Canoa, Ecuador: Spear the Conch, Spread the Gnar

While missing Thanksgiving in the States was definitely very difficult, especially after an hour-long Skype conversation with my entire extended family, it was definitely made better by our weekend in Canoa. Ecuador is a fascinating country because, although it is tiny, it is made up of four very distinct regions: the sierra, the jungle, the coast, and the Galápagos. As someone who has grown up living on the beach her entire life, the one thing I wish Boston College had was closer access to the shore. However, here in Ecuador, the coast is just an overnight bus ride away.

Thanks to my lack of Friday classes I was able to leave on Thanksgiving night to take a bus to Canoa with Pat, Tim, and Seth. The bus ride was about 6 hours and we arrived at around 4AM. Our hostel had a really cool vibe to it and was right next to the beach… I am not sure I could accurately describe this coastal Ecuadorian beach town… it was something you had to see for yourself. However, without a doubt, if I had to move to Ecuador for a period of time, it would be to Canoa. It has that small town feel that I miss about Locust Valley, no one has a care in the world, the weather was beautiful, and the beach was fantastic.

-Our Hostel-

The first day we relaxed a lot on the beach, Seth and Tim went exploring for a while and returned with the most God-awful 10 dollar shell/bead necklaces that they were forced to buy from some rando. At around 3PM, after eating lunch, we rented surfboards. I had not been surfing in a while so I was nervous about getting up but within about 30 minutes I was catching every wave. For the rest of the weekend every time we surfed we all spoke about catching the gnar and feelin’ the swell, bra.

That night the four of us watched the sunset, went to dinner and had some of the best food I have eaten all semester, however, the owner of the restaurant was the creepiest mofo I have ever met and kept making the most random remarks to us.  The next morning Kasia, Toryn, and Colleen came! We all had a huge breakfast at the surf shop and then headed out for a full day of the swell. I got up basically every time which, made surfing a lot of fun for me. By the end of the day, the waves were vicious and we were all being completely thrown around. Before dinner we had a little fun in the hostel and Pat and I found ourselves alone in the room marching in circles to “Hey, Soul Sister”. Again, many of these references won’t make any sense to anyone reading it but it is for my own memory that I write them. That dinner was hands down one of the funniest dinners I have ever experienced. Spear the conch and spread the gnar. I will leave it at that.

The next day was our last day at the coast and a relaxing one at that. We played some beach tackle football and surfed a little more. Right before dinner we found a bat that we named Samuel, dead, lying outside of our door. We thought it would be funny to play with the bat and take pictures with him. When it came time to eat dinner I had the brilliant idea of putting Samuel in a cup, in a plastic bag and bringing him back to Quito as a practical joke. The next day in school Colleen opened her backpack in Amanda’s class to find a dead Samuel resting atop her books. All in all, very successful trip to the beach. The weekend was absolutely amazing and reminded me how much I miss the beach. I cannot wait for our 6 day beach trip right before we leave!!!

-Samuel-