Montanita part 2

Well, while I lose momentum I had better start with the second half of my Montanita story.

Firstly, let me just say that I am sitting on the deck of my hostel (Izchayluma - it is AMAZING, if you ever come here you must stay at this hostel) in Vilcabamba. Lonely Planet was not lying when it said the restaurant deck has the best views in town. We are staying in a gorgeous cabin-esque room with outdoor-style shower made out of stones all for $14 a night (including buffet breakfast). 'We' is Geoffrey and I. I will explain later in this post...

So, where was I?

That's right, I decided to stay in Montanita longer than expected. I can't really explain why but I just felt a really strong urge to stay, or more likely, a strong dread at the thought of leaving.

So, after making my decision, I decided to go out for dinner with all of the other students. As I had been having private classes and when I wasn't at class I was hanging out with Bree, I had kind of stuck to myself somewhat. But as I had decided to stay another week, I thought it was time to start being a bit more social. Bree had also left so it was a good opportunity for me to get off my antisocial ass and get to know some of the other students.

At dinner I was next to and opposite two Swedes called Cecelia and Bjorn. As most of you know, I have a slight obsession for all things Swedish so had a good chat to them both about living in Stockholm and about Swedish bands that I like. I had also noticed another guy hanging around with them who looked very Scandinavian and kind of kept to himself (even though Cecelia came right up and sat down next to me and introduced herself while I was waiting for my teacher one day) so I assumed he was another timid Scandinavian or Northern European. However, on the way from the restaurant to the bar I started chatting to him. Which, as an aside, wasn't exactly a bar. More like a shack on Montanita's infamous 'cocktail alley'. Which is exactly what it sounds like.

So anyway, turns out he is from Portland, Oregon and, like me, is a bit of a Swedophile. He met Cecelia the year before traveling in Nepal and they had decided to meet up again in South America. We got on really well immeditely, talking about music, books, travel, politics and much more. Geoffrey is one of the couple of Northern Americans I have encountered on this trip who are rather apathetic towards their home country, especially concerning politics. He actually spends 6 months of every year traveling - spending the other 6 months working in Northern California as a 'bombero de montana' or mountain fire fighter.

So I was pleased to find out that the next week Bjorn and Geoffrey and I would all be in the same class. The week generally progressed like this: 7:30 wake up; 8:00am class - fight over who would make coffee; 10am go to Tiki Limbo (local cafe that randomly played the Black Seeds, Fat Freddy's Drop and Katchafire every single morning despite the fact that I couldn't spot a single kiwi in the place) for Huevos Rancheros, freshly squeezed watermelon juice and coffee; 11am chill poolside; 12:50pm go to one of the juice vendors on the street and order a smoothie or a juice; 1pm class; 3pm internet or chill poolside; 5-7pm surfing under the sunset; 8pm dinner at one of the many awesome restaurants in Montanita; 9:30pm pina colada on cocktail alley. Let's just say it was a very relaxed and happy existence.

Needless to say Bjorn, Geoffrey and I soon became a bit of a trio - spending nearly all of our time together - in and out of class. Bjorn was the class clown, causing me to errupt into hysterical laughter many times during class - usually as a result of being rather sleep deprived due to the party atmosphere of Montanita. The all-female teaching faculty soon became smitten with him and started referring to him as El Oso (the Bear - which is the direct translation of Bjorn). This progressed to El Oso Peligroso (the Dangerous Bear), El Oso Perizoso (the Lazy Bear) and El Oso Mentizoso (the Lying Bear).

However I suspect we also obtained a slight reputation for being snobby. Sometimes we preferred to hang out just us three (and occassionaly Grant - an amiable Aussie guy who started tagging along on our daily breakfasts and dinners) than in the big mob of students that went out together every night. I also suspect that some of the teachers began to dislike me for this reason and also because both Bjorn and Geoffrey received an extreme amount of attention from all of the local gringo-hunters (I will explain this term later...) and I was constantly with both of them. One of my teachers even was quite openly rude to me (in my private class the next week) and would often question me about my relationship with both of them during class.

Probably my only negative comment about Montanita is the 'gringo-hunter' culture. Walking around the village both the boys and I would receive numerous looks and wolf-whistles from the local guys and girls. The local guys were mainly surfers and I think it is safe to assume that they live a pretty blissful existence for guys in their late teens and 20s - surfing during the day and picking up different Western girls every weekend. The girls weren't much better I'm afraid, with many openly coming on to Bjorn and Geoffrey in very public situations. It probably didn't help that both Bjorn and Geoffrey look fair and Scandinavian (Geoffrey's Mum is Norwegian), very exotic! Especially compared to me who could nearly pass for South American...

I was meant to leave at the end of the second week but early on in the week Geoffrey, Bjorn and I all decided to stay on as we wanted to continue with our Spanish and we were all having so much fun. The third week continued much as the second had, except for the fact that Geoffrey and I opted for private classes instead of group. I much preferred group classes due to one of my teachers being extremely unprofessional as described above and group classes were obviously much more fun and involved a lot more hysterical bouts of laughter (usually at Bjorn's expense).

I also made another decision - to continue to go South instead of North to Colombia. Geoffrey was off to Peru and the advantages of traveling with a companion outweighed my desire to go to Colombia. I also really wanted to go to Vilcabamba in Southern Ecuador. Coincidentally Bjorn was also meant to go to Colombia before meeting up with Geoffrey in Peru, however he decided to go to Galapogos as he didn't have enough time to fit in enough of Colombia. So the trio will be reunited in some rather extreme circumstances - Bjorn told Geoffrey and I about this Shamanic Healing Centre in Iquitos, Peru. It is the biggest city in the world inaccessible by road and is right in the jungle in the East of Peru. So, on April 3 Geoffrey and I are flying in to Iquitos and meeting Bjorn at the Shamanic Healing Centre for a few days for a spiritual journey of sorts. Watch this space... hopefully I don't turn into a South American hippie selling jewellery on the side of the road.

So, with an extremely heavy heart and an EXTREMELY sore head (due to blowing out somewhat on our last night in Montanita... it had to be done) we boarded the 10am bus for Guayaquil (Ecuador's biggest city) and farewelled our beloved Montanita. I managed to talk Geoffrey into going to Quito with me to pick up my bags (as I had originally only meant to leave Quito for 1.5 weeks but it ended up being 3.5 weeks... I only had a small backpack with me the entire time - I had to buy two dresses in Montanita as I became so sick of my limited wardrobe!).

Quito was pretty crap and very depressing after coming from Montantia. Although it was much nicer traveling with a male companion - I didn't get the usual whistles and threatening comments as I had on my previous two visits. We ended up staying two nights as we were so exhausted from the long bus journey and then we set off for Vilcabamba! But I will save that for another blog as this one is getting mighty long...

Until next time dear readers. Sorry for the haphazard nature of this blog (although you should be used to this by now...).