Driving Through Paradise

Our hosts the Erazo's were excited to take us for a few days down to the coast for a mini-vacation this weekend. After some aforementioned delays to our departure time, at 6 am on Thursday July 5, we loaded up their trusty van and we, along with Fabian, Grace, and two of their three kids, Santi and Raquel, were on our way through the quiet early morning Quito streets towards Esmeraldas, one of a string of coastal cities and towns on the country's northern shoreline.

There are several things we won't forget about the drive to the coast.
Firstly, the scenery!

Coming out of Quito, you drive through a rather arid, mountainous region before beginning the descent from 9,000 feet down through what is considered a kind of rainforest, literally a 'humid forest' in Spanish. Everything goes from desert beige to deep, lush green with an amazing variety of palm trees, banana trees, and all kinds of tropical plants including orchids.
We stopped a couple of times at roadside fruit stands to sample and purchase a variety of fruits that were new to us, including cacao, from which we get chocolate (Ecuador is a major exporter of cacao to the world, ever heard of Swiss chocolate?) There are also an amazing variety of citrus fruits and bananas, plus some alien-looking oddities that tasted, nonetheless, wonderful!

Every time she'd see a tall stalk of green plantain bananas, or the little tiny sweet ones, or the red ones (yup!) or the typical kind we know hanging up at a roadside stand, Amanda got in the routine of shouting "Bananas!". Bananas and a whole lot more. Yes, they DO have bananas!

The roads wind down and down through very mountainous views, with a wide variety of trees including palm trees (I love palm trees!), coconut and teak. As we dropped steadily from 9,000 feet to sea level, the humidity rose, though not as much as I expected. The view was rich, fascinating, and we were also blessed to have Santi as our tour guide, telling us about all kinds of interesting details and points of interest along the way - we told him he should consider becoming a tour guide, with the amazing fount of knowledge he had and his obvious love for his country (thanks Santi!)

The next thing I must mention is the experience of the roads in Ecuador. You may be able to imagine what I'm
about to say! First of all, the roads and even the laws that govern the roads have improved significantly since I was a kid in the 70's.

Nonetheless, driving in Ecuador can be best described as a Formula One race with all kinds of light and heavy vehicles in on the action. My dear friend Fabian is a great driver, but of the more 'aggressive' persuasion if I may say it that way. He certainly wastes no time and no opportunity to pass any vehicle that will slow us down by anything more than 5 KPH :-)

I'll also add that he skillfully got us to our destination, and back home again on Saturday, intact and on time!

Basically, in Ecuador, 2-lane highways function as 3-lanes with vague references to solid and dotted lines. So the rule is 1) keep moving as fast as you can and 2) pass as often as you can, if in doubt, refer to rule 1. Carina's observation was that it is a game that everyone plays and participates in, and as long as everyone keeps moving, things seem to work out.

Also of note, each little pueblo we zipped through has no stoplight, just 2 sets of speed bumps about 50 feet apart, which forces most drivers to pause and reflect and allows speed-bump vendors the opportunity to sell you a bottle of cold water, some fruit, or even a driver's license application, I kid you not.

Thirdly, the place we stayed was a wild paradise, a place we will never forget, the Cumilinche Club Resort. Located about 20 minutes beyond the town of Same (Sa-may), on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. Because we came mid-week, we had the small resort almost entirely to ourselves, which includes the beach, all the hammocks, the restaurant, and the palm- and coconut tree covered grounds. Wow. It was a nice change from the bustling noisy streets of Quito, silence except for the sound of the surf, the insects, and
the occasional bird call.

We enjoyed chasing and catching crabs in the sand and building them sand castles. Kayleigh had a name
for each crab we caught, names like Sleepy, Crabby Joe, Coffee, and Caramel, based on their shell color or temperament. Fun!

But as I said, it was a wild paradise - no cell phone coverage for miles
around, no wi-fi or TV, as darkness fell, it just got ... Dark. Our cabins were nicely designed thatched-roof and stone-walled structures, with large screened windows and doors. At
night we did not need more than a sheet to sleep comfortably, although in the dark we could hear strange flutterings up in the thatch rafters ....

...and a few cockroaches came out to say good night too!

A wild paradise, it took some getting used to, but oh my, the scenery, the beach, the waves and tides, and the whole experience was WORTH it!

Attached are some photos: