Montanita is the best!

They don't have moves like this in Montanita.

The bus station is a funny place. The buses are all run by private companies, so there are MANY 'salesman' walking the terminal shouting out the different names of cities. If you even think about looking at their schedule they make a B-line to you and start the hard sell. It's entertaining until you tell them where you're going, because they stand in front of you, look you dead in the eye and start repeating your destination over and over and over. If you leave they follow you. Then, looking back on it it's funny again. Good times.

We went to Cuenca for Christmas and Montanita for New Year's. Cuenca was fun. It is the third largest city in Ecuador and rather colonial. It's fun to walk around and look at the old buildings. Jeff, Sam, and Oli got reindeer hats, and I got a santa hat. Then we took lots of pictures with the locals. After Christmas we hopped a bus to Guayaquil, then to the coast.

The bus ride to Guayaquil was terrifying. We had one of the craziest bus drivers EVER. I think the trip took four hours and we were packed to the gills. The entire aisle from front to back was full of people and things. Becky and I were in the front seat with a bunch of leg room at the station. Mistake. When the bus loaded up we found ourselves with an indiginous mother and her three small children sitting in our 'leg room'. With all of those people on the bus the driver would scream through the turns as fast as he possibly could. We were all sitting up front so it was easy to bang on the window at him. He eventually slowed down, but for awhile there I was not in my happy place. The turns were so fast he would "lean in" as we made the turn. We were high in the mountains and in places (many places) there were no guard rails, just the edge of the cliff that fell away 2000 feet. Yikes! After telling the guy numerous times to chill, me and Team Yukon were ready to knock the dude out and throw him off the bus. People were literally crying behind us. He chilled. Thankfully. Only so many turns an overloaded bus can take before an axle breaks or a wheel comes off. Oh yeah, and halfway through the trip we pulled over so the driver could tighten something up under the bus. We were pulled over for maybe ten minutes. I bet he was just adjusting the suspension's toe and camber to 'race' mode.

Once we arrived in Monanita I think we all realized just how much fun it was going to be. All the roads in Montanita are sand. People drive on them, but why? The physical size of the town isn't even the size of Index, WA. There are three or four streets in town, but the whole place is set up to party. There are many hostels and good places to eat. You might wind up spending 5 or 6 bucks for breakfast. A bit more than Tena, but the food is so good here. I had one of the best hamburgers here with some ham, an egg and a lot of mayo. Watch out for the mayo it goes bad fast and they don't refridgerate. We were in Montanita for a week and I didn't think it would happen this way, but we were all a little glad to move on. That said, Montanita is someplace you have to go. Come to Ecuador for the boating, but hit Montanita at New Year's for the best party of your life. Take a look...

Dancing in Montanita is fun.

Jeff talks with Francine, one of the many Germans in town.

You make lots of friends in Monanita. It's fun here.

And when you run out of your own cool dance moves your friends teach you new ones.

Sam and Olivier like dancing and making friends.

Here's to good friends, tonight is kinda special.

This is our hostal, Los Palmeras.

Along the way.

Apparently all the churches have these spotlights. Five different colors.

Jeff gives his bottle of cheap booze to the bartender to throw around all crazy like.

If Hollywood ever remade the movie Cocktail, this guy would be a shoe-in.

I bet the bus driver just didn't realize there weren't any guard rails.

Sam had to pee REAL bad. So, he went to the back of the bus with a water bottle.


Whoopsie. Sam didn't realize the road was bumpy and that we had a crazy driver.

Or maybe the driver just wouldn't stop. Sam's a good sport, he let us take his picture!