Pedernales, Canoa, San Vicente, Ecuador

Diana and Telmo

Telmo and Diana very kindly invited me to go to the beach with them. We took the overnight bus from Quito to Pedernales, arriving around 4:30 in the morning. As we walked around looking for a hostel, the only people we passed and talked to were individual men standing guard, each with a machete and a rifle. They were hired locals standing watch during the night. After finding a room, we slept for several hours and then went to the beach. 

I had had a cold for days, but thought I would be feeling better at the warm beach, out of rainy and cold Quito. Unfortunately, the cold had already moved to my lungs, and my health got worse quickly. That very night of our arrival, I was having trouble breathing. Thus, my beach trip partially consisted of hunting down doctors in Pedernales, Canoa and San Vicente to get medicine and breathing treatments. However, before the doctors told me not to, I did swim in the ocean thrice. It was beautiful and fun! Telmo and Diana were with me for the first 2 days, and I stayed alone for 3 more. Thank goodness I speak Spanish!

Telmo and I

Apparently surfing is good in both Pedernales and Canoa, evidenced by the large number of surfers riding the waves. I was told that Pedernales is good for the “fat and lazy” surfer, because you can ride the rip tide out and surf back in without having to paddle. Simply walk back up the beach. I saw almost no tourists in Pedernales on those two weekdays, only locals. It was wonderful.

The first day in Pedernales, Telmo, Diana and I walked down the beach until it felt like our own private getaway, with a mule grazing nearby on the steep hill beside the dirt road leading up, up, up.  While walking back, we happened upon some fishermen and women. They were fishing with a mile long net, or so I’ve been told, as it takes 2 ½ to 3 hours to pull it in. They were all lined up, from in the water out onto the beach, and they worked steadily, pulling in the line. Telmo and Diana both helped. (I couldn’t breathe well enough, so I simply watched.) Some kids even joined in! A local teacher had brought her class out to the beach for a swim. That sure looked like a fun recess! Telmo pulled for more than an hour, and was rewarded with 5 fresh fish, which we took to a local restaurant to have for dinner. It was among the best fish I have ever eaten because it was deliciously fresh. As the net was finally pulled to shore, the birds attacked, swooping in for an easy meal. One of them knocked hard into my shoulder. What an experience!

The second night there, I moved to a hostel on the beach for $6 a night! There were two near life-sized icy white colored naked woman on my shower doors. How could you not love this place? I could hear the beach all night with my window open. “Be sure to close it before you go to sleep because someone could shimmy up onto that neighboring roof and then it’s like you’re nearly on the first floor.” I slept with my whistle that night.

The view from my hostel door in Pedernales

Quote I read on my tea bag that summarized Canoa for me: "Socialize with compassion, kindness and grace.” Very important advice for stopping in a small town where everybody knows each other, and you are sure to see the same people over and over again. Don’t be a jerk or it will come back to haunt you.

View from my hostel in Canoa

Diana and Telmo in Canoa

Diana and a sunburned Bethany