CANOA, Part 2

After a night in the bus I arrived in Canoa early in the morning. My plan was to stay here for a few days before moving on further south. Well, in the end, I stayed over four weeks, spent Christmas and New Years there and had an awesome time.

This time in Canoa, I stayed with Carlos (who I had met the first time in Canoa) and his family in there house near the beach. Everyone was very friendly and I always felt welcome.
Most of the days in Canoa I didn't do anything special. Just relaxing, hanging out and talking at the beach, eating, walking or running at the beach, relaxing some more, watching the sunset and enjoying a beer (or more) at night. But there were some things worth mentioning:

Camping in Cabo Pasado
For one night we went to a small beach near Canoa that is only accessible by boat or foot. I went there with Carlos, Leo (Carlos' brother), Manuel and four other friends. We were able to drive part of the way but than had to walk through the forest and papaya plantations. We could hear monkeys in the forest (unfortunately I wasn't able to see them) and picked up some fresh papayas to eat later at the beach. There were only two other people at the beach and it was very quiet and peaceful. We went for a nice walk along the beach before spending the evening with a bottle of Cana (the local alcohol made from sugar cane) + orange juice around a campfire. I slept very well in the tent with fresh air and the sound of the ocean. Camping is so nice. In the morning, we girls relaxed at the beach while the boys took care of the lunch. They walked for almost two hours along the rocks at the beach to collect mussels (at least that's what I think it was). We than had a very delicious - and as fresh as possible - ceviche for lunch. Mussels, two tomatoes, one onion, a few lemons = mmmh. After lunch it was time to head back to Canoa after an amazing time in Cabo Pasado.


Fishing

When Carlos and Manuel went fishing on the beach, I decided to join them. Fishing here is a little different than what I was used to. First, it's fish from the ocean and not from rivers. And there is no fishing rod but only a fishing line with two hooks attached to it, which is thrown into the water. As bait we used shrimps.
First we went fishing from a rock out in the water and within a fairly short time Carlos and Manuel had caught four fish (one fish bite into the hook while I held the line for a minute). After a while the water rose and the waves got to strong to catch anything. We had to swim back to the beach and went to another place to fish some more. I really didn't do any fishing myself but only watched the guys, handed them shrimps and took pictures. But Carlos and Manuel where quite successful. At the end we had 15 fish. Carlos also caught a small ray (that was thrown back to sea) and even caught two fish at once. At sunset we went back to the house, grilled the fish and had dinner with amazingly fresh fish.
C + M - GRACIAS por un muy bien dia!
We went fishing again a few days later with more people. Leo caught the first fish three minutes after we got there. But afterward there was not much success and the guys only caught four fish. No fish for dinner this time.


Shrimp Farm
About every three months the water basin with the shrimps is fully emptied and all shrimps sold. The day and night before this happened it was raining very heavy. It still rained in the morning but the work had to be done. The whole family was at the basin all day and everyone got soaked. I went there with Carlos' mum, sister and nieces. To get to the basin we took a mototaxi to a small path a few kilometers away from town. We then walked on the very muddy path until we got to a river. There we were picked up by Carlos with a tiny raft and were shuttled to the other side one by one. Because I'm a woman, I'm not allowed to do any 'real' work (don't think I can get used to that) and spent most of the day with the women inside the little house - doing not more than eating, sitting in the hammock and entertaining the little girls, Irene and Elis. Of course after all the hard work (at least for the guys) we had a delicious dinner with shrimps and Cana.


Christmas

It is always weird to celebrate Christmas when it's warm. And it was also a little sad not to be with my family in Lissa. But it was good to spend Christmas with nice people and see how Christmas is celebrated in other parts of the world. Although it is warm and sunny, people do have Xmas trees (artificial ones of course). The whole family had dinner together on the evening of December 24th. And there were also a few presents for the kids. But not nearly as many presents as we are used to in the western world and the presents were not as important. I was very happy to get a few presents as well. Viola - Danke fuer die Kinderschokolade! Carlos - Gracias por anillo y collar preciosos!!
The 25th was very relaxed. Eating cake and having a few drinks with friends at the beach and family in front of the house.
Since it was Christmas, there were a lot of tourists in town and the beach was fairly busy. I definitely prefer the beach during a normal quiet weekday with only a few locals and tourist.


New Years Eve

When I started this trip I did not think I would spend New Years in Ecuador. But why rush?
As everywhere NYE mainly is about drinking and partying. One difference to Germany or New York is, that of course here the party is at the beach and there is no snow. And I was surprised that a lot of people partied all night through and continued drinking until the evening of 01/01. I didn't have that much energy.
In Ecuador New Years Eve is a lot about saying good bye to the old year as well. One tradition is the burning of the "Ano Viejo" (Old Year), a fully dressed dummy filled with newspapers and sometimes firecrackers. On New Years Eve the dummy is placed in front of the house and set on fire around midnight. Carlos' mum and sister also created a (more than lifesize) dummy and I was surprised how much time and effort they put in it. It took almost two days to form, sew clothing, dress and make-up the dummy.
There were even more tourists (mainly Ecuadorian tourists) than Christmas in town and the beach was packed. There were so many people that it was difficult to see any sand. Not my favorite time at the beach.

Food

I have never eaten that often shrimps and fish before. And definitely never that fresh. Most of the days I ate with Carlos at home. And his mum is a great cook. It was always delicious, especially the shrimp ceviche and the pasta de verduras. GRACIAS!
For breakfast we often made fruit salad with very fresh pineapple, banana, mango and apple. Mmmmh. Almost everyday I ate Mango - so yummy. And quite often enjoyed a fruit juice as well.


And more...

We also went for two days to Pedernales, a little bigger beach town, where we didn't do much else than relaxing at the beach, enjoying a few drinks and shopping. On the way back to Canoa we didn't wanted to wait for two hours for the bus to leave and just walked to the main road going south trying to catch a ride. I was really surprised that we found someone with a pick-up truck who gave all six of us plus surfboard a ride to Canoa. Luckily I get one of the two spots inside the car - the two hour ride in the back of the car probably wasn't very comfy.

One night we went to a Circus in San Vicente, the nearest, slightly bigger, town. It was quite entertaining. The ticket only cost 1$ and of course it was not a high quality show. ;-) But fun anyways. And we had front row seats. There was one artist (and I think, he was drunk), one magician (showing very simple tricks) and three clowns (a dad with his two sons). The show ended around 11pm and we had to get back to Canoa somehow. Buses only go until 7pm. Theoretically there are taxis but late at night we couldn't find any. And we were 10 people - so we needed more than one car. And while we waited for about one hour without any taxi insight, I missed New York and the easy transportation. In the end we were lucky to get a ride on a pick-up truck to Canoa.

It is a little embarrassing to confess that I spend four weeks in a surfers town without learning to surf. I tried twice but wasn't really successful. Well, next time...

All in all, I really had a great time, was happy and felt at home in Canoa.
Manuel, Alberto, Gustavo, Angie, Maryuri, Leo, Carlos' mum and dad, Irene + Elis - and everyone who is not mentioned by name - GRACIAS por un muy bien tiempo in Canoa.
Carlos - Muchiiiiiisimo Gracias por todo. Te extrano.
Hasta pronto in Canoa.