Following the Dream

Christian May 4th, 2008

It was a long trip to get to Canoa to say the least.  We had to leave our hostel at 5:30 to catch the 5:40 bus to Quito.  The bus took four hours, when we got to Quito we had to find the office for Reina del Camino to buy our tickets to Bahia de Caraquez.  Luckily there was a bus at 10:30 leaving, so we got our tickets and hopped on the very shady bus.  The ride was only supposed to take 8 hours but ended up taking 9 and a half.  If ever taking the bus to Bahia from Quito, pay the extra 1.50 for the executive service (we didn’t and regretted it the whole way).  Once we finally got to Bahia we had to walk about a half mile to the docks where we could catch a ride on a boat across the bay to San Vincente.  It wasn’t a bad deal at .70.  Finally we were getting close….  since it was so late the regular bus service from San Vincente to Canoa had stopped, so we shared a cab with 2 Canadian girls for $4.  Luckily, they were staying at the same place we had wanted to stay at.  The only room that they had was a private Bungalow with a shared bathroom for $16.70 a night.  Tired, exhausted, and ready for bed we took it.  The Hotel Bambu was located right on the beach and had a on site restaurant and bar, with good prices, so it wasn’t a bad deal at all.  It was so hot our first night there, but at least they had mosquito nets to minimize the bug bites.  Although, it turns out since they left it up all day that a couple of bugs were trapped in our bed when we put the net down.  In the middle of the night I felt something slowly crawling down my leg.  Being half asleep I swat it away without thinking.  A little later we turn on the lights for something, only to find a bug that is two or three inches long in the bed (maybe some sort of beetle).  We push it out of the net and go back to sleep with plesant dreams of bugs crawling all over us. 

We awoke in the morning to the sound of rain pitter pattering on the thached roof.  Great.  It rained until about 1 in the afternoon and then cleared up a bit.  When it finally cleared up we had a couple of hours to walk on the beach, and for me to rent a surfboard.  This town is a surfer’s haven.  Everyday the 20 or so local resident surfers walk out to the beach to check the waves and go grab their board and surf until lunch.  After lunch they walk out to the beach and check the waves and go grab their boards again.  It must be a tough life.  We noticed this routine everyday we were there.  I was terrible on my rental, only getting up a couple of times.  After about an hour, I gave up and decided to spend more time surfing elsewhere.  We walked along the beach to the cliffs at the one end.  Canoa does have a pretty beach setting, empty beach with cliffs on the one end. 

It was so nice to enjoy the sun for the little time we could.  After eating a great dinner at the restaurant for under $10 at sunset, we headed to bed.  This time it was much cooler in our room because of the rain.

For the second day in the row we awoke to the sound of rain.  This was getting old, since Canoa has very little to due when it is raining.  While it was raining we decided to get some things done like laundry and using the internet (overpriced and slow).  The rain did not clear up until after 2 pm or so.  We decided to be productive and go for a run on the beach.  It was a nice run with great views.  After our run, we showered and hung out at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant on the beach and tried to make plans.  We decided the next day we were going to head to Montanita.  We met some people and played some pool with them.  We weren’t too fond of the two Ecuadorian guys who were lingering around the pool table.  They ended up hustling the other people we were hanging out with for 6 rum and cokes on pool games.  We then went to a bar on the one street Canoa has.  Casey and I didn’t drink since we had to be up early for the next day.  However, after being there we decided that our plans were going to change.  There were a lot of very creepy people hanging around.  It was not our scene, and the weather did not look like it was going to get better.  Apparently Montanita is like this 10x, so we decided to bag Montanita and head back to Quito and fly to Panama on Monday.  They have a Carribean beach named Bocas Del Toro that is supposed to be amazing.  So after a 10.5 hour bus ride on the executive bus that doesn’t pick up people every 10 mins and has air conditioning, we made it back to Quito and bought our tickets for Panama to start another leg of our adventure.

• Ecuador
• Comments(1)