Montanita, Ecuador - Party Central

Ever since we arrived in Ecuador, everyone has been telling us you need to visit Montanita - the big party place in Ecuador. I promised Trevor we would visit before leaving Ecuador, so the plan coming back from Colombia was to head down the coast to hit the beaches and Montanita.

Waiting for them to fix the bus

There are no direct buses to Motanita from northern Ecuador so  we spent 13 hours on a bus to get to the coastal town of Manta. We ended up staying in Manta for the night before taking another 3.5 hour bus ride to Montanita. By this point we have taken a ton of buses and were impressed that none of them had broken down on us yet. Well the time finally came and about an hour after leaving Manta we just saw a pile of smoke coming from the front of the bus. The bus pull over and we all piled out while we waited to see if they could fix the problem. Apparently they couldn't but it wasn't a big deal because within half an hour another bus come along and we just piled into that one. That is one think I like about long buses here - they run so regularly that you don't need to worry about arriving at the bus station for a specific time.

Montanita

Our arrival

The drive along the coast was absolutely beautiful and we were really happy we decided on this route instead of going down to Guayaquil then Montanita. As soon as we hit Montanita you could tell it was the place we were suppose to get off at. The town itself is really tiny with three main streets that are about 5 blocks long but surrending  by hundred of hostels. 

We didn't have any reservation and thankfully had arrived on a Monday, the quitest day in Montanita (everyone usually leaves after the weekend). Our plan was to stay for a week and this worked to our advantage. The prices usually skyrockets on weekend (plus it was Carnival) but because we were arriving early and staying longer we got a better rate for the upcoming weekend and Carnival.

 A stand along cocktail alley

For those that don't know what Montanita it - it's pretty much a party beach town. At night everyone usually starts drinking along cocktail alley which are all these little stands that make anything drink you can think of and use real fruit to make them. The one thing about drinking in Ecuador is they are NOT stingy with the alcohol at all. I don't think I have ever been served a mixed drink in this country that wasn't at least half booze and cocktail alley is no exception. You pay $2.50 for a large freshly made daiquiri loaded with alcohol but if you decide you want more alcohol, you just lift up your cup and they add another shot in for FREE and you can do this as many times as you want, until your drink is done.

Beach party

After people have had there fill at cocktail alley they usually head over to the beach where groups of people sit around with friends (drinking more or smoking weed) or head into one of the clubs. The bars in Montanita don't close until around 5am and people are pretty much out all night long. Often heading back to their hostel around 5/6am and continuing to party a bit more at the hostel before heading to bed around 7am. Most people seem to sleep the morning away, then wake up to spend the afternoon at the beach before starting it all over again at night.

Marjuana is everywhere here too. It's technically illegal in Ecuador but in Montanita it appears to be openly allowed. You  would get constantly asked if you want some and saw people smoking it everyone.  "Special" brownies were also sold all over the place, at night.

Pepto Bismol & Beer

When we first arrived in Montanita after finding a place to stay, we grabbed some food. And of course we hit the tourist trap featuring North American food. Trevor went for a hamburger and fries while I had pasta. Only problem was a couple hours later Trevor was throwing up (and no he hadn't drank any acholal). Turns out he had gotten food poisoining and spend the entire night throwing up. By the morning his stomach was empty and he had finally stopped vomitting. I hit the pharmacy to buy him some drugs and water. And after a Google search, told him to rest, drink fluids, no solids and no dairy. I then left him to get some sleep while I hit the beach for a bit. When I came back from the beach I found him in a hammack at the hostel and that he had eaten a huge back of Ruffles chips and  ice cream...needless to say a couple hours later he was throwing up again :S.

Thankfully the next morning he was starting to feeling better and we were able to hit the beach, we rented a boogie board which was a ton of fun. The waves are huge in Montanita and great for surfing (not so much for beginners though).

Just as Trevor was starting to feel better, I started to get sick and ended up spending the night throwing up. So my next day was then spent hanging out in the hostel while Trevor hit the beach. So our first couple of nights in Montanita were very tame, to say the least. Trevor however was eager to experience a night out so while I rested he headed out for a night on the town with the Chilean girls from our hostel. One of our friends from Quito ran into him with all the girls and said he looked like a pimp, surrounded by all the girls.

Packed Beach

The next day we did the same beach bum thing but one thing we noticed was the closer it got to the weekend the more packed it would get. The number of people almost doubled each day leading up to the weekend. We heard that on the weekends everyone in Ecuador just heads down to the coast so there can easily be 40K people in Montanita on a weekend. Which is a lot for such a tiny town but does explain why they have so many hostels.

Everyone we met in Montanita however  was a tourist from another countries. Our hostel (which was fully booked by the weekend) was filled with Chileans and Colombians. It was actually really great because we  made friends with them all and gained the most exposure to their culture through a week of hanging out with them. I have been so impressed by how friendly all the different people we have met from Latin America are. In the jungle we met a bunch of Argentian families who all gave us their email addresses and asked us to contact them when we come, to show us around or even stay with them. The Chilean and Colombians were exactly the same way. The Chileans actually gave Trevor a hard time because he wasn't going to be visiting their country and with me - they asked me to stay with them so they would know I was safe, since they were concerned about me travelling Chile alone.

The guy that ran the hostal was also really great at bringing everyone together with things like group meals and getting everyone to go out together at night. We would often play drinking games and pre-drink at the hostel before going out together.  This was when we learned it was impolite to turn down a drink offered to you. Trevor and I would have our own drinks and they would offer us a sip of theirs and we would said "no thanks". They then started saying "is our rum not good enough for you". They also wouldn't buy my excuse of food poisoning. Turns out what they do is have one drink which just keeps getting passed around the circle from person to person and refilled once necessary. This actually worked out quite well during drinking games and once we realized this, we just contributed with our own bottle of alchol to help re-fill the bottomless cup.

Montanita was definitely an interesting experience. By the time the weekend came the place was absolutely packed including the beach. I must say while I loved chilling on the beach at night I was really saddended to watch it turn into a toilet with a line of guys peeing into the ocean at all times and beer bottles/cups all over. People also set up tents and would camp out on the beach at night. One of the clubs actually faced the beach, so the beach itself became the dance floor which was pretty cool and the Colombians helped both Trevor and I work on our Sala dancing (still can't dance Sala).

Montanita was fun but I was kind of happy to leave. The crowds were insane by the time we left and I can only take so much partying. I also wasn't a big fan of how aggressive the guys could be. Walking down cocktail alley you would have guys grab your arm to try and pull you over. I also had my ass grabbed a couple of times to which the Chilean girls told me "if a guy grabs your ass you punch him!" Good luck figuring out which of the guys it was. Oh Montanita!