Mompiche Beach

It is definitely high on my list of beach towns I love in Ecuador. Before coming I heard that you should come here only if you love Argentinian hippies and Mosquito's. There are certainly a lot of Argentinians who may or may not be hippies, not that matters either way as they all seem lovely. For the Mosquito's, I have seen very few, instead I see an amazing fishing village with a beautiful beach, lovely people, and yummy seafood fresh off the boats.

We have now woken up to another day of exploring, we may even go to a nearby island, good times!

Change of Plan

Well I must be getting sensible in my middle years, this morning I am sipping coffee (this in itself is unusual) in Ecuador when I should be in Colombia. However, Luis and myself postponed our trip due to a little over spending this summer (old Amanda would never do this, or should I say young Amanda). Instead we hit the road and I am now in one of the last beach resorts that I wanted to hit, Mompiche. Canoa is still top, but must say this so far is a very close second and we have only been here one night. The town is very 'chill' and I love the bamboo hostels and the long empty beach (very different from Atacames which was packed by 8am). Looking forward to a relaxing four day last beach holiday before school resumes next week.

Pichincha, Quito

With only a handful of Karen hours left and a beautiful sunny day we decided to do something I have wanted to since arriving, go up Pichincha.  Pichincha volcano is what I wake up to every morning and sit and look at on my veranda almost every evening.  It has magnificent views of the entire city (well so I had heard) and Luis always goes on about how we should go, but we never manage it.  Well yesterday coupled with my desire to be the best hostess ever we finally made it up.  We took the cable car up and then hiked around taking in the views and of course some pictures.

 Beautiful views

 We made it past this, but last screen shot of our altitude

It makes me giggle at the airport and up places this high, that people just do not realise high altitudes are cold.  When I arrived from Miami last month at 11pm, loads were wearing t-shirts and shorts and looked generally shocked when everyone in arrivals were in huge coats.  Same here, Quito was beautiful yesterday but this is 1000m's higher, some people were just not prepared. We were.
I never realised how huge Quito is, East to West not big at all.  I can see right across to the other side, 20 minute drive.  But North to South it is massive, I could not believe how much bigger the city is then I thought.  I really in truly have only seen 15% of this city.

Road Trip Ecuador 2015

Took us from the airport straight to Banos, the entrance to the Rain Forest. We next had a one night stop in Quito before heading to beautiful Mindo. We love Mindo, if you are visiting Quito it is a must under a two hour trip and just so lovely and different then the city.
Then we made the trek to Canoa, again a place we both loved. I have been to almost every big resort area and this is by far my favourite.  Cute town, full of lovely restaurants and a great beach. Suki bar is my favourite, so if you visit, you must check it out.
Our finally stop Atacames, totally not what I expected, but I really liked it. The beach is huge and definitely lots of dancing going on.  The food was fabulous and at no point did I ever feel unsafe.  The place we stayed was really nice too, Casa el Morro, off the beaten track and just a nice place to be. We have now headed back to Quito where I preparing our first meal with veggies since we left!
A great trip and I am so sad it went by so quickly! Love my Kanda time!

Atacames, Esmeraldas

The next stop in our road trip has brought us to Atacames, Esmeraldas, this may surprise some as it is meant to be the more dangerous town in the region (it is next door to Tonsupa, where I was robbed). But I want to see all the beach resorts, and trying to conquer my fears, and it helps Luis has joined us for the last leg. So far so good, beach is huge and nice, they have some great beach bars and a very lively atmosphere. In fact, I can say I am pleasantly surprised.

Us and Hap, our new best buddy who we drove up the coast from Canoa. Properly one of the nicest men I have met.

Canoa Fun

My favourite beach (so far) is definitely Canoa, so of course that had to be part of our road trip. We have spent three fabulous sun filled days here. It really is such a great town, not too big but not too small. An active weekend nightlife, suspect it slows down during the week, the food is delicious and everyone super helpful and friendly. We stayed in the same place I did last time I was here, and people all remembered me (well actually Lola to be fair) which is very nice.

Canoa has yet again not disappointed me and I shall return!
Tomorrow we head to the next beach on our road trip, Atacames.

Mindo Madness

I love Mindo!! Like properly! I think (besides beach), it is my favourite place in Ecuador, in fact I know it is. We had a fabulous time there and I will post pictures once our road trip is over, as stupid app is not working properly!
We are now in Canoa enjoying beautiful sunshine, yummy food and probably too much rum!
10 days later..
I have finally got my pictures to post! Yippee!

I think I have bigged up Mindo enough on this blog, but really is a must see.  A must eat there is a chocolate brownie from the small chocolate manufacturer in Mindo.  You can do a tour of the process, but I only would if really into how chocolate is made (I was not impressed).  However, the brownie is the best I have ever had!