We were told that the bus ride to Atacames would be about 7 hours long, which was about what we expected. We spent the ride taking in the sites (beautiful drive!) and writing/reading, in addition to trying to ignore the extremely loud and violent movies that played for almost the whole 7 hours... I have come to discover though that riding buses (especially long distance ones) is always a gamble, sometimes they play good/funny family movies, but more often than not, it is some crazy action movie. By the time we finally got there, I was so filled with adrenaline from all the violence I was forced to endure, that I kept having to push horrible thoughts of what might happen once we arrived late-night in a new strange city. Not to worry though, so far our trip has been wonderful, and with a little bit of travel/common sense, we have yet to have any problems. In fact, we have found quite the opposite, the people have all been very friendly and helpful.We were a little confused when we finally arrive in Esmeraldas just before 10pm, since the bus driver informed us that the bus was no longer going to Atacames and it was necessary to take a taxi the rest of the way. Okay whatever, we grabbed our stuff and piled into the taxi with one other local. Luckily, the bus driver paid for the cab, as we were a little annoyed that no one had informed us that this would be the case when we bought our tickets for the bus. Unfortunately, the cab driver was a bit upset that the bus driver only was willing to pay him $6, and he was adamant that it should be $8 to go to Atacames. This worried me a bit, but the cab driver finally agreed and away we went. I had a feeling that one way or another the cab driver wanted his $2, since he was still talking about it with the other local who was in the cab once we were on our way. I figured I would just as soon give him the $2, to ensure that he wasn't upset and that we got there safely. Luckily, he took us directly all the way to the hotel, so we happily gave him the $2 and checked in.
Our comfy and pricey hotel...
The rooms were small and rather expensive by Ecuador standards, but we didn't feel like wondering around trying to find somewhere else late-night. We gladly paid the $20 for the night and put our stuff down, cleaned up, and heading out for a look around the main strip just down the road. All of the bars were little tiny, but very cool-looking, open-air places right on the sand. At the first stop, we found a little place with plenty of fresh juices (literally-opened and squeezed to order) that was playing a mix of salsa and reggaeton. There was plenty of surrounding entertainment, between the small group of locals that were very energetically doing some crazy dances, firedancing, and the interesting assortment of stragglers that were passing by in the beach out front. The people dancing were really having a good time and some of them were pretty good too. One guy had perfected the "booty dance", as I termed it, were he would lean forward and stand up on his toes while vigorously shaking his butt. Haha.
It was very entertaining for a bit, but we thought we ought to move on to the next and see what other crazy things were going on in the town. At the place next store, they were playing some fun music, had one more amazing fresh juice, and convinced Scott to dance for a bit. They had a widescreen TV playing the latest Reggaeton music videos, so we watched and then would try and copy the crazy moves. ; ) After a bit, it seemed that everyone was moving on, so we went to the next one, a few more down, and talked to some locals there. We met two guys, one from Colombia and another from Spain, who offered to show me some salsa moves, so I gave it a try. The first guy was trying to teach me a 2 count move, which for some reason I just could not get the hang of. The other guy then showed me a different 4 count dance, which I was at least a little better at, but still moving like a gringa. Then Scott told me that there was another guy who he thought was trying to hit on him, but it turned out that the guy was just a little barracho and simply was trying to talk to the both of us. We stayed and talked to all of them for a bit more, but then decided to head back to the hotel, since it was late and somewhat dangerous there after hours.
The local transportation...
The cool bar with the Reggaeton music videos...
This guy tried to convince us to buy the hat, after I inquired about it for Scott, but it turned out that Scott was just joking and didn't really want the hat, so I had to tlk my way out of it... Thanks Scott ; )Woke up at 7:30am the next morning, ready to head straight to breakfast. I forced Scott out of bed and convinced him to come with me. We found a little place down the street and I ordered my favorite, rice, eggs, and cheese, with some more delicious fresh juice! We walked around for a bit and found a place to check emails then went to the beach and explored a bit. We found a really cool bar that had swings hanging from the ceiling and some fresh homemade ice cream served in and with pineapple. Everywhere played lots of reggaeton, my favorite. Found some other neat things for sale, but didn't buy anything since I didn't have much money left.
We then checked out of the hotel and were on our way into the peublo to find the bus to Mompiche. After some runaround, we finally found the correct bus stop, but were told that the next bus would not be for about an hour, upon which we decided to go have lunch. We found a really popular local place that was very good and ended up sitting next to a really interesting local guy and his grand daughter. He had some interesting stories to tell and spoke pretty good English too (which was good for Scott). Apparently he had lived a very interesting life, traveling all over the world, and living on the beach, etc for several years (literally on the beach). He shared many bits of wisdom with us, such as the fact that life is all about living and your experiences, people, etc. and I really enjoyed listening to his outlook. The lunch was so good too, $1.50 for soup, coconut shrimp and rice-delicious!
We returned to the bus stop and after a bit of a wait, got on a laid-back looking bus to Mompiche. When I say laid-back, I mean it too! We had no idea when we got on, but this was definitely not the fast/direct bus... Fortunately, it was still early and we were not in a hurry, but the ride was around 4 hours, for only going about 2 hours away. ; ) And, it was hot when we stopped a lot, especially for about 30 minutes while the bus driver sat down and ate lunch... We made it to Mompiche around 4pm and the ride was so amazingly beautiful! Cows in the middle of the highway, little houses along the road (all with chickens, pigs, dogs, etc. of course), and beautiful vegetation-so green everywhere!
A local beach food stand, converted from a bike... Haha.
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