open 24x7 in Montañita. We are given a tour of our room. It is a boutique style hotel. $50 per day is the cost for our room.


It had stained glass windows, french doors opening to a large balcony, flat screen HDTV with DirecTV, air conditioning, mini fridge, solid wood armoire, beach style bamboo nightstands, a combination safe, very comfortable queen size bed, and most important - the shower had HOT water. It was the equivalent of a $120+ room in the USA. There are other hotels but we were not about to search now.  This is our room.  We have since found out there are hostels and hotels with rooms as low as $10 a day, though not nearly as nice or air conditioned.  Some with shared bathrooms.  Some are dormitory style rooms with lockers to store your backpack, duffel bag, or suitcase.  There are even beach campgrounds.  It is all up to you.

The Street Art is Amazing and Everywhere.

After a nice hot shower, a little spit and shine, we are ready for a night out.  We think.  Montañita is very Bohemian.  No suits and ties.  Board shorts, sundresses, bikinis, baggies, flip flops and hats are the way to go here.  Art is everywhere because shops and bars are everywhere and it seems murals are encouraged.  It is beautiful.  It is colorful.  There are restaurants galore.  Throw a rock and you will hit three.  The same with hotels.


Actually, almost every restaurant is part of a hotel. There are juice stands everywhere.  They also make any kind of crepe you can imagine right there on the street. Boutiques dot the cityscape. Street vendors sell jewelry and much of it is skillfully hand made and quite beautiful.

Calle de los Cocteles!

We got there after dark.  By the time we hit the street it was 22:00.  Early in Montañita since the last bar seems to close at 04:00.  My first thought was "Key West with a pulse."  As it turns out, there is a street there called the street of cocktails.  No boutiques here.  Lining both sides of the street are cocktail stands with small wood or plastic stools and tables out front.  The lists of cocktails are on chalkboards.  No prices though.  We learned our lesson, and that right quick. Ask before you order.  Pricing seems to be a bit flexible.

It is colorful, fun, and different.  It is a melting pot of culture.  Many people speak some English as well as smatterings of other languages so it is easy to order.  The street ends on the huge beach where you can get even more cocktails, then join the party on the beach.

A word to the wise - hit the liquor store, mix your own drinks in your hotel room. Make sure you save the plastic cup your first cocktail came in so you can hit the town with your homemade cocktails.  There are plenty of liquor stores.  Why not?  The locals do it.  You are drinking on the street anyway.  Now if you want premium atmosphere and premium beverages, you will love the street of cocktails as they have the higher end, hard to get stuff like Maker's Mark or Ciroc.  Enjoy it. It will run you about $11 per cocktail.  Buy in the liquor store and get your whole night's supply for $15.  It is all up to what kind of experience you want.

Alcatraz.  I Think we Met The Birdman at some Point.

Keep exploring and you will find Alcatraz Discotec, the newest rave bar in Montañita.  It is three stories high, the walls are chain link fence complete with barbed wire, and it has the largest disco ball I have ever seen.  There are many others.  Rock bars, Karaoke bars, Bottle bars, Hookah bars, Beer bars, and just plain old dive bars.  I truly believe anyone can find someplace they love there.  We watched a very good rock band play for an hour and spent maybe $8 on drinks.

We ended up where so many do though.  On the beach, me sipping a Pilsener, my wife sipping a vodka tonic, and both of us enjoying the surf.  I should say this is happening 10 minutes from our hotel.  The walk back is uneventful.  You never need a cab in Montañita.  You can walk everywhere. We sleep.

Hit the Beach for Cerveza, a Cocktail, and to Relax ala Frankie.

We wake up the next day and all we can think of is breakfast.  Crepes and juice will not do it.  We walk to the beach and end up sitting ocean side at IBIZA Gastropub restaurant, eating omelettes and drinking coffee as well as fresh juice. It was a $12 breakfast, again not each, total.  It came with everything. Well, not everything.  In Montañita we could not find a bartender who knew how to make Bloody Mary's.  So sad.


