Mompiche

We're home, finally! And we had an absolutely fantastic time at the beach. This trip was much different than our first trip to the beach (Puerto Lopez back in June with my mom and brother). This time it was just the two of us. We went to Mompiche, which is essentially directly west of Quito, but of course there isn't a road that goes directly west. Mompiche is a popular beach amongst Quitenos and foreigners alike. It's super laid back and relaxed but there's enough infrastructure to keep things moving! Anyways... here's a run down of the trip.

We left our apartment on Saturday morning around 10 or so. We had gotten up pretty early but we still hadn't packed or finished cleaning up. We got on the ecovia and then on the trole and in about an hour and a half we were at Quitumbe, the main bus terminal in the south. Usually this only takes an hour but our trole bus broke down in the middle of the road and so they had to send another one. Everyone had to get off, wait on the side of the road (actually it was a bridge, now that I think of it) and then board this new trolebus. Anyways, we finally got there along with the rest of Quito. Seriously there were so many people at the bus station! Suprisingly, we didn't have a problem getting bus tickets. Ryan waited on the outskirts of the throngs of people and I pushed my way up to a counter, bought our tickets and then we ate lunch. Our bus was scheduled to leave at 1pm, which we were both so suprised that we weren't going to have to wait for hours and hours, seeing that it was about 11:30 when we arrived. We ate lunch (rice and chicken for me and seco de guatita for Ryan) and then went outside to try and find where our bus was. Luckily we were being pretty observant because our bus didn't come to its assigned terminal but instead one of the completely other side of the station. We boarded, got settled in (we had seats one and two so we had enough-ish room for our packs with us) and then the bus left somewhere between 1:30 and 2. We finally got into Pedernales (not our final destination) around 8:30. We asked around at the bus station about a bus to Mompiche but were informed that there weren't any more buses that night and we'd have to stay the night in Pedernales and take the early (6am) bus to Mompiche tomorrow. So we found a hostel right by the terminal that was full... We told the guy at the front desk that we only needed a place to sleep and that we were going to Mompiche at 6am tomorrow morning. We ended up sleeping in his room at the hostel, with all of his stuff and our stuff cramped into this tiny, tiny room made of paper thin walls! It was strange. Let's leave it at that.

We got up early and go the heck out of there. We were on the 6:30 bus to Mompiche (or so we though). Actually it was the 6:30 bus to Chamanga and then we had to wait a hlaf hour for the 8am bus from Chamanga to the entrance to Mompiche (think road leading off the main highway). Then we hitched a ride with a water truck into Mompiche (where Ryan left his flip flops). By 10am we had set up our tent and we're drinking fresh fruit juices and walking on the beach! It was quite a travel process but oh so worth it.

We spent all day Sunday, Monday and part of Tuesday walking on the beach, swimming in the ocean, eating seafood, napping in hammocks, drinking fresh fruit juice, watching the sunset and just relaxing. It. was. heaven!

We left Mompiche at 1pm on Tuesday afternoon on a bus back to the entrance to Mompiche, got off that bus, waited on the side of the highway for the bus to Chamanga, got on that bus, got off that bus on the side of the highway when the bus to Pedernales passed, and arrived in Pedernales around 4.

We killed time in Pedernales by eating, walking on the beach, watching another sunset, checking emails, and just general sitting around until 11pm when our bus came. Our bus was then checked by the police, which involves everyone getting back off the bus, bags being searched and each person being frisked! We left Pedernales around midnight and arrived at Quitumbe around 4am. We hopped on the trolebus and then in a cab. We walked into our apartment around 5:45am, gave Grant the biggest thank you we could muster and promptly crashed.

I got up around noon and finally showered with shampoo and soap! (Note to self: always bring shampoo to the beach. 4 days of salt water and no shampoo just isn't pretty). I made a pot of coffee and have been trying the catch up with the world since. I've got two classes to teach this afternoon and then I plan on coming back and watching a movie and going to bed early! Hopefully there will be some eating involved in there somewhere!

More photos to come, don't worry! But here's just one of the sunset on the first night!

Can I go back, right now please?