Las Peñas seemed pleasant enough at first. After almost a week there I was growing tired of the muddy streets and eating the same food-shrimp and fish. I packed up and caught a bus heading south. They dropped me at the entry road to Mompiche. I asked a taxi driver to take me to a 'nice hotel with AC. He dropped me at Balcones Mompiche. A got a top floor corner room with AC for $25 a night. Mompiche is a surfer town for young Colombians and Ecuadorians. There were a lot of Colombians. Colombia dosen't have much of a Pacific coast. It is a very long coastline but dotted with few towns and no sandy beaches. It is mostly forest and mangrove, from what I can see on maps. Mompiche is a bay and the surfers have to walk around to a small cape to catch the larger waves. Tides were very high and low. The road along the beach had been washed out a few times. I had a beer, or four, at a shack on the beach with waves nearly reaching my feet. Much better than Las Peñas. I couldn't lock the door to my room and the staff pretended to be surprised. They told me not to worry. I didn't worry. I met an lady from California who invited me to see her tall house she has lived in for ten years. She was especially anxious to show me her bedroom. Top floor and open to the breeze. No windows in this house just bamboo with holes cut to allow a breeze and view. She really wanted me to stay. REALLY. She was so desperate to have me. I laughed and told her I was hungry for a burger. I found my way back down the stairs and headed for beach burger. She came by my hotel looking for me that night but I wasn't there. I had met a gringo working for Petroecuador and we sat and had many drinks at a bar. I was feeling sick from a cold but that didn't slow me down. The next day I was feeling sick in my stomach. I had to take a 2 hour bus ride back to Atacames to use an
ATM. On the ride back to Mompiche I nearly ejected my stomach. I broke out in a sweat and thought I would pass out. Something bad inside me. I held it in and made it back to my hotel. The worst had passed. This was bad. I had some spaghetti for dinner and that seemed to help some. Aspirin helped. Then I realised I had some doxycycline I could take. I caught a van service to Canoa. It was raining and there were ten of us in the van. Windows up and hot. If you don't say something nothing gets done. The windshield was steamed up and the driver could barely see the road. I thought he would surely turn on the defrost. There was a towel blocking the defrost. Ten people and no one speaks.
Finally a girl from Argentina yelled at the driver. Defrost came on, towel moved, windows cracked.
Idiots. Sometimes I get so frustrated with the stupidity displayed. I have started to speak up lately.
Canoa and it is raining. I walk a block and check into a hotel for $10. It has AC and weak WIFI. I drop my bags on the bed and walk to the beach and within 5 minutes find a bar with gringos. US gringos. Cheeseburgers and chicken wings. So I am like oh my god do you like have onion rings too cuz that would be so awesome? David Bowie songs are playing. I had cried that morning when I found out he was dead. A couple from New Hampshire welcome me to Surf Shak Bar and Grill. Ahhhhhhhhh. Beer please.
Within an hour I meet 8 new friends. Everyone was so helpful. Elizabeth owns a hostel down the road and tells me all the news I need to know about Canoa. The waves are much bigger here than in Mompiche. Not as many young punks running around. Few Colombians. The next day I move to a better hotel for $10 a night. I stay a week. Elizabeth arranges for me to go to the finca where she keeps her horses. I buy rubber boots for $11. She arranges a driver to pick me up at 6 am. I go birding and have to slip a fiver to a guy at the farm to leave me alone. He wanted to show me all the birds with pretty colors. A very nice fellow but I wasn't going to get my birds with him yaking. He finally walks off but his dog follows me the rest of the morning. No new species but a lot of good birds. My driver picks me up at 9:45am. Nice day. The doxycycline made me hypersensitive to the sun. Burned. Drinks. I feel better. Elizabeth has another driver pick me up early the next day and he takes me to La Segua marshes about 30 miles away. I dip on the white-throated crake. I get a lot of birds again but nothing new. I pay the driver $40 for the 4 hour tour. Drinks. Cuba Libres 2 for 1. I'll have 6 please. Feeling better. I put $5 on the Super Bowl pool. I tell Cathy that I won't be here but if I win give the money to the local kid's charity. I also donated my rubber boots to Elizabeth's hostel. I have a $3 breakfast in the morning and catch the bus to Manta. At the terminal I ask for a bus direct to Manta. The trash along the side of the road is enough to make me angry at Ecuadorians. Damn they need to learn not to throw their trash out every vehicle window. Filthy. In Jipijapa I catch the bus to Manta. The buses are so frequent that I rarely spend much time in a terminal waiting on the next bus. I am in Manta by 11 am and take a taxi to the hotel I have stayed at before. $60 for a 1-bedroom on the ocean. KFC 2 blocks away. SOLD! Beer on the beach. Love me some KFC. Slaw. Original please. Bed.
In the morning I have a slowly prepared breakfast and I go back to the terminal and ask for a bus to Ayampe. They lie and I get diverted to Jipijapa where a bus takes me to Puerto Lopez. I am in Ayampe by 12 noon. I gets hugs and kisses at La Buena Vida. This is my third visit with Keith and Marilyn in Ayampe. This is the best spot on the entire coast. Whales have moved south but will be back in June. I tell everyone I meet to come visit Ayampe and LBV. There is a Jocotoco Reserve just up the hill where the dry scrub becomes a lush rain forest. The Esmeralda hummingbird is a rare endemic and found here this time of year. Keith drops me off at Las Tunas and the home of a lady with a garden of verbena. I pay her $5 and wait 1 hour but a male in bright plumage arrives and feeds for several minutes. Bird number 1,238! I start to walk the 2.3 miles back and a bus finally comes by.
I sleep so well here. I may come back in April and rent a beach house. It is just too hot now and it is season so prices are a little high. I took a German lady up to the the forest yesterday to see birds. She seemed impressed. It is hard to tell what Germans are thinking. I had a shrimp dinner and the local cat sat on my lap pawing at my plate. She ate well last night. A group of California 30-somethings showed up last night. They came from Cuenca and had been on a 'retreat'. An ayahuasca retreat. I guess they found their inner selves. So they said. This morning they bitched about what they were going to do today. I guess their inner self was still sleeping.
I saw a scaled pigeon this morning. 1,239. I saw a tidal pool with small shrimp and anemones and urchins. I found a perfect cone shell. I will go back up to the forest at dusk to look for owls. I talk to the forest. There are jaguarundi's in the area. I call them. A full moon coming again. I talk to it too. My inner self gets up when I do. We talk all day.
My Smugmug Page
"Here kitty, kitty..." :)
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