Just Landed In Ecuador
02-11-2013, 01:45 AM
Alright, I just got back from Montanita, and unfortunately I had to spend another night in Guayaquil because they didn't have a bus until 10 pm to Lima. I was so exhausted from partying in Monatnita, I decided I'd just wait for the next at 7 am the next morning. It's gonna be a hell of a trip, going from here to Lima on bus. Had they a bus going to Tumbes or Moncura, Peru, I would have caught it this morning, but they were all too late and I wasn't gonna sit around the bus station until 10 pm (I arrived at 9 am). I was so depressed when I found I had to spend another day in Guayaquil. I decided to just rent a cheap, dumpy ass hostel (I don't know what's shittier, my hostel or Guayaquil, both pretty on par with each other) close to the bus terminal because I knew there was nothing I wanted to see in Guayaquil, and I was damn tired at that. BTW, I'm getting a whole lot of bad luck with hostels on hostelworld. I don't know who is writing these reviews and how someone can give a place like the one I'm staying at, or stayed at before in Guayaquil, a 95%. In Peru I'm just staying at the one my friend stayed out while he was out there. I also just made a couch surfing profile. And I might come up on a little extra cash, and if that's the case I'm hitting up airbnb if I can find something for the right price.
So, Montanita....
It was carnaval, and I don't know if this is how it usually is, but there were a lot of Chilean and Argentines, along with a bunch of Ecuadorians, and minimal amounts of Colombians. By Saturday I met a huge mix of people from Germany, Sweeden, Switzerland, Spain, The States, Australia, Brazil (But very few, one of the Brazilian guys I met said there were two really good looking girls from Vitoria living there, but I couldn't find them) all over really. Montanita has a great beach and pretty good surf. I rented a board yesterday and went with one of the Spanish cats staying at my hostel. Thursday their seemed to be lots of single girls looking to have fun. I had two girls approach me all googly eyed and asked my name and where I was from. Both were pretty ugly. Friday night I was having a hard time finding single good looking chicks. It's tough to come from a place like Medellin that has beautiful girls everywhere to a place like ecuador, even a vacation spot, as the girls were still pretty average. Montanita is pretty much a hippy surf town. Almost all the people who lived there seemed to be hippys, and I don't know if I'd every been anywhere with such interesting haircuts (Dreadhawks, skril x-hawk, I mean I don't even know how to call or describe some of them). I had a blast though. Everyone is just out to have a good time. Here's my breakdown of Montanita.
Girls: I'd rate them a 5 1/2 out of ten. The average girl is just that, pretty average. Many hippie type chicks. I'm starting to think I'm not big on the Argi girl look. I always heard how beautiful they were, but I only on occasion saw real stunners. I've met so many at this point that I feel like I can make a decently fair judgement on how the average Argi looks, and I'm not really that impressed, I like curvy women, and they don't seem to have a lot of curves and I find the faces to be pretty average, but I guess I can't say 100% until I visit. But Argi girls made up a big majority that weekend. Lots of Chilean girls as well, and they were pretty average. I did meet one really good looking Chilean though. The one thing here though is it isn't that hard. I'm personally pretty picky so it was a little hard for me to find a girl I wanted to bang because the quality was so average, but all the girls are getting drunk and having a good time. Had I tried a little harder or had a little lower standards, it shouldn't have been very hard.
Food: A tad bit better than what I found in Guayaquil, but not by much. A lot of it is expensive as well. I ended up just eating street burgers and empanadas from some Argi guy, as they seemed to be the best option.
Accomidation: There are a couple hotels that appeared to be pretty decent, but it seems most the options are hostels. I would recommend staying outside of town if you want to sleep. Town is LOUD! There are a handful of options just down the street from the center of town. Anywhere in Montanita is going to be a short walk. My place was back on a hill. At first I thought it was going to take 20 minutes to walk, but then I just realized it looked so far because there was lots of empty space, it realistically only took about 10 minutes at most.
Prices: The town is rather reasonable, as Ecuador is cheap in general. You may pay a little more than you would for things in Quito, but I would usually bring out $40 for a night and have $10 left over. All prices in USD (Also what they use).
A big beer: $1.50
Street burger: 1.50
Empanada: 1
Plate of shitty food at a restaurant: 5-7, that's why I ate empenadas, not to mention they just taste better.
Great cocktail: 2.50-3. I kept going back to these same guys bar because they had great cocktails, they were $3, but we made a deal with them. We told them we'd keep bringing them business if they'd give us our drinks for $2.50, and they did
Renting a surfboard: Typically it will run you $15, but if you tell them you plan on renting for 2 or more days, they'll bring down the price to 10. You may even be able to get them down to 10 for just one day if it isn't high season.
Pack of Smokes: 4
Hostel: Depends on the time of season, but it should be about $12 a night. Hotel rooms will run anywhere from $30-180. My problem was I was only 1 person and a lot of the hostels only wanted to rent out to 3 or more. Luckily mine was cool and hooked it up for one without making me buy 3 beds, which others were doing. Don't know if that's the case in low season though.
