After my rather drawn out and arduous journey to Montanita I checked into my Cabana (which is also my Photo of the Week – not to make you jealous or anything!) and headed up to my new place of work – Montanita Spanish School.
It was good to finally meet the crew after a few months of email exchange – and I’m happy to say that everyone seems like a good laugh, a whole heap of Kiwis, Americans and Ecuadorians.
I was pretty stoked to be promptly told that I didnt need to start work until Monday.
This basically meant 5 days to get over my jetlag and settle in.
…which was interpreted as go get horrendously drunk for the next few days and surf heaps!
Hostel Living
I’ve missed hostel living so much over the last year, it’s so refreshing to be in amongst the backpacking community again. Not just behind a laptop chatting about travel – actually being in the thick of it, surrounded by languages I don’t know, people I’ve never met before and trying to remember more new names that I can shake a very large stick at!
The Cabanas I’m living at have a great vibe though. I’ve stayed at some great hostels but this one has a real community feel.
It’s connected to the Spanish School so alot of people are going to be here for a month or so – not just a heavy turnover of long weekend travellers.
Everyone was super chatty and friendly and I went from being on my own to having a massive group of faces that I’ll be living with for a while – all of whom are good banter!
Mojito?!
And obviously once you know people and you’re staying in a surf town the first point of call is for a beer or two…or three…oh go on a mojito aswell…!
The last 5 days have been my first proper bit of down time for a while, so I needed to let of some steam – and that I did.
There were beach fires, salsa dancing, 6am stumbles home and some epic drunken munchies in the form of Burger Completas – a burger topped with ham, grilled cheese and a fried egg!
And at $1 a beer and $2.50 for a cocktail it’s not even burning a hole in my wallet!
Friday was probably the most chaotic night though, every other Friday is the hostel welcome BBQ – where a feast of fresh fish, prawn skewers, plantain, salad and prok ribs are served to a horde of ravenous backpackers double fisting litre sized bottles of beer – and the pub crawl that followed…well I can’t remember much of it but a beautiful Ecudorian chica was teaching me and my buddy Jason to salsa!
Hazy Days on the Beach
Beach, Beer and Sunset...Perfection!
When you live a 1 min stroll from the beautiful sands of the Ecuadorian coast there’s really only one way to pass a hangover – grab some sun on the beach.
And when that beach also happens to be one of the best surf breaks in south america you tend to wash away the nights events pretty quickly.
…and as the new surf coach I soon got a large proportion of the group in for some salt water therapy.
The beach is packed with people in the same boat, but the lack of free sand doesn’t really bother me or any of the guys – it literally looks like the Montanita council have hired models to fill the beach.
It’s like a tide of beauty has washed up a mass of tanned bikini clad goodness!
The surf’s pumping here at the moment too so I’m a very happy Devonian right now!
And Repeat…
That’s literally what the last few days of my life have been.
Surf
Eat
Party
Repeat
It’s safe that I’ve settled in here pretty well – the next few months are going to be a beautiful mix of sun, surf, partying and hostel living.
I couldn’t be more stoked!
January 10, 2012
RTW 2012, South America, Surf