Montañita!

At the moment I'm getting ready for my last night of partying in Montañita - and last night in Ecuador - decided a few days ago to step by Peru before going back to Europe!

I've been at the coast of Ecuador for about 2 weeks now. First I went to Canoa, a beach town further north from where I am now. A really nice place, but definately made for sun, which was non-existing for the time I was there. Someone should have been doing her homework and would then discover that september is the lowest of low season in Ecuador.. So Canoa was a ghost town - nice to relax there and cool that you could get familiar with all the locals within hours, but I left after a few days. Went paragliding there tho - awesome! check out the photos on facebook.

Then I went south with Lora - a nice english girl I met at the hostel in Canoa. A night and a day in Puerto Lopez, which also was very quiet, but is where you can go whale watching! Turned out that in august/september is when all the humpback whales go up along the coast of Ecuador for mating. We went for a few hours and saw 6 whales! As a lot of you know, I have a mayor thing for whales, I was about to cry when I saw them coming jumping up right next to the boat. I do have photos, but I suppose they don't seem that spectacular to people who weren't there.

Then I went down to Montañita, a hippie/tourist/surftown and The Place to Be in weekends. I've had such great fun here - wicked parties, good surf, great atmosphere. I've actually only surfed twice, cause the waves have been waay to big for a little chicka most of the days. But the times I've been out there have been super! Great to be on the board again! And I still remember how to do it, even if it's been 2 years. My muscles have forgotten everything about paddeling, though.. And yep, easy to get some locals help you whenever you need it!

I also went horseback riding on the beach here, some peruvian guy took me to this random farm a bit away from the centre. It didn't seem like anyone was home, but then the owner turned up, offering me a bit skinny looking horse. I paid $5 and could do whatever for an hour. So I went to the beach and the horse went mental! SO fast, great fun! Just went running full speed for most of the time. And put some local kids on it for a little while.

I've taken some spanish classes here, but only 2 hours per day and it's been very relaxed, we've just played games, read a couple of stories and chatted a lot. Exactly what I wanted. And it's also been extremly easy to practice spanish here, I meet "spanish teachers" on every corner. The people are nice and fun here, but a little crazy. They just tend to smoke a bit too much, I suppose. Specially the boys, of course. I feel like I have many "friends", but not any real friendships. They all tend to turn weird at some point. Any girl who's been to south america would know what I mean.