Mountains, donkeys, and waves

Ah Ecuador, where the buses pass the cars, motorcycles carry no less than four people each, and the lines in the road are more like ¨guidelines¨ than actual demarcations of fact. We´ve finally made it to the coast, and are in fact getting ready to take an overnight bus back up the hill to the highlands in the middle of the country.

From Cuenca we moved on South to the town of Vilcabamba. We splurged and stayed in a cabaña with a private deck and hammock, and a view of the surrounding hills. It was a tranquil place with the ever present dogs in the streets, friendly people, and donkeys that will bray you to sleep in the night. Shawn was unfortunately turned inside out by something that he ate and left Kate to do the hiking for the first full day that we were there. On the second day Kate got Shawn off of his death bed for a ¨short¨ five hour hike up to a viewpoint that allowed us 360 views of the surroundings.
At the top we opted for the adventurous ¨that looks like a shorter route¨ way, and navigated a knife ridge, and steep descent down to a dry a river bed where Kate was spooked by the sprinting donkey we encountered.
From Vilcabamba we took the hottest - why do Ecuadorians not need air? - overnight bus ride we ever thought humanely possible to Guyaquil. For some reason the bus did not stop at the main terminal, but decided to drop us off near an empty soccer field 1/4 mile away at 6am.
Things always work out though, and a few minutes later we were on a local bus to Mantañita, the surfing capital of Ecuador. Mantañita is something that you would find in Disneyland under a sign that said something like Ëcuador Land¨. It was definitely a surfer´s party town as our little bungalow was bombarded by thumping base (a different song from each cardinal direction). We tried our hand at surfing the mess that was the beach break (the famous point break is really only for short boarders) and Shawn surfed a locally made balsa board. The music and hemp bracelts were really all too much though, and after 2 days we headed north to Puerto Lopez which is much more our speed.

Puerto Lopez is famous for whale watching tours, but instead we opted for relaxing in our bungalow on stilts, runs on the beach, body surfing in the ocean, and petting the great dane called Scooby Doo that guards our bungalow. Off to the cloud forrest in Mindo and then the jungle!!