One of the most stressful decisions on this trip so far has been where to spend Christmas and New Years. Trust me, after only having to worry about street maps and whether this bus is actually going to where I want to go, I had to think long and hard on how to approach this dilemma. 

I was on the Pacific Coast of Ecuador, so it was a given it would have to be on a beach. With cold beer. Oh the humanity. Being in the very small beach town of Sua at the time, the only let down was the fact nothing was open after 7pm. This makes things extremely difficult to eat and drink at night time. I was almost ready to embrace this more humble of festive destinations when I realised I really needed a hostel with wifi internet to use Skype to see the family. 

A day trip back to Atacames to scope out hostels with internet, I ended up staying at a great place called The Chill Inn. I noticed this hostel when I was staying in Atacames previous, mainly due to the Swiss flag hanging from the balcony. Unsurprising it’s run by a Swiss lady named Yoli, and over Christmas there was just the two of us and a German friend of hers, Sandra, staying. 

Without a doubt the girls made the best dinner I’d had in Ecuador. Lamb wrapped in bacon, home made pasta in a cheese bake, and finally the German offering of some kind of purple cabbage that wasn’t all that bad (in small doses). I actually told them it was the best meal I’d had while being in Ecuador and this kicked a conversation of some of the stereotypes I’ve come to notice myself while being here.

First, the food is extremely repetitive. If it’s not chicken with rice, it’s rice with chicken. And beans. Most places will also throw in carne as an alternative to chicken, which translates to meat. So what kind of meat is kinda a guessing game, just to make your meal that a little more exciting. I’m pretty sure it’s usually just beef, as lamb and pork don’t seem to exist in restaurants. 

Even seafood has become too much of the same. All along the coastal towns the menus are literally the same. They even have the same generic pictures of the meal to accompany the menu listing. That’s not to say the seafood isn’t good, it’s great, and paying $12 for 2 lobsters (however they’re about a half the size of Aussie lobsters) is nothing to complain about. But when it’s the same style lobster every time at every restaurant, the lack of variety tends to dull the enthusiasm. 

The other interesting point about Ecuadorians  the girls pointed out is the complete lack of musical taste. Or more to the point, no understanding of volume. Sandra worked at a school and had to ban some of the teachers from singing in front of the students. They’re so bad that louder automatically means better. So they tell the students to sing louder and louder, to the point of yelling. 

I myself have noticed this a few times. On buses it seems to be acceptable to set your mobile phone to the highest volume and blare music out for all to hear. I’m fairly convinced the mobile companies have made Ecuadorian specific mobiles with louder speakers as I never thought it possible for them to be so loud. The bars along Atacames I was sure for a while there they were making the music unbearably loud to drive me away. Ah but no such personal attack, they just think it’s a good idea to have bass ripple through your body and vibrate your bones while your ear drums try and seal themselves up from the distorted treble. 

So with Christmas – or Navidad – over I hit the bus for Canoa. Yoli asked the Egg Man about which bus I should catch. I call him the Egg Man because he sells little boiled eggs where all the buses stop. He was fairly sure there was a direct bus to Pedernales, and then onto Canoa. A bus pulled up at the time he said it would, but it wasn’t direct to Pedernales. I had already looked up what others said the route to Pedernales should be, so I jumped off the bus at a small nothing town of El Salto which was nothing more than where two main roads intersect.

For a while I was wondering whether I’d been victim to an elaborate prank. There were others waiting for the next bus to the town Chamanga where you change to Pedernales, but there didn’t seem to be a bus coming. Several came and went in the opposite directions, but no Chamanga bus. Now since there were others waiting I figured a bus would eventually arrive. But knowing public transport, it means if there’s a long wait then it’s going to be packed. And packed was the bus. We all only just fit on, and off when the bus to Chamanga.

Small little Chamanga, a fishing village with one main dirt road for some reason was the main changing point for buses between these two areas. The bus to Pedernales was only a bus in the sense it had more than half a dozen seats. Imagine taking a large ute, replacing the back with a handful of wielded metal bars and wooden seats, and there you have it. I also took one of these things from Pedernales to Canoa, a 2 hour ride on a wooden plank doesn’t do great things to your posture!

So here we are now in Canoa. Still a fairly small beach town that explodes with tourists over the New Years break. New Years Day in particular was insane – just picture Bondi New Years Day on a hot day, but throw in people who can’t drive and triple park, and two dozen shops on the beach front selling beer. 

There’s a large American presence here. Canoa is famous for it’s surfing, so all the American gringos are middle aged balding surfers covered in tattoos and piercings. The American aging women are represented pretty well here too, and they all have much younger Ecuadorian lads with them. Go the American cougars!

It’s been a lot more quiet the past couple of days, to the point where most of the shops even close to recover from the New Years rush. Even the smell of ganga is more obvious as the locals are a little more open in their smoking when there’s no tourists hanging around every corner. 

Tomorrow is suppose to be leaving day, I’ve already stayed an extra 3 days from the original 5, and honestly I’m toying with staying for a few more. The hostels doubled in price for the festive break, so if my hostel brings their price back down or I can find a new place, I’ll no doubt stay until the weekend. Or as one American lady I met said, she came here for a week and has stayed for 3 months!

Eitherway, if I stay longer or not, the next planned stopped is Manta. It’s another beach town only more of a city than a town/village. Which to be honest is a good thing, I don’t need another temptation to stay another week or two on a beach. Really need to get back to exploring the rest of Ecuador before my visa runs out!!