Planning on the Beach

After leaving Portoviejo, we came back to Canoa. It's our third time here and a bit of a home away from home at this point. Everyone we talk to here seems to be of the same opinion. There have been quite a few foriegners move to Canoa in the past few years and many of the travelers we talk with have plans to come back and start up businesses.

We've decided to spend a few weeks in Canoa this time while we plan our route to Peru. We're also trying to contact organizations with which we hope to work. So far we have no definite plans...but then again as soon as we set plans we'll have to change them! A few of the things we have on the to do list before we head too far south are:

Cuenca -- beautiful colonial town

Parque Nacional Cajas -- national park near Cuenca for some backpacking

Vilcabamba -- the fountain of youth...people live here the longest in the world...they think some combination of the mild climate, ease of agriculture, low stress lifestyle, etc. We've heard it's a cool town for outdoor activities.

Other than that, we're just kind of winding our way down, coast-moutains-coast Peru should be great fun though. We've been getting all sorts of recommendations from fellow travelers on cool spots not to miss.

Canoa has been great so far. We've been doing a bit of maintenance type work for the hostel to help pay for our room. It's been mostly painting. Yesterday, Ben spent a trechorous morning on top of a two story bamboo ladder! All in good fun.

We've also been riding our bikes, which has been awesome! There are a lot of dirt roads/trails around the area, so it's been cool to go exploring. There are lots of hills, so the riding can be quite challenging. The dirt also tends to be very sandy and loose right now because it is dry season. Tipping over while trying to go up the hill is always a good time. So far no major spills, which anyone who has ever been mountain biking with me will know is a major accomplishment!

There's not too much going on in Canoa these days. It's not really high season, so things are very tranquilo during the week. Things pick up on the weekends, but it's still pretty chill.

This week we have Day of the Dead coming up, so I'm sure that will liven the place up for a few days! It's also an official bank holiday on Thursday and Friday. Someone told us it was kind of like Memorial Day in the US.