Salinas of the Ecuadorian Coast

April 15th 2008

Aaaargh!! I hate las cucurachas! All you had to do was give me a gun last night and I was James Bond. I inspected every crevice up and down in my room, kicked the door in the bathroom, stepped one foot in, ripped the shower curtain open, then quickly turned around to make sure nothing was creeping on me.

CoCo's Hotel on the beach front of Salina's was the only thing open when I arrived late last night. I soon got use to my new friend though, slept for 6 or 7 hours, gathered to courage to shower, shook all my clothes before I packed them, and took off. What should I have expected for $15 USD in an open air hotel across from the beach on the hot and humid coast (it is very tropical feeling).

It was unfortunately very cloudy today (no sun except through the clouds - very deceiving as I am near the equator so I am still getting scorched from the rays through the clouds). I negotiated with a cab driver to get me to the mini-terminal to catch a bus to the coastal city "Manta", my original destination.

My trip finally begins!! Not only did the "2 hours" I was expecting turn into 6 hours on the bus, but the journey turned out to be a lesson in marketing. If you ever need to know what it is like to have to peddle a product (and crappy products at that), listen and watch the poor Ecuadorian street folk continuosly roll their pitches with full energy over and over for a reward of any where from 5 cents to $1 USD. I was offered anything from a handfull of candies out of a bulk package for 5 cents to a new wonder drug you mix with water to cure cancer (that guy was dressed in a shirt and tie!).

La Ruta Del Sol is BEAUTIFULL! Why was I in Quito for 4 days when I could have been here the whole time?? Travelling tip if you ever come to Ecuador: get to the coast of Educador as soon as you have your bearings and are comfortable enough with your Spanish (they speak less english out here).

I arrive in Manta just before sunset and find my hotel. It was meant to cost $17 i think but the poor girl at the front got confused when I gave her $22 asking for a 5 back. She insisted the math was: I give her 12 and she gives me a $5 back. I know I am right because she showed me two rooms; one for diez (10) and 1 for diez y siete (17) dollares. I tried to get her down to quince ($15) for the nicer room but she wouldn't do it for just 1 night.

I found the highly recommended Beachcomber Grill for dinner and ate beans and rice (arroz y menestra) with an ensalada and cerveza ligera. On the cab ride to dinner I noticed an impromptu soccer game going on under lights beside the church so I headed in that direction to take a sniff. Soon enough I was recruited to a team of youngens (games were 5-on-5 with a futsol (small hard soccer ball) and 2 goals sent you off the pitch). We lossed quickly but another team waiting noticed that I could play well enough for their team, and I stayed on for the next game. We ended up winning three in a row, I scored a couple goals, and really enjoyed playing with the VERY skillfull Mantenians.

Afterwards, I went back home to fix my new blisters from playing in the wrong shoes. I am going to pick up a pair of shoes for these hard cement surfaces the street kids play on to keep up my skills.

The plan for tomorrow is to go surfing.