Bel & Ecuador: Part 6: Montañita

If I start my post with a picture like this, I guess you can imagine what happened!

We got a flat tire!

On the way back from Salinas, to Montañita, we started to hear a strange noise... and yep... we got a flat tire... We couldn´t stop at the moment because it was a dark curvy road (no wonder!), so we stop about 10 kilometres further, on the first town we saw.

There was no car assistance spot, and we had never changed a tire. I knew how to do it, theoretically, but thankfully an old guy show up and helped us.

We gave him a good tip and continue driving to Montañita.

The morning after we went to have our tire fix. Actually, the guy almost had to reconstruct it, hehe

It was rainy in Montañita, but we felt happy to be back...

We got together with a bunch of travelers and set a fire on th beach. It was so fun! Of course we took the proper precautions.

We had dinner in my favourite place: Tiki Taka, and then... headed to a party!

But I started to feel bad, so I went to bed early.

It turned out I got food poisoned. Or maybe my body just couln´t tolerate any more pineapple juice.

The following morning I sent some postcards and headed to the airport!

Bye bye Ecuador!

We had a blast!

I hope to be back soon!

Bel & Ecuador: Part 5: Montañita & Salinas

We left Puerto Rico in the morning and made a few stopts before reaching Montañita.

One of the places we visited was Olon, where is a sanctuary of a local virgin. The sanctuary is made of sea stones and shelves.

Quite rare, right?

Oh, you can see our car parked just next to the sanctuary :)

The place had a nice view of the ocean...

It´s a shame the days were cloudy, and grey...

So, we kept driving to Montañita. The hotel was nice. It was the most expensive hotel in town. It had a swimming pool and a jacuzzi :) For $22 per night, we were like royalty in Montañita.

We left our luggage in our room and went to grab some lunch.

I was asking Mechi to take a picture of me with a banana track, when we saw Cecilia and Tamara! Remember how we met them in Baños the week before? We were supposed to meet two nights after in Quito, but we confused our itinerary and we were not staying in Quito for the arranged night. We had no contact number or emails to let them know and felt very sorry about missing them... So... we found them there!

They had just arrived, so we walked around the town together. The town is actually really small. It has like 5 or 6 blocks and that´s it. But it´s so nice, and everyone is happy and easygoing.

So, we went to the beach and took a long walk.

Then we met again for dinner.

The following morning it was also cloudy but we enjoyed the beach anyway.

We walked again along the beach and then found a great restaurant called Tiki Taka (or something like that).

I had a great salad with peanut sauce, that was just delicious!

We found the girls later and went out for drinks...

Have you noticed how we are still wearing bathing suits? Well, that´s the way to go in Montañita...

We did got changed after that and went to a club.

Actually, we went to "the" Club. Its called Caña Grill and its the hottest place in town.

We met a bunch of guys from Ecuador, and we joined them...

The morning after, it was time to drive South to Salinas... Time to say goodbye to Montañita...

This time we asked Cecilia and Tamara for their phone numbers and emails to stay in touch. They were also going to Salinas the same day...

The road was much better at this part... or maybe is that we were just used to the terrible conditions :)

We saw some salt fields, that are the ones that give the city "Salinas" its name.

We saw lots of beer advertising. It´s funny how the ad says, Ecuatorianly refreshing...

We had lunch on a nice bar we saw in front of the beach...

It was cloudy, again! But we headed to the beach...

Anyway, we realized Montañita was much better. People were not that nice in Salinas. The city was big but without personality.

So, we booked a boat tour and saw some interesting birds with blue legs!

Then, we got bored and realized the next 2 days were going to be really boring if we stayed there! We called Cecilia and Tamara to see what they were up to... Maybe they had found a better spot in the city that was worth watching... But, they didn´t! They told us they were already back in Montañita. They had also got bored and got back!

So we went back to the hotel, packed our belongings and left...

Montañita was waiting for us!

Bel & Ecuador: Part 4: Puerto Rico & Puerto Lopez

It was cloudy by the time we got to Puerto Rico. We were supposed to visit the National Park and a Native Reservation that day, but they were closing at 6pm. We wouldn´t have time....

So we walked along the beach, instead, and had dinner in the beautiful restaurant of our hotel "La Barquita", that honors its name with the shape of a boat.

Dinner was so good. I ordered some fish, and the atmosphere was great.

Our room was rustic, and it had mosquito nets that were kind of humid, but well... it felt very eco friendly.

The morning after, we had breakfast on the terrace and then went to the city center to find out about excursions but it was too late.

So, we had some sandwiches with pineapple juice, right next to the beach and then headed to Los Frailes National Park.

It is a beach reservation that protects the native flora and fauna. We saw plenty of reptils, all sizes, and nice pinky crabs. The extension of the reservation was huge, so we had to chose from a few options.

We went to a high point to have a panoramic view, and to some beaches.

One of the beaches had volcanic sand, and it provided a good contrast to spots crabs :)

Then we went to a Native Reservation, that is called White Waters due to the existance of thermal sulfurous waters, that come from the volcanic depth.

We had a guided tour that was from the tribe and explained all the details of his community (Sorry, I forgot about it!) and made us walk a lot!

Then, we got to spend around an hour in the white waters... It was so fun! They were muddy and allegedly therapeutical, so we rub ourselves in that dark stinky mud.

Then we had dinner in Puerto Lopez and headed back to the hotel.

In the morning, we had breakfast again in the terrace and got to take the last pictures: