Casa de Sol Montanita

... the guard let us in. We drove around the base for ages, trying to find a way to get to the competition. The driver drove around barricades and into shooting practice areas to get us there...no luck! We did get close enough to see the flags but they did not want us to walk across in case anyone decided to shoot at us.
Isidro placed 4th for long board. We had lunch in Salinas.

Futbol Here in Montaņita there is a futbol field. I often wonder by to ...

... that we cannot get here in Montanita- I could not get out of the city fast enough! Now we to take daily trips to the corner store to buy veggies, eggs, milk...daily items. My favorite daily trip is to buy pan (bread) from the baker because it smells soooo good (and is fabulous fresh and hot out of the oven).
Currently Ecuador is experiencing a massive power shortage- the body of water where the hydro power comes from is more or less dry so everyday the ...

... inventive and created a firepit. We had the most amazing meals from that pit. Baked potatoes, steamed fish, freshly caught that morning, and a whole load of grilled vegetables. YUM!!!! And it was so cheap too. One night we fed ten of us for the grand total of $1.10!!!!!! Unbelievable.

Brian took some surf lessons one of the days. I watched from the comfort of the beach. He concluded after about thirty minutes in the water that ...

... no balls".

Our tutors seem to enjoy our attempts, although one of them even fakes having appendicitis so that she doesnt have to teach us anymore, which was a bit extreme. Also our fill in tutor tries to get us to leave Spanish school by suggesting that there had been an earthquake, only it turns out that there was, and we had slept through it. Awesome, one natural disaster ticked off the list.
And so we move on, wiser in what not to say...

... flew to Ecuador, but Lucy who is sat next to me thinks we got a bus, which would have taken about 6 months (but either way she would have slept through). No, we flew.
Bus to Montanita, the surf capital of the equator, only to find slums littering the journey as we hope the photos in the travel brochure were not fake. Dont misunderstand, we are going to embrace the poverty and ways of life here, just not in the first week ...

We arrived in Montanita one day after the full moon party so our first night was pretty quiet as everyone was hungover from the night before. The beach is really great here.. it´s a surfing town with lots of Gringos and restaurants with proper food - there are no Ecuadorian restaurants at home for a reason! Don´t ever go to the vegetarian place....we actaully aged while waiting for the girl to come over ...

... qualities that inhabit old growth scrub forests, 300 year old ceibo trees explode from the soil and expand thought the canopy, keeping vigilant watch over the forest. We successfully erected the fence(my thumb is still recovering from a barb poke) and the sign ¨Propiedad Privada¨ ¨Fundacion Planet Drum¨ Īngreo Prohibido.¨ For the record, the other side didn´t say nothing, which side is for you and me? Something for the CV My last official day of work consisted of watering ...

... Planet Drum headquarters without much incident and am pleasently met by a group of Sweedish girls who are also volunteering. We proceed to go partying that night, which consists of going up to Cerro Cerco, a bioreserve with other volunteers outside of the city, drink caņa (a fine ecuadorian sugar cane based liquor) and dance, mucho bilando. There will be many dances. The work im exposed to is clearing trails in a reforested area in the inner ...