Since the trip was almost coming to an end now, I needed to load up on some sunshine and beach time and Montañita is a great place for both. Although I had been warned by some that the weather there wasn’t so great this time of year and that it’s full of hippies, stoners and surfers but that was quite far from the truth. Sure there are more hippies (mainly Argentineans) here than your average south american town, but with the hippies come affordable accommodation prices, free beach parties AND most importantly baked empanadas, like they do in Argentina. They are also the reason this was the high season in Montanita, not because of of the surfers but because of the argentinian tourists, who have a break this time of year and flood the town for tourism and business, selling their empanadas and grilling on the streets. For those who don’t know them, empanadas are savory pastry pockets filled with whatever you want, cheese, tomatoes, tuna, meat, chicken, etc… and usually in Colombia and most of Ecuador they are fried, but the Argentineans bake them, which is probably a lot healthier and in my opinion much much tastier.

The Pacific in Montañita wasn’t as warm as in Santa Catalina (Panama) but it was still very refreshing underneath the ecuadorian sun. It was also a great spot for surfers, who fill the town all year long and can be spotted early in the mornings on the breakfast strip. The strip is a small pedestrian street leading to the beach, which is lined with stalls selling breakfast in the mornings and cocktails at night. It’s amazing how the same spot can change so much from the quiet morning breakfast to the loud and crazy nightlife.

I decided to take two day trips out of Montañita, the first one to a national park called Los Frailes. It’s a protectorate with a small hiking trail that stops at three beautiful and secluded beaches. It was definitely worth the 30 minute ride along the coast.

The second trip was to the Isla de la Plata aka Poor man’s Galapagos. And if your’re reading this post for the aformentioned boobies, this is where you need to go. The boat tour started in a small fishing town called Puerto Lopez and the tour guide took us to see sea turtles before making our way to the Isla de la Plata. This island is home to loads of Frigatebirds and the popular boobies; blue footed, red footed and nazca. The booby kind of looks like a duck from far but it’s very different and somewhat fragile. The babies are born with white feet, which turn to blue or red as they grow older. Afterwards, we had a chance to snorkel around the island a little. If you go at the right time of year, the trip would also include whale watching, but it wasn’t the right time for us. Apparently, the vegetation (which isn’t much) and wildlife on the Isla de la Plata is 80% of that, which can be found on the famous Galapagos islands. However, I have a feeling that the Galapagos are still probably so much more impressive, albeit extremely expensive (around 1000 USD per week).

Besides Nico, the hostel owner, who turned into a xenophobe / homophobe when he was drunk, I had a great time here in Montañita and met some cool new people, including the second Egyptian on this trip! I would definitely recommend it.

It’s very common in South America for vendors to jump on the bus and sell their goods… This time I was sitting behind the driver and discovered that the vendors always offer the driver a free product as a thank you, even if they didn’t manage to sell anything on the bus.

Beautiful Montañita weather!

So much space here on the beach (feeling free).

The only thing better than the views in Los Frailes protectorate…

… are the almost private beaches…

… with a few people to the left…

… and almost no one to the right.

The main church and Whale fountain in Puerto Lopez’s main square.

Puerto Lopez is a typical ecuadorian fishing town.

And these guys know it!

Sharing is caring!

Where do you think you’re going?

Give it up, we have you surrounded!

This fishing boat was feeding the sea turtles watermelon peelings and they seemed to love it.

Sea turtles are definitely my favorite under water creatures.

The fishing boat with Isla de la Plata in the background.

This was a Nazca Booby (dark feet and orange beak.

The island also featured fantastic views!

A blue footed Booby couple.

What are you looking at?

Bird’s eye view 😛

Here you can see a mother with her baby. Notice the difference in colors.

There were A LOT of Frigatebirds. If you’re in to birds, you will love it on this island.

You don’t even need to snorkel to enjoy the show.

There were a few games to catch back in town…

… and on the shores.

Including a game of Ecua-volley!

Not a bad way to end a hard day’s work.

I was really impressed by Ecuador and can highly recommend it. Unfortunately I only have two more stops before flying back home and those are back in Colombia.