We rode a bus from Mancora to Guayaquil, Ecuador and then to Montañita. The reason for coming to Montanita is to attend a Spanish school here. We have decided that our travels will be more fun and meaningful if we get our Spanish skills up to speed. So we have registered to start classes on Monday. We are staying at an airbnb in a small village named Manglaralto, which is about 2 miles south of Montañita. It’s peaceful here with no tourists, whereas Montañita is a serious hippie surfer town with lots of partying and tourists. A colectivo (public bus) costs 50 cents to town, so it’s definitely worth it to stay out here. And plus, it has been so interesting to see some of the fishing methods they use here!

Here are some pics of our airbnb (about $25 per night)

We went for a walk yesterday and went by an inlet from the ocean. It looks like a small river and has lots of mangroves that remind me of Florida. There were several guys in the inlet and they were pulling a net through the water. They were all laughing and having fun and were very friendly. I said “Ayuda” (help) and pretended to jump in the water and they all got a kick out of that! As they were walking in the water with the net, they pulled out several fish and put them in a bag. When they got to a big bank of mangroves they stopped and pulled the net up around the trees, presumably to chase more fish out. We continued walking so didn’t get to see how many fish they caught. They seemed to know what they were doing, so hopefully they got a decent catch.

Here are some pictures and a video :

This morning we saw another really interesting fishing method. Apparently a boat had strung a large net in the ocean and two rows of approximately 20 men were pulling it to the shore. When the entire net was pulled to shore several people picked the fish out of the net. We were able to purchase several fish called Sierra. The cost for approximately 12 fish was only five dollars. We will use this to make something we’ve developed a taste for: Ceviche! Ivan filleted them and we have them soaking in salt water. After they soak, we’ll add lots of lime juice ( this is what “cooks” the fish), onion, hot pepper, garlic, green pepper, tomato, salt and pepper. Let it marinate for a bit and then you have a really tasty dish called ceviche!

Here are some pictures and videos of the fishermen on the beach!

One last thing. Ivan was fascinated about the little crabs on the beach that will chase after anything that might be food. So he kept a chicken bone from our soup at lunch yesterday and found a small spool of fishing line at a tienda (small store) near our apartment. He strung the chicken bone on the fishline and proceeded to tease the little crabs mercilessly! It was hilarious! Give it a watch 😁😆