Montañita

Montañita is a small beach town on the coast of Ecuador that is popular with international tourists, as well as Ecuadorians. I went a couple times last summer and had a lot of fun so I was excited to bring Dave along.

Friday night we arrived in Montañita at about 11pm, we wandered around for a while with our backpacks because most of the hostels were full until we finally found one.

 

Dave´s first ceviche

Saturday morning we were greeted with shouts of ¨Ayyyy gringa preciosa!¨, and Dave making a new friend that leapt onto his back cackling. We went off in search for a better hostel, moved our bags into it and headed to the beach. It wasn´t too sunny all weekend but the beach was still warm enough to swim.

walking along the cliff of the beach

The main street to the beach is lined with at least 40 stands selling various drinks, both alcoholic and non, and a couple selling full dinners. We spent Friday and Saturday nights sitting by these stands, and as per usual, Dave made good friends with the bartenders.

Main center of town from my window at 5am

We napped from about 11 pm to 4am before going back out to see what was going on, and to get some cheese empanadas. Most of the bars were just starting to shut down but the streets were still filled with people. We walked out just in time to see a fight starting up, one man armed with a broomstick. As we were walking away, we were glad we got out in time to avoid the glass that we heard shattering. When we got down to the beach, the scene was filled with hippies juggling fire and friends throwing their drunk friends into the ocean to cool off.

We decided we´d stay an extra day to enjoy the beach and we bought our bus tickets to head to Baños tomorrow at 10am.