Muisne
After about 9 hours of bus travel, we made it to the small run-down port town of Muisne. Their main industries are shrimp and tourism, and so we were ushered into a long motor boat and crossed to the main island for a little higher cost than the ´boat-taxi´costs. Lesson learned. We decided to save a little money and walk to our hostal rather than take one of the many eco-taxis (bicycle powered carts). Hector, a young boy, walked us down the kilometer long strip, giving us tips 
and directions as we went, we felt obligated to tip him for his help.
We stayed in a cabaña just behind our hostal, which was right off the beach. Tonnes of palm trees lined the tiny strip of restaurants and hostels and most of them were adorned with big comfy hammocks. The beach was huge. However, it was littered with garbage and debris from storms and there would often be eco-taxis and cars and motorbikes zipping by.
Our first full day in Muisne, we woke to find Colin´s arm covered in mosquito bites! Apparently he slept right against the mosquito netting. We then joined two American girls and two French guys, and went on a boat tour of the nearby mangroves. Because of shrimping, most of the mangroves in Ecuador have been cut down to make room for the large rectangular pools which are pumped full of salty ocean water to farm the shrimp. The mangroves are a really neat mass of trees that line the shores and the roots (or branches that seem to become roots) create homes for a lot of difference species of fish and birds and
other ocean creatures. Muisne is one area along the cost which says it is trying to preserve the mangroves (but there always seems to be a shrimp farm in sight). Apparently it is against the law now to open a new shrimping farm though. Our tour went through many mangove areas and our guide explained the relationship between the shrimp farms and the mangroves. He took us to another beach and we all got out and walked along the shore, chasing crabs and collecting sand dollars.
We spent the afternoon swimming in the warm Pacific waves. The temperature must have gotten up to around 30 degrees! We built a sa
nd castle and made some more friends, a group of Ecuadorian girls, who went diving for some starfish and shellfish to decorate our castle. For some reason we seem to attract kids. We swam some more and read in the hammocks and prettymuch just lazed around. Tough work!
Our second day was much the same. We found a breakfast of chocolate bread and a fruit smothie in town for 60 cents and ate mango and pineapple for lunch (the pineapple cut our tongues too!). We had pizza and the rest of our bad (sweet apple juice tasting wine, which we bought back in Quito for $2.50. This wine is so sweet
that we have to water it down!) It was a bit more cloudy this day, so we recovered our sunburnt selves and devoted a day to hammocks, books and such.
We left Muisne this morning (after some delicious banana pancakes) and took one boat-taxi and four different buses to reach Canoa, a slightly larger beach-surf town. We never stopped for more than 10 minutes as we switched buses and caught transfers. Our hostal here is beautiful! Right on a gorgeous beach with cliffs at the North end and lots of restaurants and shops and hostals to support the larger surf community and crowd that come here for the 2 meter waves (we have yet to discover them ourselves though). We´ll let you know how the surfing and more sun and fun turn out.
and directions as we went, we felt obligated to tip him for his help.We stayed in a cabaña just behind our hostal, which was right off the beach. Tonnes of palm trees lined the tiny strip of restaurants and hostels and most of them were adorned with big comfy hammocks. The beach was huge. However, it was littered with garbage and debris from storms and there would often be eco-taxis and cars and motorbikes zipping by.
Our first full day in Muisne, we woke to find Colin´s arm covered in mosquito bites! Apparently he slept right against the mosquito netting. We then joined two American girls and two French guys, and went on a boat tour of the nearby mangroves. Because of shrimping, most of the mangroves in Ecuador have been cut down to make room for the large rectangular pools which are pumped full of salty ocean water to farm the shrimp. The mangroves are a really neat mass of trees that line the shores and the roots (or branches that seem to become roots) create homes for a lot of difference species of fish and birds and
other ocean creatures. Muisne is one area along the cost which says it is trying to preserve the mangroves (but there always seems to be a shrimp farm in sight). Apparently it is against the law now to open a new shrimping farm though. Our tour went through many mangove areas and our guide explained the relationship between the shrimp farms and the mangroves. He took us to another beach and we all got out and walked along the shore, chasing crabs and collecting sand dollars.We spent the afternoon swimming in the warm Pacific waves. The temperature must have gotten up to around 30 degrees! We built a sa
nd castle and made some more friends, a group of Ecuadorian girls, who went diving for some starfish and shellfish to decorate our castle. For some reason we seem to attract kids. We swam some more and read in the hammocks and prettymuch just lazed around. Tough work!Our second day was much the same. We found a breakfast of chocolate bread and a fruit smothie in town for 60 cents and ate mango and pineapple for lunch (the pineapple cut our tongues too!). We had pizza and the rest of our bad (sweet apple juice tasting wine, which we bought back in Quito for $2.50. This wine is so sweet
that we have to water it down!) It was a bit more cloudy this day, so we recovered our sunburnt selves and devoted a day to hammocks, books and such.We left Muisne this morning (after some delicious banana pancakes) and took one boat-taxi and four different buses to reach Canoa, a slightly larger beach-surf town. We never stopped for more than 10 minutes as we switched buses and caught transfers. Our hostal here is beautiful! Right on a gorgeous beach with cliffs at the North end and lots of restaurants and shops and hostals to support the larger surf community and crowd that come here for the 2 meter waves (we have yet to discover them ourselves though). We´ll let you know how the surfing and more sun and fun turn out.
2 comments:
hey hey walk-star and colin! good to hear things are cool in SA. sounds like you guys are having a blast. the sun is quite hot here as well - 30 degrees every day...if not hotter. i don't really get why the nights are so cool though. spent the first week at kati's house and hung out with kati, drew, donna, and even matthias was there. good to see them. in canberra now starting work. no comments yet. will see how things go. have fun you two! later yo!
Hey Colly Dog.
We're at the store stalking your travels, Juli and David say "hi".
...David sounds rather non-chalant though.. i don't think he cares about you very much.
we miss you and hope you're having fuuuun... know you are. great pictures and great stories. say hello to sarah too!
hasta luego!
-Steph
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