Montanita - Surfing, Party, and Happy Brownies 😆

Where should I start? Montanita is somehow very special. And yet, or maybe because of that, our planned 4-day stay turned into a whole week. Montanita is a small and very popular surfer/hippie town. When I arrived at the Selina Hostel during the week, the atmosphere was very relaxed and there weren't too many tourists around, mainly Ecuadorian families. However, it was very loud, with loud music blasting from everywhere all day and night, as my hostel was right between the two biggest clubs in town. But still, everything was very laid-back.

After a free trial surf lesson by the pool with Jorge, my desire to move again was awakened after a few lazy days, and I decided to take a 2-hour surf lesson with Alex, who participates in some national competitions. With a couple from Colombia, we headed into the waves after a brief introduction on land. And what can I say, I think I didn't do too badly. At the beginning, I was frequently washed up by the sea, but in the end, I surfed every wave (small waves). In the afternoon, I borrowed a board again and it went pretty well even without a surf instructor.

In the evening, Bianca finally arrived in Montanita, and we celebrated the reunion with pizza and beer.

By the weekend (Friday was also a holiday), Montanita turns into the Mallorca of Ecuador, with crowds of people getting drunk and partying on the beach or in the bars already at noon. Everywhere, I mean really everywhere, the smell of marijuana wafts in the air and red, glassy eyes stare at you. Fortunately, I changed my accommodation for 2 nights, the Kundalini Hotel was a bit outside the loud party mile, right on the beach. Here, there were even free yoga classes in the garden in the morning overlooking the sea.

On Friday evening, we explored the clubs with a few people from Bianca's hostel. Most of them were already pretty stoned and drunk after a round of beer pong at the hostel. After a few cocktails on the so-called Cocktail Street, where one cocktail stand is lined up after the other, we danced at the Cana Grill Club. Bianca and I stuck to beer, while everyone else passed around joint after joint, and at some point, we were probably also quite high passively 🙈 at the biggest techno club Lost Beach, they still wanted $20 admission at 4 am. Not with us, we preferred to invest the money in delicious pizza on the beach, and then we went to bed.

Slightly hungover, the next day we only changed hostels (we ended up in a nice but rundown place where people smoke weed all day), chilled on the beach, did a little shopping, and tried the food stalls.

Montanita is like light and shadow. Actually, it's a very chilled surfer town with great shops and restaurants, but also a notorious party hub. I don't know exactly how many times we were offered Happy Brownies. Tomorrow (Tuesday), Bianca and I are heading to Peru. The longer you stay here in Montanita, the lazier you become. We finally want to get out and experience some adventures...