Montañita-planes trains and automobiles

The title acutually should be buses, taxis and automobiles-
but you'll understand that later....

so it has been a week since I returned from my trip to Montañita. but i promise you my memories of this trip are anything but dull. I will do my best to re-tell my adventure but i might be a little bitter ,considering now, i am still paying for the lack of sleep i got on the trip due to the fact that i am fighting a bad sore throat and for the first time in my life, pink eye. Genial (great). But the trip for lack of any better words was a learning experience. And the first lesson I learned that I can tell you is whenever people say "getting there is half the fun"-they are lying. needless to say i am glad i waited a week to write this because if I hadn't told my mom and let her digest it-she might have had a heart attack reading this : ) (love you mom)

Thurs (Jan. 21): I have spent 3 weeks in ecuador already and my friends and I-sarah, molly and and whoever else wanted to join, are pumped in our ecuadorian culture class and we are having a hard time paying attention to anything else than our list of what to pack. Ecuadorian culture was my last class-and after that I would go home pack my sunblock, shorts, and swimsuite and head west to the pacific coast to Montonita. It would be our first solo excursion-and what better choice than to a beach in the middle of january???!! Sounds great-sun, sand, the ocean?? I didn't mention that it was 12 hours away....

THursday 6pm: me and sarah walked to meet molly and charolette (the only one who didn't bail at the last minute) at the entrance of the university where we would then go to supermaxi the local grocery store to buy snacks for the road. It was off to a great start when i saw sarah who had a HUGE-no GIGANTIC is a better word- hikers backpack thrown over her shoulder like she was going camping in the andes for weeks. And i wasn't much better since I did not bring a backpack to ecuador-i was wheeling around my carry on from the plane. Needless to say the last place it looked like we were going was the beach for a weekend.
630pm: we stopped at mcdonalds (for the first time) and got a cheese burger to go and at supermaxi i bought a bottle of water, animal crackers, and gummi lifesavers for the road lol From there we got on our first bus....the first of many as I would soon understand

We then took the verde (green) bus to the ria coca station in Quito, where we then took a taxi to get to the north station, where we then took a trolley ride- got off at the wrong stop-so took another trolley ride to get to the south station in Quito......this is when it finally sunk in and molly said, "wow guys I guess I really didn't really wrap my head around the idea of 12 HOURS...i mean i know how long it is...but i really didn't comprehend how long its going to be on a bus...."

9:00 we managed to buy tickets ($8) for our bus ride to Guayaquil (8 hours), where we we then take a bus to Montonita.
9:30- our bus left. And our bus was packed. Kids as young as 2 were sitting on their parents laps. And it was HOT-more like humid and our windows wouldn't open...so everyone was sweating buckets. Oh and there was a cage with two puppies in it right in back of me too lovely.
1am Friday: We make a bathroom spot in the single most shady spot I have ever seen in my life. No joke. And to top it off there was no toilet paper.
Back on the bus it starts to rain- the further west we get-and i am not exagerating at all-my sleep is interupted my drops of rain on my head because the roof is leaking....
2ish AM Friday- Our bus stops in the middle of nowhere and next thing you know police-dressed up like the military-are telling everyone off the bus and to bring their purses with them. They didn't really check our purses but more just checked everyone's id's and passports-and THAT is why you always carry a copy of your passport
3:20AM: Our bus breaks down. I repeat our freakin bus breaks down. In the middle of nowhere. In the middle of the night. In ecuador. At this point there really are no words. And you think that the bus driver might come back and tell the passengers, "Hey. Sorry we're having technical difficulties and we're doing our best to fix it, but in the meantime another bus is on the way......" NAh. They never said anything. All I knew was a bunch of male passengers got off the bus obviously to try and "help" fix the bus. And all I heard was countless attemps of the engine trying to start.....no luck. We waited for about 2 hours until another bus came and we were hurried off the bus. It is a miracle our luggage made the transition with us....
7or8AM i can't remember: We made it!!!! Not to our final destination but atleast to Guayaquil.....made some phone calls, got a drink, and went to the bathroom before buying our tickets and finding our way around to get to our next bus that would hopefully take us to the beach.......
It actually was TWO more buses that got us there....and one of them I wouldn't call a bus...more like a rusty trolley...idk something with wheels and an engine that resmbled i vehicle that might have one day been a bus....but regardless of how....we got there. We arrived in Montonita at 11:30am on Friday after 8 means of transportation and I don't like to even count the hours....

Anyways...the story gets better-and worse : ) I'll have to write the rest of our adventure in my next post tomorrow I need to get to bed because my throat is killing me and unfortunately I have class tomorrow.......
xoxo