I Must be Traveling on Now

Nomadic Lifestyle

Lest I linger too long…

Before I get too far into this post, I know I’ve promised my readers as well as my cruisemates from The Millennium Galapagos cruise that I would have a video of the cruise posted by late November, and here it is late November and the video isn’t here. I actually have completed the video but currently I lack bandwidth to upload it. Soon. I promise!

So, apparently, this is how it goes. When there’s not much going on, I find lots of time to write; when I am occupied with lots of great things that I could write about, there is little time or few resources with which to accomplish much writing at all.

Just over two weeks ago I arrived in Montañita, a small village on the Ecuadorian coast. Over the past few years Montañita has become well known as a surf town and international party hotspot. When I arrived, the mud in the streets was ankle deep and the party noise was inescapable at any hour of the day or night. I was lonely and my decision to come here in the first place was in question. There is a Spanish School here, so in the end, I decided to give Montañita a chance while I studied Spanish for a week. One week turned into two. Spanish classes turned into daily surf. Loneliness gave way to a wonderful group of friends whom I have been saying goodbye to over the last couple of days. Now, I find Montañita’s charms sucking me in. At 7 AM loud disco music started pounding from next door to where I’m staying, mind you, this is the quiet part of town, well away from cocktail alley and the all night rowdiness of Montañita. Despite it all, I am rather reluctant to leave. It happens to a lot of people, something about Montañita sucks people in.

I am really enjoying surfing. Thoughts of covering lots of ground in South America are giving way to thoughts of sticking to the Pacific coast. My original notion was to work my way slowly to Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls and just hang out in Buenos Aires for a few weeks. Now, I’m thinking that if I even bother with going to Argentina at all, my trip will be abbreviated and my itinerary won’t include any more than necessary to visit Iguazu Falls. I surfed every day this past week including a short trip up the coast to the village of Las Tunas where we spent about four hours in the surf. I can’t remember the last time I was this physically exhausted. A couple of days from now I plan on being in Mancora, Peru, a Peruvian coastal village that is reportedly very similar to Montañita with good surf, good sea food and the promise of reliable electricity and improved connectivity so that I can get that Galapagos video posted.

Will @ November 29, 2009