The day we left I ran around getting my laundry done and booking bus tickets...I did it all in Spanish as well. It is really strange how much I have picked up in the past four months. Lesina has been taking classes and she asks me questions that I can answer 90% of the time. Sarah, one of the girls we were working with would grab me behind the bar and say "Emmie, I need your Spanish, I don´t understand what they want to order." I just smile to myself, four months ago I could barely count in Spanish....y ahora, hablo espagnol todos los dias. It feels really good and I am super proud of myself...even though I only took a few lessons with a friend in Arequipa, everything I have learned is just from picking it up from friends and studying on my own. High-five myself.
It was sad leaving Mancora as it usually is when you settle somewhere for a little while. We had a hard time getting Lesina to leave but we got her on the bus. I was stoked to move on though, all our friends had left and our staff crew was all leaving as well. I wanted to stay but knew that it was time to go, I really didnt want to get stuck somewhere again and go through all the emotions when leaving months down the road, it was hard enough after two weeks.
After getting Lesina to finally walk out the hostel gate we headed to the bus station.
Overnight buses are alright but still have their down falls. Its so hard to sleep even with semi-cama. Once again I got to enjoy the throaty orchestra of a man snoring all night. Plus we had our border crossing into Ecuador which meant three hours after we left (midnight) we had to wake up and go through immigration and then the actual border crossing, then at 5 am we had to wake up again and wait an hour at the Guayaquil bus station to switch buses and then another two hours to Montanita. Needles to say there wasn´t much sleep, or good sleep at that.
Our first destination in Ecuador was Montanita, a small hippie beach town. So excited!!! New country new town, new beach...but it rained, and it was cloudy and so muggy, it was quite depressing. After spending two weeks in perfect weather the cloudiness put us all into a two day slump. We knew the weather wasnt going to be as great as Mancora but we weren´t expecting it to be so depressing. The town was great and we definitely would´ve enjoyed ourselves heaps more though if the weather had of been sunny, so basically we just chilled at the hostel cooking meals everynight, reading, listening to music and watching the iguanas in the tree, all while detoxing from our crazy couple weeks at Loki. The hostel we were at (other than almost everyone smoking pot) was the perfect place to detox. It was situated on the disgustingly dirty river that runs through the town. It is built out of brick and would, with a patio out the back that faces the river. The river is lined with lots of trees making it feel like you are in the jungle. Our room was a loft with 10 beds...basically just just mattresses on the floor protected by holey mosquito nets. It was perfect.
If the weather was nicer we would have stayed a few more days but we left after two days and headed 11 hours North East to Banos.
Another overnight bus journey, this one being the most uncomfortable one yet. Not because of people snoring but I just couldn´t get comfortable at all, I must´ve slept for half hour intervals at a time, but it does save us from paying accomodation for one night.
Five minutes after we were on the bus it pulls over where police car lights were flashing. A man (in uniform) boards the bus and in Spanish says "I am with the international police, please get off the bus." I looked at Ben a little scared. I have heard horror stories that begin like this with the story ending in robbery of all your belongings and as much as I have nothing more of value to steal, I do cherish my backpack and worn out clothes. We get off the bus and they have seperated the men from the woman, great, they are going to execute us was what went through my head. We had just some backpackers at the hostel who had all been robbed so I was paranoid. They only patted down our (the womens) bags, but the guys got searched, patted down and had to show their passports. Then we were back on the bus and on our way. Random drug search.
We arrived in Banos the next morning at about 630. We couldn´t check into the hostel so we dropped our stuff off and walked into town to grab some breakfast. They let us check in when we got back and we all passed out for a few hours. Today Lesina, Matt and Ben went rafting and I stayed back to have a day to myself and write you all a blog, tomorrow however I believe we are going canyoning so there will be more adventure coming to you soon.
Hasta Luego
- My Beautiful Life -
It was sad leaving Mancora as it usually is when you settle somewhere for a little while. We had a hard time getting Lesina to leave but we got her on the bus. I was stoked to move on though, all our friends had left and our staff crew was all leaving as well. I wanted to stay but knew that it was time to go, I really didnt want to get stuck somewhere again and go through all the emotions when leaving months down the road, it was hard enough after two weeks.
After getting Lesina to finally walk out the hostel gate we headed to the bus station.
Overnight buses are alright but still have their down falls. Its so hard to sleep even with semi-cama. Once again I got to enjoy the throaty orchestra of a man snoring all night. Plus we had our border crossing into Ecuador which meant three hours after we left (midnight) we had to wake up and go through immigration and then the actual border crossing, then at 5 am we had to wake up again and wait an hour at the Guayaquil bus station to switch buses and then another two hours to Montanita. Needles to say there wasn´t much sleep, or good sleep at that.
Our first destination in Ecuador was Montanita, a small hippie beach town. So excited!!! New country new town, new beach...but it rained, and it was cloudy and so muggy, it was quite depressing. After spending two weeks in perfect weather the cloudiness put us all into a two day slump. We knew the weather wasnt going to be as great as Mancora but we weren´t expecting it to be so depressing. The town was great and we definitely would´ve enjoyed ourselves heaps more though if the weather had of been sunny, so basically we just chilled at the hostel cooking meals everynight, reading, listening to music and watching the iguanas in the tree, all while detoxing from our crazy couple weeks at Loki. The hostel we were at (other than almost everyone smoking pot) was the perfect place to detox. It was situated on the disgustingly dirty river that runs through the town. It is built out of brick and would, with a patio out the back that faces the river. The river is lined with lots of trees making it feel like you are in the jungle. Our room was a loft with 10 beds...basically just just mattresses on the floor protected by holey mosquito nets. It was perfect. If the weather was nicer we would have stayed a few more days but we left after two days and headed 11 hours North East to Banos.
Another overnight bus journey, this one being the most uncomfortable one yet. Not because of people snoring but I just couldn´t get comfortable at all, I must´ve slept for half hour intervals at a time, but it does save us from paying accomodation for one night.
Five minutes after we were on the bus it pulls over where police car lights were flashing. A man (in uniform) boards the bus and in Spanish says "I am with the international police, please get off the bus." I looked at Ben a little scared. I have heard horror stories that begin like this with the story ending in robbery of all your belongings and as much as I have nothing more of value to steal, I do cherish my backpack and worn out clothes. We get off the bus and they have seperated the men from the woman, great, they are going to execute us was what went through my head. We had just some backpackers at the hostel who had all been robbed so I was paranoid. They only patted down our (the womens) bags, but the guys got searched, patted down and had to show their passports. Then we were back on the bus and on our way. Random drug search.
We arrived in Banos the next morning at about 630. We couldn´t check into the hostel so we dropped our stuff off and walked into town to grab some breakfast. They let us check in when we got back and we all passed out for a few hours. Today Lesina, Matt and Ben went rafting and I stayed back to have a day to myself and write you all a blog, tomorrow however I believe we are going canyoning so there will be more adventure coming to you soon.
Hasta Luego
- My Beautiful Life -
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