Home outside home
From the beaches of Mancora in Peru, we got to the concrete jungle, that is Guayaquil, Ecuador early in the morning via a bus that barely held itself together on the 7 hour ride. Hot, humid, dusty and with people bustling about on not very attractive streets, Guayaquil didn’t make for pretty viewing on first instance. But here we were, in Ecuador where we’d be spending our next month learning Spanish formally at a school in Montanita and volunteering at an arts school in Banos.
Chapter 1: Guayaquil’s Flamenco
We were Couchsurfing with Veronica and her mom Sarah, both of whom were busy characters who loved to have a chat about all and sundry. We had our first introduction to the famous Bolon verde from Sarah, a dish made out of unripe banana, eggs and flour mashed and fried and served with hot sauce. Sarah was a fabulous cook and had a delicious breakfast spread prepared for us daily at 7.30am. Not only that we’d have conversations that I’d normally have with my mom on my work, what I felt about it, where I felt my life was heading with her on most nights over a glass of wine. Oh, how I love staying with families!
I also had my first opportunity to do a photoshoot with one of the local models in Guayaquil, a lovely lass named Daniella, who despite being a single mother actively sought out opportunities in the modelling industry. We decided on shooting a Flamenco dancer themed shoot at the Malecon 2000. Little did I know that we’d become overnight stars with a huge gathering assembling around us whilst we took the photos with kids walking up to Dani and asking for photos to be taken with her. It was a funny experience and despite the crowds we still managed to get a couple of good shots in.
Chapter 2: Spanish, Surfing and photoshoots in Montanita
Along with a couple of dozen other surfers, mostly from Argentina, we got onto the bus to Montanita, Ecuador’s surf capital and one of the most popular surfing and party destinations in all of South America. Given that it was high season and that we planned to stay there for 2 weeks, we decided to camp instead of stay at a hostel as the costs were exorbitant and Couchsurfing was non-existent. We camped at ‘Los Tigres’ along with a few other Colombians and had a great time cooking, dancing and reading under the stars for most of our first week in Montanita.
We also kicked off our formal Spanish classes at Mar Azul, a spanish school run by the vivacious Gaby Estrella who also happened to teach us for the 2 weeks we were there. Gaby was a fantastic teacher and soon became a very good mate with whom we spent our mornings learning Spanish and spent the afternoons and evenings on the beach and cooking meals respectively.
Watching the sunset from our vantage point on the rocks one evening, I came upon an idea that I believed would help upgrade our stay from a campsite to a room in a beach house. Watching the hordes of girls on the beach taking ‘selfies’ in countless poses, I felt that by offering to take professional photos of for as little as $10, I felt I could make some quick cash. And I wasn’t wrong when we approached our first bunch of Argentinean girls who exulted at the fact that they would now have over 50 ‘professional selfie’ photos to choose from. Having tasted success, I soon made it a daily task to walk down the beach every afternoon soliciting my services which at the same time gave me plenty of opportunities to practice my Spanish – a win at all costs as you can see below
The results seemed to inspire Gaby and many others in the little surfing village and soon we had enough cash in hand to be able to move into a beach house for the second week of our stay. Most of our afternoons were spent reading, taking a siesta or surfing on the gentle beginner waves of Montanita. Our evening routine comprised watching the glorious sunset with a plate of tacos to munch on and during our homework on one of the many bar stalls on ‘Calle de Coktales’. We also caught up on news back home learning that some of our mates had eloped and gotten married and others who finally decided the time was right to announce that they were expecting new members into their family. As the world run past us, we stood still treasuring every single sea breeze enriched breath.
Chapter 3: Banos and surrounding sights
Post 2 of the best weeks we’ve had so far in Montanita, we made our way to the valley of Banos, a dainty little town located at the bottom of one of the most active volcanoes we have today around the world – the Tungurahua, where we would be volunteering at the ‘Fundacion Arte Del Mundo’ for the next 3 weeks. We arrived at 10 in the night to a party that was in full swing to celebrate the stay of 3 of the volunteers, whom we were replacing. We took an instant liking to most of the volunteers who gave us a warm welcome but retired early that night as we were fairly exhausted after yet another journey that saw us change buses 3 times. Later that night, I woke up to shudders in the room and watched the bed and windows rattle and thought we were having a mini earthquake. Quite non-nonchalantly I went back to bed only to be told the next morning that it wasn’t a bad dream, but the Tungurahua volcano having small eruptions. I was also told that this was a frequent occurrence in the town and that there was no reason for panic as there was no structure in the town taller than a couple of floors.
