Montanita has all the charm and claustrophobic feel of a small island. You see the same people repeatedly. It has that Groundhogs Day feel where each day blends into the next. The beach itself is beautiful and surprisingly very clean, with soft white sand and crashing waves. Vendors walk up and down the beaches in the mornings selling fresh ceviche. Locals as well as dread-locked hippies saunter around trying to persuade you to buy their hand-made jewelery so they can stay in Montanita for one more day. Music blasts from nearly every hut, bungalow, and make-shift bar at all hours. People are so friendly and the whole place has a great vibe.
I've never visited a beach with as much of a party scene as this one. Music bumps from every corner of town from 9 in the morning to 6 in the morning... hardly ever a quiet moment. Every bar and restaurant is open-air with sand and rocks for flooring. People wander around aimlessly in the blazing heat drinking cervezas and wasting their life away, then grabbing their surf boards when waves meet their expectations. It was admirable, the collective dedication to doing nothing.
I adore places like this... for a little while anyway. I was lucky enough to have two friends with me at this point and the three of us had a blast. We lazed each day away on the beach, drinking fruit shakes and capiroshkas, taking ocean swims when we couldn't stand the Ecuadorian sun beating down on us anymore. We watched the sunset every evening. We took breaks in the shade swinging in our bungalow hammocks. We fell in love with latin reggaeton and danced every night away to it. We practiced our spanish constantly to our many willing victims, who would patiently smile and correct us. We surfed. We took daily siestas, spent too much time on la calle de cockteles, and attempted to salsa dance on the regular. We found ourselves at late night beach bonfires and magic shows. We ate great food on the cheap. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we forgot we were supposed to be traveling.
The problem with places like this is that it makes you lazy. We got so caught up in doing "nothing" that doing "anything" sounded like such a challenge. I knew even when I was there that my time in Montanita was something I would always look back on and smile. And I wanted to keep it that way.
I think there's a danger that often places like these wear thin after a while. Seeing so many young people who had been there for years, giving up on showering and turned ultimate-hippie, sitting all day in the sun making bracelets in hope that someone would support their stay in Montanita, I wanted to ask them if it was really so worth it, or if a place like this loses its charm after too many long nights...
But that's not for me to decide. I love my experience of Montanita and enjoyed every loco moment, taking away nothing but a great sun tan and amazing memories.
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