So we shop, we explore.  We take pictures (well I have to give credit where due, Tamera takes pictures).  It is 10:00 and the place is already jumping.  I buy my wife some jewelry.  She buys me some Cohibas (score!).   We buy a new hammock for the house and some local art.  $50 for everything.  Is it time for lunch already?  So much to choose from.  Steak houses, seafood houses, Mediterranean, curry, sports bar food, BBQ. You can even wash your clothes at a laundromat coffee bar.  I want a mushroom and Swiss burger and get a great one.  Tamera has a delicious fish at the same restaurant.  We are very happy and content.

Back to the room, spit and shine, out we go.

Great Band.  No Name we could find.  Nirvana to Stones.

It is about 14:00 now.  The streets are packed. We are here during the week so there are people outside the tourist trade doing business too.  There are also people who's job it is to get you into a particular club, restaurant, hotel, tattoo parlor, or store.  They are very engaging. Of course they are.  It is their job.  As always you should be careful.  Some will offer to get or sell you party materials not found in stores. I am not here to judge.

Do what you want.  Montañita is a party town and it does seem as though a blind eye is turned.  Just be careful.  Do not give money to any vendor unless you are receiving whatever you are buying right then.  They are not in your face or dangerous at least they were not to us.  A polite "Gracias, no." and they will be on their way.

My Beautiful Wife with our Bartender.

There are some odd characters there.  The later it gets the more there are.  Keep a weather eye and you will be just fine.  I do not mean dangerous.  I truly mean odd.

Case in point, our meeting with the Palm Tree Shaman (sorry no pic of him).

My wife and I were at a corner cafe enjoying an afternoon jugo.  A young, dread locked, English speaking man approaches us and asked if we are looking for anything. He seems VERY "euphoric".  We of course say no however, he wants to talk.  He says, "Well if you do just ask.  I can get anything."  we say again, "No, gracias.  Esta bien."  He then asks, "See this palm tree right here?"  We do.  It is no different than any other as far as I can see.  The Palm Tree Shaman man says, "It has more water in it than any other tree.  I love this tree.  It is the water tree and is my favorite tree in the city!"  Remember, this is just a palm tree.  "Really?"  I ask.  "See this?" he asks?  pointing at the tree.  "Yes, I see the tree man." He laughs.  "Not the tree, the advertisement ON the tree."

It is a flyer for a store selling sound equipment.

 "I came here to buy that.  It is the best in the world.  One day I will buy this.  See my sunglasses?  I wear them at night.  He starts singing the song, well, sort of, "I wear my sunglasses at night" and laughs.  Can you believe he pissed on that reporter man?  Epic."

I have no idea what he means and say so.  He says, " I mean Jim Morrison is the best!  Did you know I am a Shaman?"  Now we are trying not to laugh.  The he continues, "I have the best acid.  This is the best tree in Ecuador!"  He turns and sees someone he knows.  "Chao." he says and is off like a rocket in more ways than one.  We never see him again.  We do know The Doors were not responsible for the song 'Sunglasses at Night'.  We can't stop laughing about him even now.

More Street Art.  It is Beautiful and Everywhere.

So we are out again and we explore a bit more. We find hidden gems.  Artwork, shops, street food, and even some good company.  It is a melting pot of cultures and everyone seems interested in where you are from.  We get surprised looks from some when we say we moved to Ecuador.  We say we live in Crucita and the smiles come.  Crucita it seems, has a very good reputation as a laid back town. Many locals seem to approve of our choice.

We hear stories of their experiences at Carnival or the Nuevos Anos festivals they attended in Crucita.

Plenty of Sand, Sun, and Surf.

If you want quiet you might find it here somewhere but all in all, it is almost like one big nightclub. Then there is the beach.  White sand, colored tents and umbrellas, surf board rentals, surfing and scuba lessons, and tasty waves.  Very tasty.  The beach is a world away from the clubs.  People are here relaxing day and night.  Why?  Because you can.  There is plenty of beach to relax on.  Cold libations are close at hand.  The beach is quiet.  The beach is beautiful.

