It took us 5 weeks, but we made it

I had my first taste of what I always remember summer to be - beaches and boat rides. After a 7 hour bus ride from Quito, we arrived in Atacames, Esmeraldas. This is one of the most touristy beaches closest to Quito -and by tourist I don't mean you see a bunch of european-americans walking around. In fact, we were basically one of the few groups of "gringos" there, but it was great (gave me a small reminder of my China experiences). Three of us arrived around 9pm with our backpacks and hopes of finding a good hotel. The "taxis" in this town were motorbikes with a covered seat big enough for about 3 people. Luckily, we got a taxi driver who knew a few good places to stay. After driving down to the main strip and checking out a few hotels for $15 without hot water, we found Hotel Arco Iris. It was the only high rise on the strip (a stark contrast to any other beach vacation such as Cancun or the Bahamas), and it was directly in front of the water with a two minute walk from the noise of the restaurants and beach bars. We bargained for a room for the three of us, but after a night without air conditioning, we weren't sure if we were gonna be able to make it here for the rest of the week. Luckily, they had some suits complete with AC, and given that there were 4 more coming, we were able to get a nice suite for the 7 of us - complete with a kitchen and a front view of the ocean. I don't know how much this room and view would cost at a popular vacation spot, but it cost the 7 of us a total of $90/night (considered a bit pricey for Ecuadorian terms).

So our first night we took it easy, going to one of the tiki bars directly on the beach. The entire strip was filled with them, and they were open 24 hours. They all pretty much played the same music, but some were packed with people and others were more low key. My favorite part were the fresher than fresh drinks and swings. Any kind of smoothie, fruit drink, etc was made right in front of you. For pina coladas, they didn't use the coco milk we find in cans, but they scraped out the coconut, blended it, and strained it. All the fruit cocktails were made the same way. And then the swings were awesome -- the new bar stools. All the bars were tropically decorate and made out of those brown bamboo-looking shoots, except it wasn't just for decoration, it's just the material they use here.

As we waited for the rest of our friends to arrive the next day, we walked out of our hotel and plopped ourselves on the beach. There were no lifeguards, people selling fruit, coco juice, and all sorts of nic-knacks walking up and down the beach all day long. We rented some boogie boards and floated in the water, caught some waves, and relaxed. Spur of the moment, we decided to go tubing when one of the boats came up and the workers started talking to us. Back on the beach, it would've cost us $5 for tubing or a trip to one of the islands, but we just hopped on and made friends - went along for both trips and didn't pay a thing. They came and found us the next day too and we road on the boat while they took other people on tubing adventures and boat tours. We were able to hop on the tour ride to this island/rock not to far away and we saw some blue and red footed boobies -- birds also found in the Galapagos.

To sum the weekend - the water was really warm, there were sand dollars everywhere, you could get fresh squeezed batiods at every corner, really fresh ceviche was abundant and you could have a great time trying to dance really well like the locals. We cooked breakfast every morning and we enjoyed spending 3 hours to get out of bed (given we woke up at our normal school time around 6 or 7 so we had plenty of time). It was basically a weekend of hanging out, and getting a few sunburns here and there.

Ecuador is an unknown beauty - there are so many things to experience here for a fraction of the cost anywhere else. Sure, no one really follows rules here and it can sometimes seem uncivilized and out of control, but its completely worth it. When you can buy meals for $5, stay in hotels for less than $15 a night and still have a great time dancing salsa and meringue, you'll know why you came.