The next afternoon, we had our first meeting with Karl and Marshia who ran the institution and were given an induction into what the organisation was about and what would be expected from us as volunteers. Soon after, at 3.30pm we had the kids rushing in to the ‘Biblioteca’ running up to grab a book and take a seat next to one of us volunteers who they wanted to read with. Like you hear in most movies or real life stories, I was not a kids person entirely, till the moment Daniella grabbed onto my hand and insisted I read with her for the next hour; I was sold. I want kids in the next 2-3 years.
Everyone at the ‘Bib’ had to wear name tags but I decided to go with ‘El Che’ to add a bit of character. Our daily activities would consist of anything from dancing, painting, painting clown and zombie faces to watching movies at the private Cinema inside the bib, access to which all of us volunteers had at any time we pleased. I now know what it feels like to have your own private cinema.
Over the next 3 weeks, despite me having a severe throat infection (which finally initiated the long awaited wait loss process), Dee and I became attached to each and every one of the kids who also in turn felt the same. We decided that we’d have atleast 15 minutes of dancing as part of the daily activities and the kids would look forward to dancing to ‘Cancion de Caballo’ (The Horse Song) – Gangnam Style. I also managed to get the kids to call Dee “Chubbo”, a name she detests me calling her due to her chubby cheeks. Too much fun!
We also got around to taking our Spanish up a notch by enrolling into an additional 2 weeks of Spanish at the Banos Spanish Center where we had the very lively Liz teach us the nuances of the subjunctive – Spanish’s toughest mood. We are now at a stage where we can converse fluently using the right tense, but constantly need to learn local expressions and build on our vocabulary. Being able to converse and understand in a Spanish speaking country takes our travel experience to the next level and is an asset!
During the second week of our stay we had the mornings to ourselves as it was ‘Carnavale week’, hence we took the opportunities to see a few of the surrounding sights in Banos, namely, the ‘Casa De Arbol’, a 2 hour hike to a tree house that houses a giant swing merely held together by a rope attached to the branches of a tree and the Quilatola loop, a volcanic crater about 5 hours from Banos that has a spectacular trek down to its bottom, where now lies a placid lake where we kayaked for an hour or two.
Apart from that, most of our nights were spent at one of two bars – The Volcan or the Leperchaun where loud music ranging from modern R&B to cumbia to salsa would blare all night along – well until 2 pm. $2 cocktails would keep our energy levels high (well for most of us) and we’d daily acquaint ourselves with that new ecuadorian male who’d want to hit on a foreign group of girls.
It being carnival week, Banos had hordes of visitors and was also staging the annual Miss Banos contest, which would have 2 winners – one, a girl from Ecuador and the second, an international tourist. Rachel, one of our volunteers with whom I struck up a wicked cord, had enrolled herself and given my vested interests in beauty contests, I offered to help her out by making a set of professional photos. Alas, given the mayhem surrounding the activities at the Carnival, the Miss Banos contest had to be cancelled much to the disappointment of the town, due to the concert that had been held earlier running well overtime. Shame, given that the winner would have pocketed a cool $600, almost amounts to a million in these parts.
Isaac and his mom Ellen, were 2 volunteers from the US who planned to stay in Banos for the next 6 months. Isaac was all of 13 and had been home schooled by Elen whilst attending a local school at the same time. The boy left a marked impression on me, as for someone who was just 13, he would cook himself lunch, dinner and at the same time lend a professional hand with the volunteering activities. Who says you need ‘formal education’ to be well educated? This only strengthened our belief that we could very well continue traveling post having kids as well.
The Facts:
Next Stop: Colombia