Surfin´ Safari
Trip Start
Mar 02, 2005
1
15
28
Trip End
May 07, 2005
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Montañita,
Ecuador
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
So Sunday afternoon I took a bus from Guayaquil to Puerto Lopez, a fishing village on the coast next to Parque National Machililla. Monday morning I rented a mountain bike to bike 10 km into the village of Agua Blanca which is within the national park. The village operates its own naturalist guide service, so all visitors are required to pay $3 and then they get to go for a short hike through the Coastal Bosque Seco (Dry Forest). It was a nice tour, as the guide stopped to point out all of the different types of plants along the way including a plant that is used as a natural mosquito repellant and another plant whose fruit can be squeezed to produce a natural glue. He said that many of the local villagers use this fruit based glue as a hair gel! We also visited archaeological ruins of the people who used to live in this area before the arrival of the Spaniards, and we went to a sulfer lake whose mud is supposed to be very good for the skin. I took a quick dip in the lake, but many people there were caking the smelly mud all over their bodies and then sitting in the sun to let it dry so they could absorb the nutrients into their skin.
After I left Agua Blanca I returned to Puerto Lopez and hopped on a bus to the gringo-infested beachside town of Montaņita, the surfing capital of Ecuador. Itīs not the most beautiful beach Iīve seen, but people flock to Montaņita for the waves which are quite decently sized and break fairly far from shore which allows one to ride a wave for a good amount of time from when it first breaks to when you reach the beach. There are tons of people in Montaņita offering surfing lessons, and I couldnīt resist so I gave it a try. I had an hour and a half lesson from a local guy named Arthur who taught me (in Spanish) how to surf. He was a great teacher because I was able to stand up on the board on only my 4th try! And I have to say itīs really addicting. Each time I tried to catch a wave it was exciting whether or not I actually managed to stand up, and if you donīt succeed you get this sense of dissapointment that makes you paddle back out there and wait for another wave to come. After about an hour and a half I was exhausted. Itīs really quite tiring to paddle while on a surfboard and then trying to jump up onto the board requires a lot of arm strength. The evening after the lesson my arms were sore from paddling and my stomach was sore from lying on the board. But it was great fun and I canīt wait to try it again.
Tonight Iīm back in Guayaquil so I can catch a morning flight to the Galapagos tomorrow. Itīs going to be very hot so I plan to spend a lot of time in the water for the next week.