During high season prices will go up a little bit. For the most part you can talk them down for a lot of things like the little things the hippies are selling on the street and surfboards, things like that.
The Town: Montanita is tiny, the main area being about 4 blocks by 4 blocks. I think only something like 2,000 people live there year round. But during high season the place gets packed. It's a nice little town and I really enjoyed the beach. The only problem is it's so small, that when it's high season, it almost gets hard to walk around. Thursday and Friday were cool, but Saturday was almost too much. Another problem with Montanita, is they don't have good ways of taking care of their waste. Many places in town smell like shit.
Places to go: There are some discotecas and bars to go into, but I wasn't a big fan and it didn't seem like many others were either. To be honest, the street or beach at night is really where it was at. There are tons of little bars on little carts that set up all along the streets and the cocktails are delicious. They make things like Caiparinha, Caiparoska, and Mojitos. I wouldn't even waste my time in the clubs or bars. We went to a club two nights in a row just to see what it was like, totally empty. Same with another bar. Everyone is just running around town getting messed up.
The Surf: Was decent. It probably all just depends on the day. The day I went the waves were closing up quickly. Towards the point is the best spot. The break here is mostly just a beach break, no reef or anything there.
Now a little bit about my experiences there...
First thing when I wake up and go to check out, the lady at my hostel in Guayaquil tries telling me there is a big problem in Montanita, and that they dug up a bunch of the roads and were replacing piping. She told me that a lot of the hotels and hostels were closed. I was super disappointed and almost didn't go. I mean she made it sound like nobody was going to be there and nothing was going to be happening. I called my hostel to make sure they were still open, and that they were.
Once I arrived I realized the lady was full of shit, and maybe just wanted me to stay a couple nights at her hostel. They had torn up the side of one of the roads, but it was no big deal, only a couple hostels and hotels were closed, and town was packed.
I realized that my hostel was a ways down the road and up a hill. It definitely had one of the best views in town. When I got there though I was a little upset to find out that our toilet was basically a whole that we had to shit in and then cover it up with compost. I was definitely not thrilled about it, and of corse I ended up having to take twice as many craps as I normally would. Plus the shower barely worked and no cold water. But the spot itself was nice besides the bathroom situation. Surprisingly a dutch chick owned the place too, you would expect a place like that to be owned by some surf bumb or something. Also, no internet the first day. She said the second day it was going to be fixed. I thought she was full of shit but it actually was fixed the second day. 2 of the 3 nights we were there we experienced power outages for about an hour but I don't think it was the buildings fault. The vibe was also cool there. The owner had the fridge stocked with beers and she smoked so we could smoke wherever we wanted. The house was really open and there was an awesome balcony over looking the ocean, which is where we mostly chilled, kicked back with some beers and smokes.
I ended up meeting a couple groups of Chileans I hung out with the first night, but also did my own thing as well. I ran into some Ausi dudes and we ended up hunting for girls. It was a little hard to find quality, especially after Medellin. I had some ugly girls approach me and the girls I approached were friendly but it didn't seem like they were feeling it. I ended up getting a little drunk but going home pretty early, around 3, because I was tired. Right before I decided to go home though, a chilean girl came up to me and started asking me all these questions. She was for sure into me. She looked pretty good at first but then when she smiled her teeth were a little busted, but not so bad that I wouldn't bang her. I end up trying to make out with her within two minutes of meeting her twice, but she resisted and said she'd see me tomorrow. Apparently she with with her ex boyfriends friends. I never ended up seeing her.
Friday I ended up sleeping in and kind of wasting the day away. I didn't wake up until 1, I was a little disappointed. I did go into town for a bit just to see what the place was like during the day and checked out the beach as well. I decided since I didn't have internet at the hostel that I would take my iPhone with me since I had already wasted a lot of the day anyways, so I didn't end up getting in the water that day. That night I ended up going out with some of the guys from the hostel. I thought the Spanish guy would be good at gaming because he was cool and somewhat good looking, but I came to find he was very shy. We met a group of Argi girls and he really liked one of them (I thought just cute, i would have smashed though), another was cute, and the other two were ugly, one was a whale. He decided he wanted to approach, so he pulled the good 'ol, "You have a lighter?" But the thing was, he just asked for a lighter and lit his cigarette and that was the end of the transaction. I stepped in though after he walked away and asked where the girls were from, even though I already knew they were Argi. We sparked up some conversation and introduced my people. The girls asked about a good discoteca to go to and I told them there was one down the street and they decided we should all go together. Of course though, the fat and ugly two had to start nagging because they weren't getting the love they wanted. They stopped the group of girls halfway to the discoteca. They started debating. The two ugs ended up staying at the beach and the two cuties came with us for a minute. After about 10 minutes though I think they started to feel bad about ditching their friends and went back. I did a handful of other approaches that night, but non led anywhere even though a couple seemed interested. The problem here is though, you really want to push to get sex the same night, since everyone is traveling here from other countries only for a couple of days, no one has phones, and you may see them the next day or you may not. Anyways, no success that night and the guys from the hostel wanted to go home around 3 am. I decided that was fine since I wanted to surf the next day.
