CANOA, Part 1

It's very difficult to find out when buses are going in Ecuador. There are schedules but you can only find them at the bus station (which is an hour away from the city center) According to the internet there was a direct bus from Quito to Canoa, that I decided to take. I bought my ticket to Canoa (but didn't notice that the conductor wrote Jama and not Canoa on the ticket). The bus was supposed to be in Canoa at 10 pm. But for whatever reasons, the bus did not go to Canoa but only to Jama, an hour north of Canoa. Since it was quite late there were no buses going to Canoa anymore and I had to stay a night in Jama. The bus conductor was very nice, we talked for a while in Spanish and he even walked me to a hostel. Now, I actually think it was better to end up in Jama in the middle of the night than in Canoa. Canoa is a very small fisher-/ surfer town with only one paved road and only a few hostels. A “sleepy village with a heart of gold” as the Lonely Planet calls it. And at 10 pm on a Sunday night not much is going on in Canoa. Looking for a hostel in the middle of the night would not have been easy.

The next morning I took the bus to Canoa (and talked to a 26-year old woman with three kids, who couldn't believe that I'm 32 years old and don't have husband, boyfriend nor kids).

After I checked in at the very nice and relaxed hostel Coco Loco, I went for a walk at the beach. I was surprised not to see any surfers in the water but than noticed that there were a lot of jellyfish in the water. There was also a dead sea lion and a dead turtle at the beach. ;-( Maybe not a good time to be in the water.

After I relaxed at the hostel I went back to the beach to watch the sunset before hanging out at the hostel bar talking to some other travelers and locals.

The next morning I went to some caves north of the village with Carlos (who I had met the day before at the beach). One of the dogs of the hostel joined us on our three hour walk and it was nice to be accompanied by a dog. There are a few caves but we couldn't get to all of them because they are only reachable at low tide and we were too late for some of the caves. The rock formations and caves were beautiful and very interesting.

The rest of the day was spend relaxing at the beach and the hostel. Like most of the other days in Canoa. One day I went to Bahia de Caraquez, walked along the “high-rise” beach condominiums and went to the museum. The museum actually was quite interesting with archaeological exhibitions, paintings and photographs. There was even a guide explaining the exhibitions. (of course in Spanish but I did understand quite a lot)

Friday night it was time to party. First at a small local bar. It was fun and very interesting. There were almost only locals - of all ages. Young girls dancing with their babies on the arm next to the 50 year old lady. After the bar closed we moved on to a private backyard party. Good times.
Saturday afternoon I went to a cockfight with Carlos and Alberto in San Vicente. I can't say that I liked it but it was definitely interesting. There were mainly men in the arena and almost all of them were betting on the winning cocks (and they were betting quite a lot of money for Ecuadorian standards) and drinking beer. People got very excited during the fights and it got pretty loud inside the arena.

Sunday passed by with more walking and hanging around at the beach before heading back to Quito with the night bus.
I really had a great week in Canoa, also thanks to Carlos (my private guide and Spanish teacher) and his friends and family.

MINDO

After a day in Quito I headed to Mindo for two days while Micha was learning Spanish in Quito. Mindo is a relaxed town in the mountains 3 hours west of Quito. It's much warmer (because it's not as high) than Quito, has nice fresh air, lots of birds and very friendly people. As usual the bus ride was quite interesting with nice landscape all around. When I got to Mindo, I had to find the hostel and asked someone on the street for directions. The man was very friendly, walked me the hostel (which was on the other side of the small town) and we talked in a funny combination of Spanish, English and German. In the hostel I got an amazing “room”.
It was basically a bed on a balcony with roof. Very nice. Sleeping outside with lots of fresh air. In the afternoon I walked around town (which didn't take very long), had a delicious mango batida and walked along the river for a while before returning to the hostel, where I relaxed for the rest of the day. The next morning, after a good nights sleep and breakfast I decided to go for a walk to the waterfalls before returning to Quito in the afternoon. I walked the road 4 km uphill before I got to the Tarabita (cable car).


The cable car was more than 500 m long and took me to the other side of the valley where I started my hike. Walking alone through the forest was nice and it was very quiet except the noises from hummingbirds, butterflies and other birds. I walked to two waterfalls. One was a little hidden behind rocks and it locked very nice with the sun and the water. Although the water was pretty cold I took off my shoes and walked all the way to the waterfall. On my way back I met a nice Ecuadorian from New York who gave me a ride back to town in his car. After lunch it was time to head back to Quito, where I hang out Saturday before leaving for the coast on Sunday.