Ecuador's beaches Part 2: Mompiche and Canoa

Our next destination after Atacames was Canoa, described as a laid-back surfers' beach.  We really liked the sound of it so aimed to spend New Year there.  On the way, we stopped for lunch in Mompiche, an undeveloped picturesque beach with just a few buildings.  A lovely place to relax for an afternoon or surf for a few days, but maybe too quiet for much longer.

(Looks a bit cloudy and grim in the photos, but the cloud cover was pleasant and stopped it being too hot)

We got to Canoa at about 8pm on the 30th December - enough time to have some dinner and scout out somewhere to camp and party the next night.  I had a fish stew (cazuela) and Paul had seafood encocado, and we had batidos or smoothies, which are popular in this part of Ecuador.

(The battered things by the rice are patacones, or green plantain fritters - standard meal accompaniment)

Then we had a couple of cocktails before retiring to the van, which we'd managed to park near the beach.  Everything was going to plan, until about 3.30am when we got up within minutes of each other to throw up!  Something we'd consumed had made us very ill!

Paul was bed-ridden the next day, though I was well enough to move the van in to a campsite we weren't far from.  Needless to say, New Year celebrations were non-existent, but thankfully we've both recovered enough to enjoy Canoa.  Hotel Bambu, where we're camped, is right on the beach, so we can go for a dip in the warm sea very easily, and there are loads of hammocks in the shade for reading/Skyping/blogging.

We're camped under the shade of another tree here, although this one has little berries which fall out and land on the van's roof with a little thud.  It also has iguanas crawling around in the branches and pooing on the van (again with a little thud)....makes for a lovely wake-up call each morning...

Ecuador's beaches Part 1: Atacames

From Quito, we headed west to the Ecuadorian coast.  The drive took us down a winding mountain road away from the cool climate and in to humid, lush forests.  It's like a completely different Ecuador - there's a strong Afro-Ecuadorian influence this side of the country.  We stopped en route at a busy little restaurant for lunch and had our first taste of pescado encocado (fish in a coconut, garlic and herb sauce) followed by fresh coconut water for $1.

We set off again after lunch but noticed the van was making considerably more noise than before.....uh oh...it sounded like the exhaust had gone.... Paul got out to inspect and found there was indeed a split in the pipe.  

There wasn't much we could do other than keep driving.  Most towns have mechanics on their outskirts though, so we looked up the Spanish for exhaust (escape) and kept our eyes peeled for a mechanic (taller) who fixed them.  We found one about 20km away on the outskirts of Esmeraldas, and he was working on the van within 20 minutes.  

He was able to weld it back together, while Paul went to buy a new rubber retaining ring to replace one that had broken, allowing the exhaust to rattle around and eventually break.  Esmeraldas is one of the poorest and therefore most dangerous cities in Ecuador, so when the mechanic sent Paul off shopping, he told him to be careful and keep his wits about him.  This is standard practice for tourists in South America so I wasn't particularly worried.  That was until the mechanic's other customer, a truck driver, started getting agitated when Paul hadn't returned 15 minutes later.  He actually went out to the street to see if he could see Paul, and stood there for ages looking out.  After another 5 minutes, he had words with the mechanic who then urged me to call Paul to check he was ok.  It was making me very nervous, but just as I pulled out my phone, Paul walked through the gate.  PHEW!  He'd been gone for so long because the first shop was closed and he'd had to look for another.

Eventually, after 45 minutes at the garage and $20 down, we were back on the road.

Our first stop on the beach tour of Ecuador was the party town Atacames.  The guide book describes it as brash - I couldn't really picture what that meant....but brash is exactly the right word - it's a beach lined with bars pumping out really loud music, girls having their hair braided, men getting tattoos at all hours of the day and street vendors peddling ceviche, coconut milk and local sweets.  It was quite an assault on the senses.

(View from restaurant balcony one evening.  If only you could have heard the loud, pumping music!)

Our strategy for finding a camping venue was to drive along the beach, note down which accommodation we liked the look of, then drive round the back and find one with parking.  We settled on Hotel Juan Sebastian, which had a brilliant-looking pool right opposite the beach, close to bars and food, and a large shaded car park.  They let us camp for $15 a night.

We stayed two nights in Atacames, eating some delicious ceviche from one of the stalls on the beach, and making the most of being able to get up and go for a swim in the pool each morning.  The sea was lovely and warm too, but it rained a bit while we were there so we didn't really get to enjoy the beach properly.  Also didn't take any pictures as we usually left our valuables at the hotel.

In the hotel, we were camped under the shade of a mango tree and occasionally there'd be a dull thud followed by a car alarm going off whenever a fruit fell down!  On the day we left, one of the staff saw Paul looking admiringly at some out-of-reach ripe mangoes, and went looking for a tool to help him reach them.  He came back empty-handed but gave Paul the thumbs up for moving the van so he could climb up!

Paul managed to get a few good sized mangoes which we have been snacking on ever since!

Whistlestop visits to Otavalo & Quito

On Boxing Day, we headed north to Otavalo, which is famous for its market.  On the way, we crossed the equator, a fact brought to our attention by a big monument.

Our GPS actually read 0'0'0', which was quite cool, as there's another popular tourist attraction called The Middle Of The World which claims to be on the equator but is actually a few hundred metres off it.

We stopped again a few kilometres further along in the town of Cayanbe to sample the local speciality, as recommended by our hacienda hosts, bizcotti and cheese.

