Whilst the others took Friday off I had my Spanish and half day volunteering with the working kids at the market - so I departed Saturday morning instead. Looks like I missed a great Friday night with live music, but I wasn't so fussed about that! A flight from Quito was fairly cheap - the underlying prices $13 and $24 return - but like Ryan Air TAME add lots of extra charges to this (tax etc) so it ended up being more of a splurge than originally anticipated!
I flew from Quito to Guayaquil and then took the CLP bus to Montañita as it was direct - they only run a few buses a day but there are others that go to Santa Elena and you can catch a local bus from there. The one bus that I didn't like was the one from Quitumbe - the South bus terminal in Quito to the airport. This bus took over 1.5 hours and that was on top of the half hour it took to get to the terminal to catch it! Needless to say next time I'll catch a taxi!
When I arrived at Montañita it was 5pm - a bit later than expected - but everyone was still on the beach enjoying some two for one cocktails, which was good for me as I found them pretty quick and settled in to catch up!
I stayed at Sumpa hotel where Mel was checked in too, as Iguana hostel where everyone else was at was completely full for Saturday night. This turned out to be a great decision - when I was done with dancing on the beach I could get back and have some rest away from the bars and their loud music!
That evening we headed out for dinner and then regrouped back at Iguana for some drinking games with rum and coke - sooo cheap! Then it was off to explore what the bars had to offer. We ended up at one bar dancing with sand between our toes and watching the mental MC doing his thing in Spanish - he definitely kept the crowd going! We also saw some awesome beat boxing from one of his friends.
After a few hours we headed back out so some of the girls could grab an empanada and then continued to party at the beach bars until about 4.30am when I admitted defeat and went back to my bed!
At least we had Sunday to recover on the beach....
Montañita is a big surfing destination - the break at the north of the beach is meant to be great (I know nothing about this topic!), and so there were lots of people in the waves learning to surf or practising. I just went in for the jumping (over the waves) - although the ferocity of the waves meant plenty of sand instead my bikini! (I think I brought a good section of the beach back with me....)
After getting a little too much sun, that night was a quiet one - we saw sunset from the sea wall before we headed for dinner and an early night.
Then first thing Monday the others headed back to Quayaquil and I had more time lazing on the beach before I had to catch the bus in the afternoon.
The connections back were really easy and I made it to the airport for 6.30 - in time to catch an earlier flight, which I took advantage of! On arrival in Quito I decided the public bus wasn't something I wanted to do again, so I caught the airport express bus. This drops you off at the of airport, which is a lot more central to town and only a short taxi ride back to Villa Flora.
So my aims for the weekend were met - fun with some cool people, topping up the tan and letting my hair down!
No comments:
Post a Comment