To the Beach! CANOA (January 20-23)

For our first weekend trip of the quarter, 6 other Washington CIMAS and I headed to the Ecuadorian coast to enjoy the sun, waves, seafood and relaxed vibes! On Thursday night at 9pm we left from the Mariscal and the next thing we knew, it was 5:30 am and we were getting off the bus in San Vicente, a town on the Pacific Ocean. Some of us had definitely slept more than others, and thankfully I got in about 4 solid naps throughout the night. We found a cheap "taxi" (aka back of a truck) that drove us in 30 minutes to Canoa.

The sunrise behind the beach

I had heard that Canoa was the best beach town on the Ecuadorian coast to visit, and even though I don´t have much to compare it to, I wouldn´t doubt this assertion! We got to see the sunrise while we were waiting for hostels to open and pretty much just hanging out on the beach. After a bit we found a hostel that could fit the 7 of us all in one room, had a patio and was right across the street from the beach for $8 per person! Then we slathered on the sunscreen and spent most of the day on the beach, in the sun, playing in the water!
At one point we took a break to collect some garbage and redeem it for free cocktails at one beach-side bar and later in the afternoon we walked down the huge expanse of sand to try to get to some caves, but the tide was too high. For dinner we chowed down on the fresh seafood and then I headed off to bed early because it had been a very long day!

Sea stack to the north

(Photo Credit: Kate)

(Photo Credit: Kate)

Chillin on the beach

(Photo Credit: Olga)

Patio time!

(Photo Credit: Olga)

On Saturday the weather was a bit more cloudy, but just as warm. We grabbed breakfast at a cafe and then took a bus to San Vicente to buy our return bus tickets to Quito a day in advance, so we wouldn´t be stuck on the coast past the weekend. While we were there, we decided to take a quick boat across the bay to the town of Bahía de Caraquez. It was rather unimpressive and didn´t live up to it´s claim to fame as being a super "Ecological City", but we did eat amazing snow cones. We returned to Canoa by boat and bus and in the afternoon where we swam a bit, explored the beach in the other direction (I saw a dead puffer fish, all puffed up!) and ate amazingly cheap fried food! After rinsing off, we spent some time at the "Surf Shak" Bar that was located just below our hotel and we met two nice guys from Montana who are traveling around Ecuador. Saturday was a much more popular night for people to be out and about, so later on we moved across the street to dance in the sand!

On the boat to Bahía de Caraquez

The high rises of Bahía from afar

Dancing on the beach at night under grass-roofed huts

On Sunday morning we packed up, enjoyed our patio one last time, and took a bus into San Vicente. The bus station and market were conveniently located in the same building, so while waiting I grabbed some bus snacks and ate another "bolon de verde" (plantain and cheese ball fried or BBQ´d) with a fried egg and smoothie. It´s definitely my new favorite breakfast! At 10 am we got on the bus and unfortunately the ride didn't end until 6 pm in Quito. I read all of "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck without getting carsick! We also got to see plenty of beautiful scenery along the way, as well as some of the depressing, mangrove-forest destroying, man-made shrimp ponds that are now a large part of the Ecuadorian economy. I returned to my host family´s house just for the night; sandy, a little sunburnt and very tired!

Shrimp pond from the bus