(Buttery, crumbly savoury biscuits with mozzarella-like cheese - delicious!)

We eventually arrived in Otavalo late afternoon - a bit late for any market action, so we decided to camp near a lake just outside the town.

It was deserted when we camped that night, but when we woke up, a couple of market stalls had been set up nearby; it was as if Otavalo market had come to us!  We got a taste of what would be on offer and headed over.

Saturday is the big day, when the market spills out in to the streets.  We went on a Friday so just saw the central stalls.  I'm guessing on Saturdays there are more stalls selling the same stuff to more people, so it's probably best for us that we went on a quieter day.

After a couple of hours browsing and a bit of haggling, we headed back to Quito.  Big cities, especially ones in valleys (and therefore with steep roads) aren't very van-friendly, plus it was a challenge finding somewhere to park that had enough headroom.  The car park we eventually ended up in didn't have enough headroom, but the attendants let us park outside the main bit.

The view from the top of the car park was pretty cool.

(Statue of Virgin Mary about to fly off a hill overlooking Quito)

I had a quick walk around Quito's old town while Paul recovered from shopping.

(The Plaza Grande or main square in Quito.)

(One of Quito's oldest streets, La Ronda, recently renovated with lots of cafés and bakeries)

After a taxing day driving around Quito, we decided to head out of the city that night, destination: the coast!

(Long overdue) food blog

Some of the more interesting things we've eaten over the past couple of months:

(Lomo saltado.  Stir fried beef with onions & tomatoes, with rice & chips.  A popular Peruvian dish of Chinese origin, I think.  Served everywhere.  Some places stir fry the chips in with the beef:)

(Paul's first alpaca steak, drowned in a mushroom sauce, served with quinoa risotto)

(Chicharrón - crispy fatty pork served with big Peruvian corn)

(Dire coffee from a place in Aguas Caliente - shameful for a coffee-producing country!)

(Oreo cookies with a dulce de leche filling!)

(Guinea pig - a whole one spatchcocked like a chicken, head and all)

(Mixed seafood ceviche with a chunk of sweet potato)

(Anticucho - skewers of beef heart - very, very tender meat!)

Christmas (and birthday!) in Ecuador

Our first ever Christmas together was spent in a beautiful country house hotel just outside Quito.  It was actually someone's huge family home which they'd turned in to a guesthouse.  It seems to be a common thing to do here as they actually have a name for it - a hacienda.

The place was gorgeous - they have so much land that they've set up trails, and there are archaeological tunnels beneath the property which you can explore (we never found out what they were for though).  They also have the cutest dog - an 8-month old Fench bulldog called Francis.

We had a relaxing two days there, enjoying sleeping in a king size bed and not having to drive anywhere. 

(Our room was the one with the balcony upstairs)

(Not quite the suite that was advertised - just one room and no sofa - but nice all the same)

The weather was sunny, but because we were at around 2,800m it was cool as well.  And at night it got cold enough to warrant a log fire, which made it feel very Christmassy!

We spent Christmas Day eating panettone and Skyping friends and family, including our new niece, Audrey.

We didn't really get a proper Christmas dinner though (Paul had asked before we booked if they were doing a Christmas meal and they said yes, but perhaps he should've asked about a 'special' Christmas meal because we just got their standard menu which we also had on Christmas Eve). Still the food was delicious and the breakfasts were some of the best we've had in South America.

As a bonus, after dinner I got a cake with candles, as well as the cake and candles that Paul had bought!

Papallacta - the best thermal baths in Ecuador

We couldn't visit Ecuador without stopping at the best hot springs in the country.  In fact, we had originally planned to spend Christmas at the Termas de Papallacta after Mel and Franco in Salta told us about the private in-room jacuzzis and log fires.  But they were fully booked by the time we were confident we would get there in time, so we went as day guests a couple of days before Christmas.  

It was quite a long drive because it involved climbing more than 2,000m to the top of a mountain pass at 4,100m, then going back down to Papallacta at 3,300m.  Sometimes we were reduced to 30km/h by the incline.  After around 4 hours, we were finally on the downhill stretch to Papallacta and envisaging ourselves soaking in the luxuriously warm baths, when we hit the road leading to the complex.  It was an uphill stretch of loose gravel road. And as our luck would have it, we started the ascent at the same time as a horse rider, so had to slow right down.  The loss of momentum was a disaster!  

The gravel was so loose that we couldn't get any traction and the wheels were spinning.  We ended up stuck on this slope with the horse and rider slowly trotting past us.

There was no way we were not going to the best hot springs in Ecuador just because of a crappy gravel road though.  The only course of action was to try again and, with the horse out of the picture, to give it some welly!

Thank god it worked - look at what was at the top!

There were loads of crystal clear pools of varying temperatures, including a freezing river next to one of the hottest.  

(Paul getting out of the river and then sitting in the really hot pool)

And because we were up in the mountains, the scenery was spectacular.

We had a quick dip as soon as we got there and then had some dinner in the van.  Then we went back in at 8.30pm for a late night dip when it was all lit up and the cooler air temperature made the warm waters even more divine!

We had planned on camping in the car park overnight and having another dip on Christmas Eve morning, but they wanted to charge us $6 each. This seemed a bit steep considering there were no facilities for us to use, so we left the car park and camped on the road, just outside for free!  The next morning we couldn't resist heading back for another session in the sun.