Montanita: Week One

For starters, this past week in Montanita has been EXTREMELY busy! Spanish class has been great, but extremely tiring. I decided for next week I would take some private classes to fill in some of the gaps in my learning. I tried surfing again this week and although the waves here are for advanced learners, I have been having fun trying to do something new and extremely different.

I have noticed that because this is such a small town and you see the same people over and over again my comfort in speaking Spanish is different. When we were in Banos and Guayaquil I knew I was never going to see anyone again, but here I am much more shy when speaking because fI see the same people over and over.

Montanita is one of the most eclectic places I have ever been to. There are people from all over the world that come here for many different things, but most of the people are from South America. So, it’s been very interesting meeting people from all over South America, getting to hear their different Spanish accents, hearing their political views and also seeing the similarities they all share.

Yesterday was by far, the most exciting day I have had here. First thing in the morning we took a bus to Puerto Lopez from there we went on a whale watch that later took us to isla de plata, which translates to Silver Island or Island of Silver. This is also known as the “Poor Man’s Galapagos.” On the whale watch, which was my very first, we saw so many whales. It was amazing. The hike around the island was definitely good exercise, but unfortunately we are in the winter season here so everything was pretty dry and it was very overcast and a bit chilly. We took the boat back to Puerto Lopez and I bought an oil and some incense known as palosanto. It is made from a tree on the island and in the jungle that is known to be therapeutic and also keep away insects. The only downer on the trip was arriving to the port to see huge shark fins being sold on the beach. I was unaware of this, but like in Asia, fisherman shark hunt and take the fins from the sharks and throw the shark back in the water to die. It’s a hard concept to grasp when this country has so many starving people, and animals. One of the hardest things for me here is all the stray dogs. There are more dogs here than in the Dominican Republic and these dogs are also EXTREMELY loving. Basically I feel like the dog whisperer when I walk down the street because all the dogs are staring to realize I am a total sucker and will give them my leftover food. This past Friday night I found a kitten at our hostel, probably only about 4 weeks old. It had a bracelet around it and one of the girls here, Julia, thought it belonged to an artisan downtown. So we walked the kitten downtown, gave it back to the owner and within three hours the kitten was back at the hostel; they had purposefully abandoned it.  So for the past few days it has stayed at the hostel and I have been feeding it. The good news is that I was able to find a home for her!! One of the best surfers in town happens to like cats and he was sold right when he saw her! Thank you Carlos!!! I will definitely take a picture of her the next time I see her!

Not doing too much today. It’s a rainy day so I am going to catch up on homework and sleep because come tomorrow I have another busy week!

Isla de Plata