Time to Slow Down

3 March 2014 - What happens when you are sick and tired of 12 hour bus rides and the last thing you want to do is endure another one?  Well, you hop on a 10 hour overnight bus and head for the coast of Ecuador of course.

Lovely Canoa

I had two weeks to kill in Ecuador before I caught a flight to Argentina, so I decided to pass them sitting on the beach doing as little as possible.  I know.  I realize how absurd that statement is.  Most functional adults are lucky if they get to enjoy two weeks of vacation each year, let alone on the beach in Ecuador.  I am one fortunate cookie and I am trying to enjoy every waking moment of hiking at 12pm on a Tuesday, having a beer with lunch (every damn day if I feel like it) and forgetting what day of the week it is or what month we are in for that matter as much as possible, because I know I will be hopping back on the hamster-wheel of life, doing the 9-5 before I know it.

I digress though, I was telling you about my two week stint in Canoa, Ecuador.  It was wonderful.

Canoa is a small, little beach town with an infectious tranquilo surfer vibe, that makes everybody – and I mean everybody – slow down and stay for a while.  There is one paved road and it is the road that leads you out of town.  There are no ATM’s and wandering around barefoot is highly encouraged.

The sunny streets of Canoa

Dozens of charming surfer shacks painted in splashes of color line the beach selling fresh ceviche, fruit smoothies and fish cooked just about any way you can dream up.

My ten hour night bus that I was positively dreading turned out to be the best bus ride I have taken this entire trip.  Funny how that works out, huh?  The bus was practically empty and I had a whole row of 4 seats to sprawl across and make myself comfortable.  I slept surprisingly well and the bus even arrived early!

The bus dumped about four or five backpackers off on a dusty street corner in Canoa at 4:45 in the morning.  I was wiping the sleep from my eyes and trying to find the directions to a few hostels that I had researched the day before when another traveler asked me where I planned on staying.  I told him Sundown Beach Hotel.  Even though it was supposed to be a 20 minute walk out of town, it was right on the beach and offered long-term stay discounts.  This is where the beauty of travel serendipity comes into play, Jan (as he later told me was his name) had already contacted them and they were booked solid for about two months straight.  That 20 minute walk in the dark on the beach with my absurdly heavy pack sure would have been lousy.  We decided to just wander through town and see what we could find.

The sunsets never got old

There were a few drunk Canoan men partying by their truck, but other than that the town was pretty much dead.  We found a hostel on the beach that looked pretty promising, but no one was around – it was beginning to look like we might need to sleep on the beach for a few hours while we waited for everyone to wake up.  Luckily, we decided to walk down the street a bit more and we found a security guard sleeping in a chair outside Canoamar Hostel.  He made us a reasonable offer for a room and we decided to share it for a day before we had a chance to find someplace better.

As it turns out, Canoamar was a great hotel – hammocks for lounging in, plenty of outdoor sitting areas, views of the beach, and a shared kitchen.  Jan and I ended up sharing the room for the entire time I was there.  It worked out great.  Jan is from Germany and was planning on staying in Canoa for a few months to learn how to surf and take Spanish lessons.  He rented an apartment just as I was leaving.

I passed my days doing yoga on the beach (it is quite sandy by the way), laying out in the sun for as long as I could manage, reading a great deal, watching the sunset, going for long walks, getting hit on quite incessantly by local surfers, and enjoying fresh fruit smoothies.

The infamous ceviche...

My first day in town, I did however get offered money for sex.  That was a first.  I was enjoying freshly chopped ceviche at a little shack on the beach, feet in the sand, sipping on a mango-banana smoothie thinking things just could not get any better than this when the guy running the place pointed to his cousin eating at a table nearby and said, “He thinks you’re pretty.  He will pay for you to leave with him.”  I am sorry, what?  I look over at the middle-aged man dressed in a polo shirt, quite not in line with the rest of the town’s fashion of flip flops and tanks tops I might add, he smirks and nods at me as he has a ten and some ones in his hand.  I quickly say no, look away, and feel sick to my stomach.  I also have to hope that the ten was for his bill and not for me.  I have got to be worth more than that.

The rest of my time in Canoa was, thankfully, quite uneventful.  I went on a hike to a private beach with a local surfer friend, took a surfing lesson, drank caipirinhas on the beach, made friends with a retiree couple vacationing from Canada (we shared a few delicious meals together), watched the sunset every night, won trivia night (a first!) and de.com.pressed.

Oh and if you are ever in Canoa, be sure to stop by Betty Surf and Yoga.  They are some of the coolest and nicest people you will come across, the yoga is top notch and they will get you standing on a board in no time.  Thanks for the good times!

 

Taking in the sunset with some friends



Hike to the private beach