Saturday morning I woke up early, not because I wanted to surf, which I did, but because I couldn't stop itching from the million mesquito bites I was getting from the damn place I was staying at. We end up getting to town around 10:30 for some grub and then headed over to rent some surf boards. I'm not a great surfer and have only been a handful of times, but I know board sports. It had been 3 years since I had last surfed in Florianopolis, so I was a little rusty, but after a while I was getting up just about every try. The breaks were alright. The problem is the waves kept closing fast, you wouldn't get many good shoulders. I ended up just riding white water most the day, and when I was trying to catch the barrels, they just kept closing up too fast. That night was just a huge shit show in town. It was packed! Many places it was hard to walk. I went out again with a bunch of cats from the hostel. Many ended up going home early and I ended up with two German girls. One was ok, a little hefty in the wrong places though, but she did have a nice face and pretty blue eyes. The other was not my style. I end up ditching them because they wanted to go into a bar and I said, "I'm gonna go get a cocktail down the street from those guys that make the really good ones, I'll meet you in there." I really just wanted to get away from them, not that they weren't cool, but they were kind of cramping my style when I was trying to pick up. I ended up though just running into too many people I had met earlier and getting distracted. My approaches that night were minimal.
I ended up partying until about 4 and decided, fuck it, I'll just hop of the 5:45 bus and go straight to Lima and sleep all the way. Little did I know my plan was totally fucked. Even getting on the 5:45 bus went to shit. I ended up going to my house when I decided to leave on the 5:45 to pack my stuff. Many of the taxi drivers were dicks and didn't want to go up the hill to my place. I couldn't get a hold of the taxi company once I was ready to go, but I had told the receptionist when I went to get the taxi to my house that I would be ready 20 minutes after the taxi dropped me off. I was thinking, "Shit! I have this 50 lb. bag and now I can't get a taxi, well fuck it, I'm just gonna walk!" As I'm walking out of the house, a taxi pops up! No Way! I can't believe the receptionist came through or that even a taxi went up the hill to pick me up. None of them liked to go up the hill because it was steep and it ate up their gas. I ended up throwing the guy $5 even though it was only a $2.50 taxi. I get to the bus terminal to get my ticket, turns out all the buses are sold out until 1 pm! The bus driver tells me there is a local bus that comes by but it takes an hour longer and there is a chance there won't be seats. I decided I'd already gone through too much trouble to go all the way back to my spot so I decided to do the local bus. I ended up getting a seat and everything. It was no big deal.
So I never ended up getting a notch there. I didn't go as hard as I could have. My logistics were not the best, it's hard to bang when you are staying at a hostel. I already had my Ecuadorian notch anyways and the girl was better looking than just about any of the Ecuadorian girls I saw in Ecuador. If anything there I would have wanted to get my Chilean notch.
That's the end of my trip to Ecuador. I'll be out of this place in 5 1/2 hours. Though Montanita was actually great, I really liked the place, I don't see myself coming back to Ecuador. There are better places to be. And if I do it will only be the beach or jungle areas. I hear mixed things about Quito, a lot of people like it, but after Guayaquil, I don't think I'm gonna give it a shot. Guayaquil is straight up my least favorite place I've ever been. I feel uncomfortable here. It's really just so ugly, it's hard to even paint a picture of it for you. I would say you would have to see it for yourself, but I wouldn't recommend that. Please, DO NOT waste your time going to Guayaquil. Not to mention the people are fucking rude. Today when I arrived at the bus terminal, it was packed!!! I mean PACKED!!! I was trying to get through everyone and people are pushing me from behind trying to get through, no one says excuse me, they just try and shove their way through even though there is no space to move. They just seem to be dumb and primitive. No one wanted to help me out. When I was looking for buses to Lima I would ask if they knew anyone who did that service, and at first they would say no, but then I'd stick around and ask more questions and finally they would look at me annoyed and say, "Office 38 goes to Lima." on 3 occasions in the two days I was here, one of the times in line in the packed terminal and one time in the middle of a busy food court, I saw indigionous looking ladies breast feeding their kids. Not discretely though, like full on breast out. And then when the kid was done, they didn't even try and cover it up, they just went full out boob in the middle of the food court. So weird.
Well, fuck you very much Guayaquil, I had a miserable time here. Time to move onto better places. I mean there is no way Lima could suck as bad as Guayaquil. And at least if it does suck, one of my best friends I haven't seen in ages is there, at least I have that to look forward to. Plus I've been pipelining in Lima and getting very positive responses from good looking girls. I hope you guys found this guide helpful, and stay tuned for a Lima data sheet in a different thread!
