Manta R&R

This past weekend was one that I had been looking forward to for a while now. I had booked the air bnb over a month ago and as I love the ocean, I was ready for a nice beach getaway. With finals coming up, it seemed like the perfect way to unwind before grinding through all of the work of the coming weeks. This trip was to the city of Manta, right on the coast of Ecuador in the Manabí province. The trip was amazing and I would 12/10 recommend Manta to anyone who is thinking of visiting Ecuador’s coast. If you’re wondering why, let me share why I loved it so much.

We started off the trip by bus because I wasn’t feeling like paying for a plane ticket and while I consider myself semi-used to long bus rides at this point, this one was kind of brutal. We had done our research and from what we saw, the direct bus to Manta from Quito’s Terminal Quitumbe would be 8 hours, and since we wanted some beach time our first day there, we decided we would take the first bus out that morning at 5AM. The only problem was that when we got to the bus terminal and went to the counter for the bus we had wanted to take, nobody was there to sell us tickets. Hm…well…so the choice was either our plan B: to wait for the next bus for another company direct to Manta at 6:30 or we could ask around to see if there were any earlier busses. We went with the latter and found out if we took a bus to Santo Domingo instead first, and then to Manta we could get there in the same amount of time, as long as we bought the tickets and ran out to the bus quickly because it was leaving “ahora.” (However, it’s pretty rare to get to a bus terminal here and have to wait more than 15 minutes for a bus that’s leaving to your destination). So, we ran out and caught the bus to Santo Domingo and slept for the majority of the three and a half hour ride. From there we caught another bus from Santo Domingo to Manta and this bus took far longer to arrive than anticipated. There were a ton of stops that we made on the way to pick other passengers up so instead of arriving at 1:30 like we had thought, we finally got to Manta around 2:30 with stiff legs from sitting for so long.

We used Air bnb for our stay and for this particular trip we were staying in an extra room in the apartment of a young couple who lived there. They were extremely nice and welcoming, telling us about the different places we could go in the town, where all the restaurants were, etc. They lived slightly outside of the main part of the town but it was only a $2 taxi down to the beach Murciélago where the majority of people were. So we headed down there and spent the last chunk of our day checking out the beach and grocery shopping for the weekend (we would be surviving on mostly fruit and granola to maintain the budget). However, I did treat myself to a fresh coconut on the beach because there's nothing more perfect on a hot beach day than slurping cold coconut water out of a fresh coconut. The first night, we splurged a little and had a nice meal at a restaurant called Mama Rosa where I had shrimp pasta and my friend ordered her usual (cheese pizza). The ambiance was dark and we joked that it felt like we were out on a Valentine’s Day date. After all, they did bring us complimentary sangria and garlic bread. We were happy with full bellies and went home to turn in for the night because after that long day, we were exhausted.

The following day we took it easy. We spent the first half of the day from about 10-12 on a little beach that was far less crowded by our Air bnb. We read books, listened to music and got our tans going. It was hot but it was beautiful and after we turned in for lunch we decided to go back out to the other, more crowded beach to sit around, swim and read some more. The water was warm, the sun was shining and the beach was beautiful. I bought myself a fresh strawberry smoothie and slurped it down as I soaked in the sun. We were out there until about 2:30 pm and without realizing it and despite our efforts and periodic applications of sunscreen, we both got toasted. Both of us were burnt to the point that it hurt a bit to even sit down. It’s easier than you would think to forget that you are smack dab on the equator and that the sun is way more intense in Ecuador than it is anywhere in the US. We needed to take some more precautions the following day, but it would fade into a tan and I had finished my book and I was still as happy as a clam. Despite what you might think, when we are in Quito we don’t get so much sun to the point that we really tan. We’re high up in the mountains and we spend a good chunk of the day inside and in class and the weather starts getting cloudier and rainier in Quito around 2:30 or 3. So getting nice and bronzed for once is always a nice thing.

That night we went out to dinner again. There was a little sushi spot just down the street and I’ve always heard that sushi here is absolutely safe when you can see the ocean, so I went for it. I had missed it. I had a 8 piece roll for 8 dollars and a glass of wine but as my friend is a bit of a picky eater I ate my sushi first and afterwards we headed to the pizza place next door to buy her a personal cheese pizza before we returned to our Air bnb to watch Property Brothers and knock out.

Our last day creeped up on us way too quickly. We had the same kind of lazy day relaxing in the sun (under umbrella covered beach chairs that we rented for $4) and went for lunch in the Mall del Pacifico where they were streaming a rivalry soccer game between the two big teams here from the coast and from the sierras. It was crazy because the food court had literally packed with people screaming and cheering in the middle of the mall to watch the game on the jumbo-screen. I’m someone who doesn’t watch soccer a whole lot but I always enjoy watching when I do. This was a whole different experience than I was used to but it was so fun cheering along and getting into the game with everyone else. It kind of felt like a giant Super Bowl party in the middle of the food court except with people drinking ½ liter Pilsners instead of 12 oz cans of Coors. After we were done, it was about 3pm and we decided to go back to our air bnb and chill out for the rest of the day to avoid getting completely fried by the sun.

It’s fair to say that the following morning we were not ready to go. The president of Ecuador Lenin Moreno had decided to add another mandatory day of holiday to the long weekend and as tempted as we were to stay another day we had homework to do and no place to stay. So once again at 5AM we sat our butts back on the bus and endured the 9 hour journey back home. The weather in Quito was a bit cloudy and a little gloomy as it often gets in late afternoon, but at least the crappy weather would force me to do homework instead of going outside and enjoying the sunshine. That night, with tired eyes and sun-kissed skin, I fell asleep early dreaming that I was back in the sand and the sun.

Chao por ahora,

Claire