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.