Canoa -or- How I Learned to Calm Down and Start Liking Reggae

A long weekend on the coast of Ecuador. It was pretty much everything one would imagine it would be.

A truly horrific, long, sometimes hot, sometimes cold, 7 hour bus ride from Quito to Bahía de Caráquez, followed by a ferry ride across the bay, followed by a 20 minute bus ride (or a ride on the back of a fruit truck in the case of our retrun trip.) to the tiny beach town of Canoa in Ecuador´s Manabí province.

Canoa is four blocks of dirt roads stretching inland from the coast and more or less exclusively consists of little hotels, restaurants, and bars.

The trip was made with four other students, and pretty much all we did was eat the most delicious whole wheat pancakes you could ever imagine, lay on the beach, lay in hammocks, and drink cheap cold Brahma (Ecuador brewed beer, apparently pretty popular on the coast,) and Cuba Libres.

A note about these Cuba Libres: I´ve never even really liked rum and coke, but when you add some fresh lime and call it a Cuba Libre, I will drink it right up.

A note about those hammocks: Divine. There is no way I will be leaving Ecuador without one.

Our home for the weekend was a cozy, 2 story, thatched roof suite we all shared- Complete with mosquito nets and a balconies.

The weather was good. No rain. Everyday was slightly overcast, but still quite warm.

Now I´m just kind of sunburned and already planning the next possible chance to return.

Now, two more weeks of class, my internship, and investigations regarding my independent study, then our mid-term break which will be spent in the cities of Cuenca (Ecuador´s third largest city) and Baños (named for it´s natural hot springs.)