Pacific Paradise

Since the time that I dropped my parents off at the airport, I have been on a mission to find a beach. Not too dificult, less than 4 hours away from Guayaquil I found myself in a teeny town called Montañita. Montañita was...interesting. There was a main street that was completely tourist focused. The rest of the town was nothing. Montañita is one of those places that people go to and get stuck for months at a time, they just can´t leave. Which probably explains the hoards of gringos with dreads wearing Ecuador bracelets, selling hemp bracelets, and playing Bob Marley. It was a little much, so after a short two night stay, I headed south to Peru.

I ended up in Peru´s version of Montañita, a little town called Máncora on the very northern coast. However, the people here seem to be a little more genuine about the fact that they were at a beach resort and not a hippie commune. The hostel I checked into was a budget version of an all inclusive resort. The beachfront property had a pool, bar, and restaurant, all for less than $8 a night. Not bad.

This morning I went fishing with a local fisherman. The old wooden boat and 25hp motor looked like they had seen their fair share of hurricanes, but it did the job. The fisherman was quite a resourceful dude, his anchor was a big rock that he tied a rope around (and then a rope to that rope, and a rope to that rope), which doubled as a sea anchor if he reeled in the ropes a little. We used actual fishing poles for about 15 minutes, then switched to a wooden block that had fishing line wrapped around it and a hook tied to the end. He obviously wasn´t expecting any 3 foot tuna. We didn´t catch much...about 6 little 4-6" fish between the two of us. Apparantly "the currents [were] just all wrong".

Now I´m off again, heading south along the coast toward Lima. I have to catch a flight out of there on the 26th. Looks like I´ve got some time on my hands...