29th November 2015
Our beautiful friends Matthew and Michelle (www.andoffwewent.com) invited us to a road trip to a little surfing town North of Puerto Cayo called Montanita.
We drove through the rain forest and it was so refreshing to see the rich green vegetation again. It reminded me again of Toti and the South Coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal. All the way through this area there was a misty drizzle. The roads were very wet naturally.
Just before Montanita is a town (or rather an area) called Olon. All it consists of is these massive high income holiday resorts and spas. So we all thought “oooh Montanita is going to be a fancy little town”.
Wrong!!
On entering there is this HUGE surfer and I forgot going in and coming out to get a photo of it ..my bad, sorry. As you drive through the main road – sorry let me go off the track a little here; The hippie kombi was by now driving on fumes literally and every town we went through, there are quite a few, had no petrol station. We stopped every time and asked (or rather Matthew asked) where we could get fuel. Every time the locals told us “In the next town, just 10kms”. Honestly I think they laughed themselves silly when we drove away as it was definitely more than 10kms and yep the next town did not have anything, which I am sure they very well were aware of.
Anyway as we came through the town on the main road we could see all these umbrellas in the roads of the town itself. It looked very exciting and inviting, but first we had to find fuel or push the hippie kombi all the way home!! About 5kms outside of town we all breathed a huge sigh of relief when a petrol station was in sight.
Then back to town, took a while to find a parking and got out to investigate the streets. It was raining lightly on and off but this was perfect as a hot day might have become way too much of an irritation.
The streets were lined with stalls under umbrellas giving it all a very festive atmosphere but the more you walked and wandered around the more it become monotonous. Each stall selling pretty much the same thing. There are loads of restaurants and bars, practically every building was a hostel with a restaurant/bar on the ground floor.
The more you walk through the streets the more you realise that this is a raving party town. The more you look closely at the locals and stall owners the more you see that they are either hungover or stoned. Not all!! but most of them. It is a town fit for the young and restless and as a surfing town we were all very disappointed as it truly gives surfers a bad name.
If you look closely you will notice that this is where Zuma hides out hehe!!
We made our way to the beach. On a gloriously hot day I am sure this huge beach is spectacular and over crowded as it naturally should be. We found it amusing that on a miserably overcast, cloudy and rainy day people sat on the beach under umbrellas as if the sun was shining. You gotta love these people.
On the way back through the town from the beach we came across this little restaurant Rastapan (Rastabread). The owner made half cal-zones and filled them with loads of cheese and you had a choice of pepperoni, capresse or another which I cannot remember. We decided to chance it after standing and watching him make these for awhile. They were $2,50 each and very well worth it. Gosh they were yummy.
And so we left Montanita with no inclinations to go back in a hurry.
Remember to visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/AliandAileenMissions/ for all the photos.
Next post gathering of the saints ..remember God loves you.