This trip was my pick. I tried to balance price, lack of crowded surf, wave quality and adventure. Sean at Waterways said to check out Ecuador…. It turned out to be solid on adventure, good on price, poor on waves (while we were there) and pretty low on crowds, except for Montanita. Montanita happened to have a south american surf contentest while we were there… Uggh.
Regardless of surf, we had a ball. This trip was complete with a day in Guayaquil, a happening little town, and Montanita, with tons of night life. Montana was very bohemian with folks from around the globe congregating to sell their goods and enjoying life. As usual, the best of time came in the nooks and crannies of hanging with the boys. There was no shortage of laughs when the “A/C sprung a leak” and drenched Sloppy or, when Wyatt and Jof wound up at a cheesy discoteca around 3:00 in the morning that looked about as safe as licking an oozing sore on one of the local dogs.
Then there was the discovery of Redbull and Vodka. That was a first for most of us, but not for Nuby. We tend to have more beers when the surf is down, so this trip had plenty of suds.
We stayed at Randy’s place, Casa Del Sol at Montanita. They picked us up at and dropped us off at the airport, fed us and drove us all around. It’s always nice to not waste time figuring out where the spots are (unless you have plenty of time to kill). We learned a lot about the culture and history from Randy as well.
See more photos here. Also, check out the Casa Del Sol Montanita site for a great base camp, food, and guiding. Randy Hood is the man to see.
One day we went to a big bay to go on a trip to view the Blue Footed Boobies… We also did a little fishing. However, before we could go, we had to push the boat into the water!
Bob caught this bad boy, which we had prepared for us in a local restaurant. Wyatt almost killed the little kid/deck hand as he hogged the pole with the bass hit.
On one of our day trips, we came across a funky little “dig” with some baby bones… Kind of creepy.
When we arrived we were taken straight to the beaches west of Guayaquil. We were there for a couple of days with modest surf that was in the ~2-3′ range. Great points however, that showed tons of promise. Getting modest surf leveled the playing field for the boys and as a result everyone enjoyed some mellow surfing.
The view from Casa del Sol’s beach bar in Montanita which is the premier spot. It reminded me of Steamer’s Lane in Santa Cruz complete with middles lumping in the….well, “the middle.” The outside right breaks along a rock reef that jets out a ways, reminded me of four mile just north of Santa Cruz. We didn’t get this too hot at all, but you could tell that it can get good.
Some other highlights were all of us longboarding on some locally shaped balsa boards. They were pretty cool to look at, but that is where it stopped. They surfed terribly. Way too much rocker. You were lucky to catch a wave, let alone ride one with any style.
Here is a long point that they say GRINDS left for hundreds of yards, when it works. We missed this by a day. This is located in the same place that has the baby bones on display (see photo above).
As we ventured up the coast, Jof and Wyatt hit a spot called El Faro. It had a handful of pumped up locals that took off too deep, only making the wave half the time and messing it up for everyone.