We had decided the night before that we wanted to head south to the coast. There was a language school with a medical spanish program Becca wanted to do lessons with. My spanish has been coming along really well the last few days, so I thought that while she was taking spanish lessons I could take surf lessons. So we left our hostel in Quito around 9 am.
We decided to save a few bucks and walk to the bus station in old town (Lonely planet showed it was about a mile away, and we would be stuck sitting in a bus for 12 hours and wanted to stretch our legs). After about an hour and a half of wandering, backtracking and asking for directions we realized the bus station was no more, and the bus we wanted to catch was in the very south part of Quito. So we hopped on the metro and got to the bus station about 11:30 and bought a ticket to Guayaquil. Information given from Quito bus station: 8 hours to Guayaquil, from Guayaquil a 2hour direct bus to Montañita.
Bus #1: closer to a 9 hour ride, two movies were shown. This was probably one of the worse experiences I have had. The first was Little Man. Under no circumstances should anyone ever be subjected to this movie. I am not sure wether it was the windy road or the movie that made me naseaus. Movie number two was Wrong Turn 2: Dead End. This time it was definitely the movie that made me naseaus. There was absolutely no chance of sleeping after that, so Becca and I finished out the bus ride envisioning grotesquely deformed people cutting apart teenagers while listening to disco party music the bus was playing.
Highlight of the day: The dinner stop. A huge almuerzo with with fried carne, rice, beets, lentils and orange juice for only 2.50.
Arriving in Guayaquil. We arrived aroun 9pm and the bus decided not to drop us off at the bus terminal, but across the highway instead. We were immediatly shuttled to a dark corner with a group of people going to Montañita. The guy told us the line to get to Montañita was too long and we would probably not be able to leave until the morning. We were herded into a dark parking lot and it was just a lot of people piling in vans. Nobody seemed to have any luggage. I asked a young Argentine couple what exactly was going on and they said the line to Montañita was very long and this might be faster. It was illegal, and vans (mini van size) were cramming about 15-20 people. They said they were a little scared but hoped for the best. Becca and I decided to walk across the highway to the bus terminal.
Bus #2: Guayaquil to Santa Elena.
We were able to get on the next bus to Santa Elena. They told us from there a bus left every 7 minutes to Montañita. On the bus we met a cute Peruvian surfer, Ito. At what we assume was Santa Elena we were dropped off on a street corner somewhere. It was about 11pm and the only people around were driving a van to Montañita. We stuck with Ito and got in the van. I asked Becca the difference between this van and the one before, and she explained that there were families in this van (which was true) so it was probably safer. I am not sure I agree with the logic, but they weren´t as pushy and we ended up making it. About 15 minutes from Montañita we were pulled over by the cops and the girl next to Becca rushed to hide her giant bag of weed, but that was the only speedbump.
Got into Montañita around 12 am. We found Adam, Becca´s friend from home, and got a camping spot. Then, in need of a strong drink after our big day we went out and salsa danced until 4 am.
Since that day we have been learning to surf (we met cool Brit who has been nice enough to take us out and hook us up with boards). Becca is surfing well, I´m nosediving well. Saltwater has been pouring out of my nose all day.