Christmas and New Years at la Playa

Since I went home for Thanksgiving (a post about this coming soon), it was not possible for me to fly home for the holidays too. Being a time for family and tradition, I foresaw a lonely and homesick Christmas. While I generally do not get homesick, I did not know what to expect from my first Christmas away from home. To distract myself, I decided to do something so different from the typical Christmas and hopefully so awesome that I would be unable to draw comparisons to my normal Christmas and avoid some of the homesickness.

The plan included three parts. One, surround myself with as many of my good American friends here in Ecuador as possible. Two, go to the beach, lie in the sun, and play in the ocean. And three, have fun.

On the 23^rd of September, I boarded a night bus for Montañita at 7 pm with two other English professors, Megan and Heather. Three more friends – Katie Skipper, Ashley, and her boyfriend Andrew – were awaiting our arrival. Night buses alone are quite the adventure, and might require their own post some day. But for now, just imagine racing through mountain roads at sickening speeds, watching your bus pass cars around corners while you have no clue if a car or truck is coming in the opposite direction, and then 11 hours after leaving Quito in the mountains, waking up at the beach. Actually, the bus was only 9 hours, even though it was supposed to take 11, but if you do the math, that means we pulled into Puerto Lopez, a town where we had to transfer buses, at 4 am! The only time I have ever cursed a bus making good time. Amazingly, buses run down the coast at that ungodly hour. Who knew? So two hours later, at 6 am on Christmas Eve, we pulled into Montañita ready for the next 9 days at the beach, even if we were completely sleep deprived.

Yes. 9 days and 8 nights at the beach Ecuador. It’s a tough life. It would be silly to recount every day, so a summary will have to suffice. Allow me to describe the typical day.

I slowly and with great difficulty climb out of bed at 10 am or so, with my only motivation the beach that lies ahead for me. I can hear the waves from my bed, and I know that the window for getting some rays is quickly passing. After lathering up, I shuffle in my sandals and swimsuit to the Tiki Limbo, where I order my porridge with fresh tropical fruit (mango, pineapple, papaya, and bananas), fresh brewed coffee, and banana milkshake. All for just $2.25. Over my coffee and breakfast (see picture), I read “Love in the Time of Cholera” (an incredible book which I highly recommend) as I continue to wage war with the demons left-over from the night before.

Around 12:30, I finally find myself on the beach with my other WorldTeach friends (while we started with six people on the 24^th, by the 31^st

there were about 20-25 of us. By this time I have declared victory over the morning as I begin to soak in the warm equatorial sun. Our beach time was pretty typical in the way that typical beach time is incredibly awesome. Laying in the sun, body-surfing, real surfing, reading, walking, soccer games and surrounded by beautiful people in swimsuits. All in the luxury of nothing but my board shorts. A life and wardrobe I only dream about in Quito at 9500 ft. while slaving away in slacks and dress shirt. Only when the sun sets at 6:30 do I even dare to take my leave from the hot white sand.

After the beach, we clean up for the night, and put on some presentable clothes (jeans, a t-shirt, and sandals). Dinner at 9 pm, then followed by a night at the bars with delicious fruity drinks and dancing on the sand. A live reggae/rock cover band begins at 1 am in a club called Caña Grill, and at 2 am, we progress to La Fugata or a thatched roof bar on the beach for salsa, merengue, and regeton dancing on the sand until 4 am (on average). After just 6 hours of sleep, once again I struggle out of bed with the sound of the breaking waves enticingly floating into me.

Christmas Day in particular was a lot of fun. In the morning, I made French toast (my first time making it, but apparently I’m a natural) and the girls cut up a fruit salad (also excellent), and we bought mango, strawberry and blackberry batidos (juice with milk) from a street vendor. After breakfast, I talked with my family for an hour on the phone (I hope it was with Skype), and then we went to the beach (see picture). While I didn’t surf on Christmas (one of my hopes), I did body-surf. At night, we splurged on a special dinner ($10). I had swordfish with mango sauce.

At this point, I should probably talk about the food. Basically, seafood. Incredible seafood. Everyday on the beach, for a late afternoon snack, I ordered ceviche with oysters and shrimp. It was exactly a year ago on a Mexican beach that I first tried oysters (thanks Tim), and I absolutely love them. Ceviche is a combination of seafood and vegetables in a vinegary sauce. I watched the guy open the oysters on the spot and prepare the ceviche individually for me. Absolutely delicious. New Year’s Day I ate Encebollado, supposedly the hangover cure food. It is similar to ceviche, but in some kind of broth along with cheese (I think). Good, but not as good as ceviche. Plus, I think I would have enjoyed it more as a dinner or lunch. Finally, Montañita is home to wonderful variety of world cuisine. So, I got a nice break from the typical Ecua-food (another post).

Finally, New Years was also a lot of fun. It was pretty much like every other night during the week with dancing on the beach, but there were some awesome festivities at midnight. First, there is a cool tradition where all the surfers try to catch their last wave of the year at midnight. Second, an Ecuadorian tradition is to burn the “old year”. Everyone builds or buys his or her own paper mache statue of a cartoon or political figure, and throw it into a bonfire at midnight (see picture). Usually there are fireworks inside. Third, Montañita had an incredible firework display. Basically, it was a five minute grande finale. They didn’t mess around with the boring preliminary stuff, but cut straight to the cake.

I sadly had to end my vacation on the 1^st and return to Quito, where I resumed classes on the 2^nd. I did not want to leave the beach. Life was so stress-free and tranquilo and relajado that I simply did not want to return to the big city life of Quito. Fortunately, I will be returning within the month to the beach, and I will have a couple weeks to travel up and down the coast in February. Viva la Costa.

That’s all. If you made it this far, I commend you for your endurance. I look forward to hearing from all of you who are taking the time to read this. Please let me know how life is treating you.

Lastly, if there is anything about Ecuador you are curious about, please let me know, and I will make a post about it.