Sometimes You Just Need a Vacation...

...And what better way to do it than camping on a beach! Yes, this is what a few friends and I did for our November “Reading Week” (November 3-6), which was really the first annual 5-day National Holiday for Ecuador (usually it is 3 days but the President changed it the month before). As soon as we found out about the vacation change, we decided we should all go to the beach, because we were lacking fresh air and wanted to shed the layers we wear everyday (you have to dress more modestly in the highlands). We looked for places to stay on the Coast for two weeks and EVERYWHERE was full because apparently on holidays, all the highland folk flock there. Luckily for us, on the way back from the Amazon, we managed to find a place that had just enough room for a few people tenting.

Three stress-filled days later, we packed our bags and headed to the bus station. Because we had found a place to stay so late, we managed to find only one bus company (out of at least 5) that had room for 7 more people, and the seats were definitely not together... I happened to be seated at the front of the bus with a giant TV in front of me, and everyone else was sporadically placed throughout the rest of the bus. We had all planned to sleep on the way there as the bus left at 11pm (on November 2) and it was a 5-6 hour drive, but none of us did. In addition to me worrying about my luggage (and purse on my lap) and whether it was being stolen, there was an excessively loud Spanish-dubbed Sylvester Stallone movie over the speaker and a man sleeping on my shoulder. Nevertheless, I did not sleep much. The others didn’t either because one of my friends had a couple making-out loudly beside her, another became claustrophobic, and another just couldn’t sleep. It was a wild ride, but we got into the town of Atacames (in the province of Esmeraldas) around 5:30am. We then hired a truck to drive us to our hotel just outside of Same (about an hour south, said: saw-may). The drive in the back of the truck was probably one of my favourite parts of the weekend: hair whipping in the warm, salty breeze and the black sky turning into a brilliant sunrise over the Pacific Ocean; the excitement palpable at being back on the Pacific Ocean and for spending a weekend in humidity and warmth.

We pulled into our hotel, Playa Escondida, at around 6:30am, and had to wake up the gate guard (we are sorry!!) to let us in. We then almost ran to the beach, but not before we were stopped in our tracks for interrupting a meditation session on the beach. This was our introduction to the 50-person yoga retreat that we were to share the facilities (sometimes not amicably) with.  

The main building (kitchen) at Playa Escondida

The yogis meditating on the beach.

The kitchen (left) and one of the hotel buildings (right).

Our camp site!!

  

After wandering around for a bit, we saw that people were starting to wake up and so we decided to go set up our tents. After that, a few people passed out in the tents, and the rest of us, including me, went exploring. When we came back, the yogis were eating breakfast which meant that we couldn’t until they were done (a theme for the rest of the weekend).

View to the left.

View to the right.

 

For the rest of the morning and afternoon, we explored the beaches, went wave jumping in the ocean, and laid in the sand or hammocks to read and sleep. It was fantastic to finally get a chance to relax, which I hadn’t had in more than a month. We also sipped on strong Caipiriñas (sugarcane alcohol, limes, and sugar) and beer. That night, we all went to bed early after an excessively long day.

The next day, we went into Tonchigue, a small fishing village halfway to Same, for a change of scenery. We spent a good hour walking and then hitch-hiking in (truck and bus combined). We then used the internet and called our families (there was no cellphone service at our hotel). Afterwards, Mike, Sam, Liam and I walked along the beach, ate lunch, and later we bought food and alcohol before we hired these weird motorcycles with carriages on to the back to take us back to our hotel.

Fishing boats and beach looking down the beach to where our hotel is.

When we got back, we made some friends with our tenting neighbours who were also from Canada but they have lived in Ecuador for over 20 years. On that note, our hotel owner, Judy, was also Canadian but has been living in Ecuador for 30 years. I also had a pretty weird and awfully red sun burn on my legs from the day before. This was because I was lazy putting sunscreen on my sandy legs, and then tanned for an hour afterwards, resulting with weird designs in the forms of burns all over my legs. I was also pretty white, being Canadian and all, and the sun is, wouldn’t ya know it, excessively stronger near the equator. I was dumb and am currently still paying for it with a crazy tan on my legs.

Later on that evening after dinner, we played some card games and met some more new friends. Around midnight, a few of us went swimming in the ocean, which was quite an experience with the moon shining overhead and little fishing boats twinkling on the horizon.

Eagle

More Beach

Posing in some caves down the beach.

Looking back from a cave to the beaches and Same.

 

On our last day, we hung out on the beach all day and enjoyed the warmth of the sun. My particular spot of choice was sun tanning on a rock with my new friend Sam (she was here from Canada visiting her best friend Mike), chatting and watching the waves roll in. The beach became quieter when the yogis left at noon, and we read in hammocks. The day was pretty uneventful but incredibly relaxing before we knew we had to get back to work on Monday. We took our last walk along on the beach at sunset, and ate our last delicious meal in the quaint, outdoor restaurant, before hiring a truck to pick us up and take us back to Atacames for our bus (which was another horrible night bus... remind me not to do those again). Overall, it was an incredibly relaxing weekend, and EXACTLY what I needed after and incredibly stressful month.

Sunset on the Pacific Ocean

Our group: Mike, Andrea, Me, Sam, Liam, Tara-Lyn, Brittany, and Lisa (our Austrian friend)