Sun, sand, surf and spaghetti in Same

This past weekend, for my first independent travel adventure, I went to the beach with 8 other IES students. We were technically in a small town named Same (Sah-may) but our hosteleria was several kilometers down the beach and was very peaceful, quiet, and isolated. It was ridiculously awesome.

First off, let me say that the transportation here is phenomenal. There are buses that go anywhere you might want to at just about any time. And they are ridiculously cheap. We decided to leave Quito late on Thursday night which would get us in to the beach early Friday morning giving us essentially an entire extra day on the beach without having to pay for an extra night of lodging. This ended up not working out quite as well as we'd hoped. Somehow we got stuck in traffic for 5 hours between 1:30 and 6:30 AM on a little two lane mountain highway. We think there was some sort of car accident but we have no idea how it took so long to clean up. It might have something to do with the impatience of Ecuadorian drivers who unnecessarily clogged the road not allowing anyone to get anywhere. But eventually we made it.

The little resort we were staying at was essentially empty. We got two big cabanas complete with kitchens, an ocean view, and all the privacy anyone could want.

My first trip down to the water was at the peak of an amazing high tide. It was fun to be able to put my knowledge from Astronomy 201 (what up Gwen?!) to use explaining tides and why they were higher at the full moon. The waves were great. I was however blown away by the ocean bottom. Instead of sand, it was essentiall carved rock. When I first stepped on it without being able to see, I had no idea what was going on. Luckily I was able to go back out during low tide and explore and take some cool pictures. The nights were super fun. Friday we were all very tired so after a nice walk down the beach to a great thatched-roof restaurant and an great bonfire, we all crashed pretty early.

Saturday morning, one of the other guys really wanted to make pancakes. So, with the meager utensils we managed to scrounge up a wonderful breakfast (complete with mamosas). The sun finally came out Saturday afternoon so there was plenty of time for swimming, lounging, and studying of course. We opted for an early spaghetti dinner then got on a bus and headed in to Atacames, the bigger town nearby, for some fun evening beach activities.

My Lonely Planet travel guide describes the bars on the beach as "virtually indistinguishable from each other," and they were absolutely right. With music blaring, just walking up and down the beach was an experience. Of course we stopped to enjoy a fruity beverage or two just cuz they were so extravagantly decorated with fresh fruit. A bus back seemed a little more difficult to come by so we piled 6 people into the back of a motorized rickshaw for a very exciting trip back to the hostel.

Sunday morning brought an early check-out in order to catch our morning bus home. We got back to Atacames with a little time to spare so I took the liberty to explore a bit and find a great panaderia (bread shop) for breakfast. The ride back was much less eventful and we got home right on time for dinner and an evening of homework.

Overall, it was a phenomenal weekend. The weather might've been better, but nothing is gonna be perfect. (And it sure beats the snow of Cleveland at this time of year!) This was also a great experience for general traveling. I got to see how easily the bus system works and will definitely be taking full advantage of that in the next couple of months.

Gotta run now to class but enjoy some pictures!