Ecuador: Curia Town - The Coast

I just realized that I never finished blogging about our trip to South America that we took back in December/January. Now that eight months have gone by maybe I'll finish :-) From the mountains of Banos we headed to the coast...it was time for Brian to surf and for me to relax!

We knew some folks who had lived in Ecuador for a while, so they gave us the recommendation to stay with a friend of theirs who rented out rooms from his house on the water. It was a great spot where we ended up spending a week and made friends with a group of Argentenians who were staying there as well.

And here are some more friends we made...Helmet and his twin daughters are from Germany. The girls had just finished a few months of studying in Quito, so he flew out to do some traveling with them...they were a great family!

This was the view from our room...

One of the great things about staying at Dicky and Susie's was that they had boards...yay! If we didn't go anywhere for the day Brian was still able to surf out front; even though the waves weren't the best there, they were still surfable. I was even able to try short boarding for the first time....and I got up! It was heaps of fun until the fin decided to come crashing down on the back of my arm, which gave me the biggest bruise I have ever had....

Here is a day that we went searching for waves....and we played, "how many people can you fit in one truck?" I think there were 12 of us...it was pretty impressive.

Aaaaaaaand we got stuck on the way out.

Besides surfing, our other activities included:

Crab Catching


Relaxing

And LOTS of Eating!

Pan fried fish with fried plantains


Fish and shrimp ceviche with fried plantains...AMAZING!


Breaded fish...these plates were about $2.50 and they were SO good!


Corviche. Some sort of dough that had peanut butter in it then stuffed with squid and fried...it was yummy!


Fried shrimp


Yes, that is the "restaurant" right behind me :-)


Mora (blackberry) popsicles. These things were out of control! They also had chocolate and coconut ones that came in a close second place. We eat lots of ice cream (whatever form it comes in) when we travel, it's just what we do!

There were a few nights that we all ate together and the Argentinians bar-b-que'd for us in traditional Argentenian style. They even treated us to a delicacy....any guesses??? Cow salivary glands! Yes, we ate them, and yes, they were strange. They were kinda sticky and chewy but with somewhat of a meaty texture. I don't think I'll eat one ever again....

One of the craziest nights we had in Ecuador was New Year's Eve in Montanita (a 10 minute drive from Curia). Unfortunately I don't have any photos from the night, but to give you a picture of what it was like: thousands and thousands of people (mainly young people) flock to Montanita for the New Year's celebration where, at midnight, they burn massive "puppets" on the beach, then a bunch of drunk idiots run through the fires. We saw a guy rolling in the waves because he caught on fire...don't worry, he was fine. There were tons of people night surfing, lots of music, and dancing in the streets. By far the craziest New Year's celebration we have ever been a part of!

The trip is almost over...I'll fill you in on our next destination soon....