NEWS # 014
Sorry that it's been some time since my last mail but I've got a good excuse
this time, El Nino!!! The rain in Montanita has been so bad that the
computers were all flooded out and I've had no way of communicating until I
returned to Quito yesterday.
Am in high spirits despite the weather and am here for about a week before
heading off to Cuzco in Peru, via Lima, to do the Inca Trail.
Hi everyone!
Sat the 20th and I leave Puerto Lopez around 4.00 pm and head back to
Montanita. I decide to get the bus for about six miles to a place called
Rio Chico in order to check the surf out there.
The bus leaves me at a large statue of a surfer wearing a nice pair of
painted-on blue flowery board shorts. I then have to walk about half a mile
to the beach along a muddy track. I have been told that I will have to pay
to get to the break and I arrive at a large of gates. No-one is around so I
go through the gates and leg it along the track! Eventually I arrive at the
beach but the surf is not the perfect left hander that I've been told about, rather it is about a foot and looks rather wind blown. Apparently the
place can be classic and is always uncrowded but I am unlucky today.
There is one hotel on the beach and the people from it seem really friendly.
It seems that you have to pay them if you want to surf off the beach as it's private property. I'm sure that you could just turn up and have a drink
or a snack and surf for free and they'd probably look after your stuff too.
I go back to the main road and start to walk towards Montanita. I had
decided to walk the next ten miles or so and check all the breaks along the
coast on the way. Eventually I reach the ecological hotel called Alandaluz
which is at the beginning of a long stretch of beach containing several
breaks.
Alandaluz is a hostel run by Ecuadorians and is by all accounts very
nice and serves excellent food, if it's a little pricey by Ecuadorian
standards. The surf isn't up to much though.
Las Tunas, Sunset
I then walk past Las Tunas, which, I am told by my Chilean friend Rafael,
does an excellent impression of mini Puerto Escondido, in Mexico. Sounds
good but not much happening today. After this I reach Ayampe, where I am
hailed by some people eating in a restaurant.
It's Nick and Louise, some friends from Montanita who have moved here in
search of surf. They come from Newquay in Cornwall and make me feel quite at
home. I don't stay though as I'm immediately attacked by a large squadron of
mosquitoes intent on sucking the life out of me. I head off towards Punta
Ayampe, home to an excellent surf camp and some good, uncrowded waves. On
the way I meet two other Newquay boys and we agree that the place seems to
be mosquito land!
I walk up the hill past the surf camp, Finca Punta Ayampe, which is supposed
to be very good, especially when the surf picks up and get some great photos
of the setting sun. I then walk the next three miles in the fading light and
have some superb views of the coastal forests.
Eventually the lack of light forces me to stop and wait for the next bus
home. In the twilight the forest sounds are amazing and I sit and watch the
fireflies play. Just as I am giving up hope the bus and the rain arrive
simultaneously and I get a ride home.
Seeya,
Halesy
