After the hustle and bustle of Quito we headed to the coast to hang with a friend who was volunteering at a hostel on the beach for a few days. The beach, Santa Marianita, isn't a popular backpacker beach. It's actually a pretty weird place, as was the hostel we stayed at. The main reasons people go there are 1) they are really into wind surfing or 2) they are a retiree from North America.
There was a set of about 8 "restaurants" along the beach that all look the same and serve the same food. Someone started one and then a few other people thought it was a good idea so they did the exact same thing. Then one in particular became popular with the Gringos and the others were losing out on business. To solve this problem the government declared that each restaurant can only be open 3 days a week to spread the funds around. This is some of the weirdness of Santa Marianita. That and all the retired North Americans hanging around who can't speak Spanish and have a distrust of Ecuadorians.
The beach was good for chilling though and the waves were strong. There's a lot of development going on so look out for it as an up and coming holiday destination.
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| Beach Sunset |
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| The Hostel |
After the beach we headed to Cuenca which had been highly recommended. It's another pretty colonial town with museums and churches galore.
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| The Main Square |
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| Some interesting Graffiti |
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| We went to one of the weirdest museums I've ever been to - Prohibido Museo de Arte Extremo. It was an old house full of paintings of naked fairies and skeleton sculptures. I think some interesting parties go on there. |
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| We had a spa day - 2 for 1 Mondays. First time in a steam box - felt a little claustrophobic. |
From Cuenca we got a night bus into Peru (which involved a surprisingly easy border crossing at 2 in the morning). From there it was one day bus and one night bus until we arrived at our first Peruvian destination at 5am.
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