We of course end our evening with dinner and another, much more tame "cocktail crawl".  We have to get up early to catch the bus back to Crucita, and are in bed by midnight.  We awake at 06:00 and are out the door by 07:00.  We walk with many other back packers to the parada or bus stop.  There is a bakery and coffee shop.  Hurrah!  "Dos cafes con leche por favor!"  We also get 2 yogurts and 4 fresh baked pastries that are simply delicious.  It is less than $5 para todo.  Buses come and go but after about thirty minutes our bus arrives.  We are on our way home.  Back to the cats.  Back to Crucita.  Montañita was amazing, fun, different, and very beautiful.  We will go again.  For now I am very happy to lay in our new hammock and listen to the waves crash on the beach while writing our story for you.  Ahhhhh. Crucita la Bella.  Chao!

Questions? E-mail us!

Follow us on Twitter - @JOTOinEcuador
Quick Links

Like what you see?  Please take a moment to easily share it with your friends using the toolbar below.  Thank you!

Tamera's Take: Cast Away, Cats and Blue Bottle Diablos

I would first like to say !Bienvenidos! (welcome) to our new readers in Ecuador, Ukraine, Germany, Romania and the United Kingdom.

Tamera's Take is about being here.
Are you ready?  I am.

In the beginning, we considered going the shipping container route to bring most of our belongings.  Then we considered airline cargo (basically a lot of checked luggage) to bring some of our belongings.  In the end there were just too many complications with trying to bring all that stuff.

Some things we gave away to family

If you read my husband Jason's most recent post, Familia y Los Amigos - They Love You.  Always and Forever, then you know that we sold or gave away almost everything we owned in order to move to Ecuador.

We arrived in Ecuador with four checked bags weighing a total of 200 pounds, and four carry-on bags consisting of a laptop bag, a small suitcase on wheels, and two carry on pet carriers containing two cats each.

Yes we traveled with pets.  Four pets to be exact - in case you did not do the math.

We rented a fully furnished house about 75 yards (68 metres) from the beach.   Except for a toaster and a frying pan, the house has everything needed.



I think you get the picture.  No.  Not that picture.  The other one.

Yes we brought our CATS!!

There will be a future post on container shipping, air cargo, what we brought and what we wish we had brought.

I will mention one item I wish we had brought. Benedryl.

Sea Glass

Something I notice, now that I live so close to the beach (playa), is the array of things that I find on the shore.

Some things discarded by the many fisherman as they sort out their catch, some things that come directly from the ocean, and some things that wash up with the tides from another place.


My home state of Florida has nearly 1200 miles of coastline, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Straits.

Drift wood? Drift tree!

This is not a geography lesson.

Treasure hunters with their metal detectors, beach combers picking up shells, sea glass, drift wood, conservationist protecting sea turtle nests and native plants of the dunes; these sights are second nature to me.  Just like spending summers at my grandmother's beach cottage in St. Augustine, going to Anastasia Park with friends as a teenager and as an adult taking my own daughter to the these beaches.

But I never lived at the beach.  Never lived anywhere with the shore and the ocean just steps away from my front door.


A lot of things get discarded in a natural process or otherwise.

Fishermen discard some things

Some things make that transition from shore to ocean and back to the shore again.  Maybe not the same shore, but a shore.  Somewhere.

I learned from an early age to keep an eye out for one of those things that wash up on shore in the natural process - jellyfish.  Why?  Because if jellyfish are on the shore, you can bet they are in the water close to the shore.

If you have never experienced a jellyfish sting, I am glad.



I was not so lucky.  It is inevitable when you spend so much time at the beach.  No matter how well you checked out the shore before you got into the water.  As a kid though, you are sometimes willing to take that risk.

Little Sting Ray

I have not been stung by a jellyfish since I was a child.  I suppose I learned my lesson.  I still scan the shore before I jump into the ocean.

That did not matter two days ago.  Jason and I went down to the beach for the specific purpose of swimming in the ocean.
I bugged him about it all day.  I really wanted to go swimming.  Even though Jason was a bit tired - we had both been up since 5:00 am and he had been very busy all day - he recognized that pouting face of mine and with a smile, took me down to the beach to go swimming.

