Oh, the Places We'll Go

I think it was lucky that we were headed to the beach when our stuff got stolen, because though I was bummed to have been the victim of theft, we were thankfully in a relaxing, beautiful environment to get our minds off the frustration.

Courtney, a friend of mine from my triathlon training group in Boulder, is currently living with her husband Jed in Montañita, Ecuador for several months. Courtney and Jed are also on a bit of one-year sabbatical themselves posting up for three months at a time in four different locations around the globe. They were conveniently in Ecuador where we were and they were nice enough to invite us to visit.

They´ve got a great pad within blocks of the down-town area and the beach. Montañita is a tiny little town that caters to tourists – both local and not-so local. There are lots of different languages being spoken, lots of fruity cocktails to drink and lots of dreadlocks. Though very different than the rest of our Ecuador experience, I have to say that it was quite a treat – almost like a vacation from a vacation.

We ate delicious and inexpensive seafood every night. Courtney and Jed got us out on surf boards and shared some tips. We enjoyed several of the fancy drinks they make there with our favorite being the hard to pronounce capiroska (vodka, sugar, lime juice and limes). They make a similar drink with sugarcane alcohol but Courtney recommended the vodka version!

Ted and I were also lucky enough to take a whale watching tour. We were told that we were nearing the end of the season so it might be hard to find the whales. Also, if we did find them they might not be breeching or as exciting as they are in July and August when they are trying to attract mates. However, we not only saw LOTS of whale, we saw them close up, we saw them far away, we saw them jumping, the whole works!

A huge thank you to Courtney and Jed for their hospitality! I should also thank Courtney for her help with the police report because her Spanish is fantastic and came in SUPER handy.  It was such a treat to visit your little paradise and I hope we can rendez-vous again with you on your next stop in Argentina!

Venga pescado!  Venga pescado!  Yup, that’s right, this truck is driving around selling fish.  Direct to your door (or just passing you walking down the street).  There is a megaphone on top of the truck, a cooler in the back, and all the trucha (trout, farm raised) that you could possibly want.

This one has a bit larger variety.  He’s got fruit, snack food, soda, and…fish!  These guys drive around rural villages, blaring their inventory over the megaphone.  Considering most people have to travel 1-4 hours by bus to make it to the local market to purchase food, it’s a pretty brilliant business model.  I continue to be impressed by the entrepreneurship of the Ecuadorians.

There is nothing better than the sound of a blender in the morning. A blender sound means that you get to drink fresh fruit juice (jugo) for breakfast. The fun part is you don’t know what kind of juice you’re going to get. It could be pineapple juice, or blackberry juice, or strawberry juice, or guava juice, or raspberry juice,  or passionfruit juice, or even a tree tomato juice (it’s in the tomato family but doesn’t taste like tomato – it’s much sweeter). I haven’t had an orange juice yet!

A fun compliment to the jugo is to add milk. It then become more rich and smoothie-like and is then known as a batido.

Either way, we love them and look forward to see what we get to drink every morning.