Fiestas de Quito....in Canoa!!

Last year for Fiestas de Quito, Javier and I joined in on celebrations at school and attended our first (and as I said last year...likely last) bullfight.  It was super fun to embrace this new holiday and join the Quitenos in their excitement, but this year we decided to head out of town and avoid the crowds a bit.  We had a half-day of school on Friday and thought we should take advantage of whatever time we had off to try to travel.  We invited any other teachers from school join us in a beach adventure.  Scheduling was not in our favor because school decided to throw a party on that Friday evening, so the only teacher who asked to join us was our friend Ashley.

While Ecuador is tiny (roughly the size of Nevada), the intense Andes mountains make it very difficult to get out of Quito.  The distance between Quito and Canoa is only 370 km on roads averaging 90 km per hr speed limits so the trip should take only about 4 hours. But in reality it takes closer to 6 hours.  Regardless, we decided to rent a car and attempt the drive to the beach.  Since we had a half day Friday we were able to start the drive early and had made it to the Ruta del Sol for sunset.  We didn't want to stop, but I took some pretty cool pictures of the sunset and colors from the car!

the colors were just amazing

luckily the Ruta del Sol hugs the coast for part of the trip

While Ecuador is beautiful, I don't love a lot of the traditional cuisine.....with the exception of TIGRILLO!!  Tigrillo is a breakfast dish made on the coast consisting of smashed green plantains (the savory ones) mixed into a kind of hash with onions and herbs and usually a bit of cheese.  It.  Is.  Delicious.  And we had heaping helpings of it for breakfast each morning we were on the coast!

breakfast right on the beach

Here was my view for much of the trip (I'm hunkered down under the protection of our rented tent for the day.

I think Canoa is one of Ecuador's most beautiful beaches.  You can see how the vendors come and set up the little canvaed awnings to rent to beach-goers throughout the day.  We were at the beach early and had our pick!

Our last visit to Canoa was lovely but a bit cloudy, so I was super happy to see the sun shining down brightly!

In the afternoon, Javier and I went on a walk to the end of the beach that is cut off during high tide.  I had found my treasure trove of shells on this beach last time and wanted to go scouting again.  The tide was still a bit high so we traversed the rocks to make it to the little beach.  Many pools of water remained from high tide creating a really beautiful scene.

here is Javier traversing

The sea of shells that liter the beach is really quite breathtaking.

I felt less pressure to gather this time around and spent a lot of time just looking at the variety of shapes and colors.

but let's not be crazy.....obviously picked some up that were just too beautiful to leave behind.

We made it back to our little awning in time to watch a gorgeous sunset.

The sun was turning the rocks of the beach we had just visited a vibrant pink (it never shows up in pictures the way I want it to...)

As the sun was dropping a group of gentlemen started up a soccer game on the edge of the surf.  We haven't spent as much time as I would like on the coast, but in every beach town that we've been to this pickup game seems to be a common tradition...particularly at sunset.  And with views like this I can't blame them for the timing...

It truly was breathtaking

and our little group enjoyed watching it in the sand

We stayed at the same hotel from the summer, Amalur, and would recommend it for sleeping and for eating.  Our dinner there was the best we had in Canoa!

We had the morning on the beach on Sunday, but knew we had a 6 hour drive back so we didn't linger too long.  Just enough to soak up a bit more sun and watch the tourists take horseback rides down the beach.  I was a little sad to leave, thinking this would probably be my last time in Canoa, but was super grateful for the brief getaway.

and the fun people I spent it with!