That is what you do for the person you love.  At least that is the kind of thing my husband does for me.  All the time.  He do what he do.



I think I had been in the surf for about one minute when it happened.  Really.  One minute.

Photo by Vlad Minin                              Courtesy of National Geographic

As I swung my left arm behind me to get past the next wave swell coming up, I feel something brush up against me.  My upper left arm.  I stop swimming immediately and float, trying to figure out if a fish or sting ray had nudged me.  Right at that moment, there was pain.  "No a shark."  I say to myself.  Again pain.  This time on my right arm, although, I look to my left because the pain has not stopped there.  I just know what I am going to see.  Instead, I see something else.  It is blue and very small.  Floating just below the surface of the water.  Maybe three inches below the water.  It was about 1 inch in size.  It.

Now the pain has completely surrounded my upper body and my mind goes back to the shark idea.  Completely confused and suddenly frozen, I say to Jason, "something just bit me".  He says to me, "get out of the water".  Not panicked but concerned.  I can see it in his face.

I cannot move.  Not out of fear.  I am just unable to move.  I realize that there is something wrapped completely around me.  Fishing line?  Uh no.  Not fishing line.  Clear and stringy though.

This hurt. A lot.

Excruciating pain.  Jason realizes that I cannot move.  I am not even sure if he is saying anything to me now.  I sort of get mad.  Not at Jason.  But at whatever just bit me and is still trying to bite me.

Meanwhile in the back of my mind, "It was a jellyfish.  But, it was blue.  Jellyfish are not blue.  At least not the ones I know of.  I scanned the shore.  I know I did."


I realize I am being dragged back to shore by Jason.  Then I am being washed up on the shore by a wave. I am in the sand.  Grateful for the rough sand.

"What was it?"  Jason says.

"It was BLUE!"  I say.  Barely able to speak and still grateful for the rough sand.  A blue devil is what I think to myself.  Lucky for me, we are only steps from our front door.  It felt like a mile.  As soon as we get home, Jason starts to apply a series of remedies that most everyone who grows up near the ocean knows.
1. Remove stingers (tentacles).
2. Rinse the affected area with vinegar.

The stingers were pretty much already gone.  Probably into my skin.  So we moved to step two.  Vinegar.  That does nothing to help.  Jason gets on the internet to look up remedies.  We are in Ecuador, not Florida.  Maybe there is something else that we should be doing.  As I am heading upstairs to start step three of the remedies;
3. Shower in hot water.

Jason asks me what they (IT) looked like.  I say, "It was BLUE and very small".  (Except for that long stringy thing that wrapped around me about one hundred times.  Okay.  It was just once but it felt like one hundred.

Step number three helps a little.  I come back downstairs and Jason is looking up "blue jellyfish in Ecuador".  Meanwhile I move to the last step of remedies that we know.
4. Take an over the counter pain reliever.
 

A little better on day two

I swear the pain is actually getting worse. Jason finds a number of pictures and websites (a lot of blogs) that show or discuss this horrible blue jelly creature.  National Geographic website had the most in depth information.

Not a jellyfish.  A Portuguese Man o' War.

Affectionately known in South America (and Australia) as a, "Bluebottle". That is what it was.

A Bluebottle.

BlueBottle Diablo is a better description.

Remember that Benedryl I mentioned earlier?  Apparently vinegar does nothing but make the stinger release more venom.  Anti-allergy medication is what I needed.

You can get Benedryl in Ecuador.

You just can not get it at that moment.  The moment you need it the most.  The moment when you think you have never felt this much pain in all your life.  Of course this is not true.  It just feels that way at the time.

So now we have the remedy checklist.
1. Remove stingers (tentacles)  Check!
2. Hot shower  Check!
3. Anti-allergy medication - like Benedryl  Check!

If I ever get stung again, I am ready.

Ready or not, I hope I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, get ATTACKED by one of those Blue Bottle (diablos) again.

Never.

Wilson!!!

Questions? E-mail us!

Quick Links

Like what you see?  Please take a moment to easily share it with your friends using the toolbar below.  Thank you!