March 25th 2009 - The Pacific Coast

Another travel day today and so we rushed to be ready for the first bus of the day. We should have had a lay in and got the second as this one arrived in Guayaquil a solid 3 hours later than was expected. The journey was fun, we watched ‘Hancock’ and ‘Never Been Kissed’ although I was rather hot and sweaty by the time we arrived. In Guayaquil we were quickly stopped by the police (they wanted a photo for a campaign) before jumping onto another bus.

This journey was almost perfect though. I was laid down at the front on a jumble of bags with some terrific tunes playing in my ear and an amazing sunset rolling by. Oh, and it was my first ever sight of the Pacific Ocean. Replace the old Ecuadorian men on the bus with gorgeous, young Ecuadorian women and it would not have been able to get better! The coastal towns looked so cool – basically a load of beach hut type shacks littering the coastline turned into bars, restaurants and apparently even houses. There was a wooden ship which had been turned into a restaurant and this wonderful fairground – you can just about see the pacific peeping out under the sun.

We got to Montañita, had a short introduction from Woz and Jim and chose our rooms before having a lovely tuna bolognese. Some of us then headed into town for 2-4-1 cocktails at Hola Ola before heading on to play pool at another pool. I was a little drunk and so talked a lot back at the hostel and I attempted to sleep on the floor (with a mattress) before moving quickly back onto the bed when the mozzies attacked.