Rio Muchacho, Canoa, Mompiche, Sua-Discovering the Coast of Ecuador

An organic farm. Howler monkeys. Horseback riding. Three beaches. Coconut batidos. Pizza bars. Tubing. Boating. Bonfires.
This last week has been incredible. BCA Quito took our group to Rio Muchacho, an organic farm in the coastal region of Ecuador. In many ways, it reminded me much of Auroville in South India. Rio Muchacho is its own community, run by an Ecuadorian man and a New Zealand woman. They train students in organic agriculture. They use dry compost toilets, live in beautiful cabins that are very much like tree houses (MY DREAM), eat and drink from clay and coconut shell bowls, and use animal compost to grow their crops, which for the most part sustains them and their visitors. They all eat vegetarian, and so did we for the three days that we were there. The food was delicious, but I was never quite fulfilled.
We also had the opportunity to take part in preparing our food. I helped muck stalls and gather sugar cane to feed the horses and cows, we all made natural coffee (so so) and chocolate (yum) and gathered banana leaves to pack our lunches in for the day that we rode horses up the road to a 97 year old ladies’ house to see howler monkeys.
I was stoked to be riding horses again. It’s always something I miss when I don’t have the convenience of four four- legged friends standing around in my back yard. However, the horses in Ecuador are a bit different…and so are the saddles (awful butt-busting blocks of wood). My horse was a tiny black horse with a roached mane and he was…absolutely covered in ticks.
If there is a bug that I despise more than any other bug in the world, it would be ticks. And my horse was providing blood for approximately 60% of Rio Muchacho’s tick population. I counted at least 22 shameless ticks just on his neck, earning him the name Señor Tick. We all named our horses. Some of the names included Maria, Kevin, Tornado, and Sampson.
We had a dog with us when we went to see the monkeys, so naturally, the monkeys weren’t very pleased with us and we came very, very close to being showered with monkey excrement.
Rio Muchacho was a great experience. I loved the weather. I loved being surrounded by greenery. I loved hanging out in hammocks and sleeping in an open loft and spotting lightning bugs. We worked, but we played too. I don’t know much about agriculture, but it brought a new perspective on what it is like to be self sustaining. It is a lot of hard work who are truly dedicated, but most good things often are.
I must admit though that the very same day that we left, I shamelessly bought myself packaged coconut ice cream and continued to contaminate my body with loads of packaged food. I couldn’t get enough to eat on this trip.
After leaving Rio Muchacho and returning to the beach town of Canoa, we were given the option to stick around the coast for the weekend so long as we came back to Quito before the start of classes on Wednesday. A few people remained in Quito, but four of us-Laura, Marie, Risa, and I, decided to head north to Mompiche in search of sunnier shores, as it was raining in Canoa. So we parted ways with the group and caught a bus that took us to a crossroads. We all laughed in amusement as we adjusted our baggage on our backs and began to walk down the muddy dirt road that a single sign inscribed “Mompiche” pointed us down. Eventually, a friendly truck picked us up and we arrived in the small beach town. The four of us mud splattered gringas were quite a spectacle to the locals, who bombarded us with their marketing offers, but one, named “Negrito” showed us to a hostel that cost us each $5 a night and opened up right on the beach. Score! It was a hole in the wall and we didn’t have hot showers, but it was really all we needed.
We swam in the water, discovered the amazingness of coconut batidos, ate pizza cooked by an Italian women, and played some card games. The next morning we went for a walk and a boat ride, then headed farther north to Atacames.
Unfortunately, when we arrived in Atacames, we discovered that there was not a single room available to us. We backtracked ten minutes to Sua, the little sister beach town of Atacames, but everywhere we checked, we found “No hay habitaciones.” We were at a loss for what to do. The sun was out, the weather was hot, and the beach with its banana boats was blatantly tantalizing, but we had nowhere to stay and nowhere to set our stuff down to even enjoy it for a little time. For a moment, we all wished we had just stayed in Mompiche.
Then came our saving grace, the “Coffee Bar.” To take a break from the heat and to satisfy Risa’s never ending quest for good coffee, we walked inside and ordered some coconuts to drink from. Marie was smart enough to ask he knew if there was anywhere he knew of that we could stay…and for the first time, we got a positive response. There was a lovely cabin out back. However, it wasn’t yet guaranteed that we could stay there. A couple had already reserved it, but we could have it if they didn’t show, and even if they did, we could stay upstairs in a small room…all for no more than $7 a night.
We were so thrilled that we could stay. We quickly dropped our stuff upstairs, giggling about what we were doing-staying in a…Coffee Bar?...and jumped in the water, enjoying an afternoon of playa goodness that included tubing that cost a whopping $2 each. To celebrate, we splurged a little on a fantastic seafood dinner which was possibly one of the best meals that I’ve ever eaten. I never used to like shrimp…
The inhabitants and visitors of the Coffee Shop were all quite some characters. There was Stalin the chill and generous owner, Tillman the old German man that never shut up, Nacho the creepy 30 year old Rasta-looking man, some boys about our age, the most talkative named Bernardo who swam with me and Risa to some cliffs with caves the next day.(the reason why I have an infected cut on my foot)and a few other girls from different countries like Spain and Canada. We stayed up late Saturday night listening to music and bonfiring.
The next morning passed by slowly. We were informed that if we wanted to leave that day, we would need to go buy our tickets back to Quito in Atacames first thing, but Tillman, who had been our informer, suggested we make expresso and learn to make balon, a common breakfast ball make from banana. Unfortunately, I put salt in my coffee, mistaking it for sugar, but I hadn’t liked it anyway, and making the balons took much longer than we had anticipated. By this point, we were all a little annoyed with Tillman. He showed us around Atacames and took us to the bus station and, sure enough, there were no tickets available until 12:30 on Monday. He also suggested that we make dinner that night, so we went and bought some macaroni and threw some dinner together after we returned to Sua and swam some more. That night we drew in the sand, played games with the boys on the beach (ninja!) and frolicked in the low tide and moonlight before turning in. We left Sua around 10 the next morning after some pictures with our new friends.
I didn’t speak nearly as much Spanish on this trip as I should have. I was kind of the quiet one of the group, but I still had a lot of fun. There’s still a lot I need to learn and maybe a lot of things I personally should have done differently or tried harder to communicate, but it was what it was and I am thoroughly grateful for this awesome experience of a week on the coast, complete with loads of awful smelling laundry, lots of money swapping, two days sin duchas, an infected foot, and many, many inside jokes with three incredible friends.
:)