For me, Montanita is like the Mojitos that you buy on the street at our famous Cocktail Alley. It’s a mash up, a delicious mix of different flavors. Surfers and backpackers from all over South America and the world come here with their different languages, styles, and cultures, and gives Montanita its unique flavor that is neither completely Ecuadorean, nor too westernized. Come, grab a Pilsener (an enormous 25oz bottle of Ecuadorian beer you can buy for $1), sit on a street curb with a friend, and within minutes of people watching, you will know exactly what I’m talking about.
In the morning hours, Montanita looks like any coastal Ecuadorean village. There are men selling chicken or seafood bicycling through the streets calling out their wares. Parents are walking their children to school, and friendly locals opening their stands with fruit and vegetables, clothes, and little one room tiendas selling everything under sun.
Starting from when the tide is right and the waves get nice, the beach becomes a perfect place to relax with a book under an umbrella and watch the surfers from all over the world take advantage of the best waves in the country, or hop on a board and catch a wave yourself. But the real changes come at night. The quiet village/surfer hangout, changes into one big fiesta, and one of the party destinations of South America. Let me show you around. The famous “Cocktail Alley” is a road to the beach that is filled with little stands, each selling every imaginable cocktail all fresh and made with real fruit, and each battling for your attention by trying to blast their sound systems louder than the stand sitting next to them. Imagine a busy outdoor market, but with each stand only selling drinks. After we’ve relaxed here and tossed back a few cocktails, lets go find somewhere to dance.
Do you want funky ska -reggae-latin-rock band? How about a heavy metal group singing in Spanish? Or a group playing salsa, merengue, and other latin dance music? Would you like to jump around at an electronic event? Or chill around a bonfire and drumming at the reggae party on the beach?
It’s whatever you are in the mood for. And on the way there, be careful to duck around the fire dancers, the chicos on unicycles, the jugglers, and the musicians that are performing in the streets.
If you’d like a new piece of jewelry, a piping hot empanada or choclo on a stick, your hair braided or done up in dreadlocks, or even a tattoo, they can all be made or sold to you by the artisans and vagos with their stands on the sidewalks. Just like that Mojito, Montanita is sweet and fun, but you have to be careful. One of the reasons for the diverse eclectic feel of our little town is that so many people, came here for a visit and never left. You just might love it so much and you’ll never want to leave, and ending up adding your little piece to the Montanita Mosaic.
You can experience Montanita on the Travelling Classroom programme and Surfing and Spanish Trip.
