Slowing down.

This afternoon I opted to hang out in an Internet cafe getting pictures uploaded/caught up. These cafes are the only places with A/C other than the supermercados and honestly, I´m quite tired of the heat and humidity at the moment... Thankfully just another week of Manta and then back to Quito and my kind of temperature.

Yesterday´s adventure was interesting. Caught a bus to Puerto Lopez, mostly to get out of Manta for a bit and see what was down south. The scenery from the bus ride down the coast ($3 for 2 hours!) was really quite stunning. The beaches down the coast are more pristine than those of Manta. Aussie amigo Paul and I had a very low-key afternoon, enjoying some ceviche at a sidewalk cafe, then wandering up the coast a bit to Parque Nacional Machalilla and Los Frailes beach (AKA, ¨the middle of nowhere in general, Ecuador¨).

The walk to the beach on the dirt road from the park entrance was long and hot, with a million little butterflies flitting around. There was not as much greenery as I´d hoped for, and it was too hot to explore any further inland. A ¨taxi¨ (motorbike with attached carriage) drove by and we hopped a ride the rest of the way and treated ourselves to ice cream at the beach entrance, then walked down to enjoy the scenery.

I think we´re both a bit spoiled from west coast US and Australian beaches, because this was touted as the most beautiful beach in Ecuador, and sure, it´s a pretty little beach but...

That´s pretty much it. It is always interesting to me that any beach along the Pacific Coast seems to look exactly the same. If not for the clothing in that picture, I could´ve been in California or Costa Rica or even parts of Oregon...

After about an hour the sun was hot and the beach was small and closing soon, so we caught a ride back to Puerto Lopez with some European/Chileans on vacation, had a drink on the beach with a chicken, watched a bit of the sunset, wandered around the town for a while and caught the bus back to Manta.

This morning we went east to Montecristi, home of the world famous Panana hats. I did not buy one. I did take a few photo of ¨the church¨ and plaza...

But there wasn´t much to see in Montecristi either, especially since we weren´t buying hats, so it was back to Manta early this afternoon and here I sit.

Perhaps it´s the westerner in me but I´m not used to sitting around in the afternoons. I need to change my mentality. A slow and easy life is a long, prosperous life... Pura vida, eh?

Or maybe it´s just the damn heat.