Paddle My Canoa
Canoa = Canoe in Spanish
So eager to run away form the high altitude and non-stop rain of Quito I left ass early in the morning (5AM) to head to the bus station and find my way to Canoa. It had been a long-term goal of mine to study Spanish on this trip and hopefully return fluent in the language. Yes, even though I half Peruvian I do not speak any Spanish…something I still am marginally upset with my mother about. Anyhow, originally I was planning on spending a month in Quito to study but after realizing how much I detested that city I was looking for a warmer option. Specifically I now had two goals: 1) study Spanish 2) not wear a shirt for one week. I suppose I had one other goal and that was to get away from the hoards of tourists. The Lonely Planet outlined a different route through Ecuador the masses were sure to follow and that route did NOT include the coast. Bingo!
As always, the bus rides took longer than advertised and approximately 10 hours later I was hopping off the bus and making a beeline for the two other obvious westerners who disembarked at the same spot. Quickly standing next to them I listened carefully and heard English. Not exactly Sherlock Holmes style work but goal was accomplished. We agreed to share a moto-taxi (essentially a Tuk Tuk…half motorcycle, back half bench seat for 3) to the town.
I had read about this place called the Sun Down Inn that also had the Canoa Spanish School and surfboards for rent. I spotted the joint about halfway to town and jumped out. After quick conversation I found they wanted to charge $17 a day for my own private room and 3 cooked meals per day. Sounds good, the only catch was that they would have no available teacher for 5 days…at which point the rate would go up to $25. Sounded good and I accepted. How could I turn this down, an inn right on the beach and our closest neighbor was the town 5-6km down the beach?
I could try to write much about my time there but truly the next 10 days went something like this. Wake up, surf right out front, eat breakfast read my book, surf, eat lunch, surf, read my book, eat dinner, and sleep. Oh yeah, every moment I was not surfing our reading I was playing table tennis with one of the other travelers there. It was rather ideal because I was losing lots of weight form surfing, and well the fact that I had non-stop travelers diarrhea helped, and I was working on my tan. The food was marginal at best, but I did not have to lift one finger for anything so I could not complain. My only gripe was when I had my first Spanish lesson it was a total joke, and my teacher never showed up for the second class. At which point I knew I had to cancel my courses and move on to somewhere a bit more organized.
The owner of the inn did show up at one point and brought with him all the hostesses of his Kentucky Fried Chickens he owned in the Guayaquil area. Yes I guess KFCs in Ecuador have a hostess. Well everything changed when Jaime brought his gaggle of low class Ecuadorian honies. Now this sleepy stretch of beach included bonfires at night and drinking till you passed out in the sand. This man was hilarious…recently divorced and ready to drink until you could not stand each an every evening. After 5 days of gratuitous partying with Jaime and his sons (it turns out the cooks of the inn were his boys) I decided to start bee-lining it to Cuenca where I had heard there were some reputable Spanish schools. Well actually there was another popular beach town on the way so I couldn’t resist…next stop Montanitas.
Chirp finally tan Chirp
Tags: Ecuador, South America, Travel
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