Ayampe

Day 1 – Casa Azul, our own little Beach House

Okay so I’m not going to dress this up, the next few blog entries, other than today, are going to get pretty repetitive, boring and finally dwindle out!

Our plan was to book a little holiday home in the middle of nowhere and do nothing. After being on the road for so long we were both desperate to have a bit of a holiday from our holiday and just chill out and relax. There’s only so much you can say about getting up late, going to the beach for a swim and then lazing in your hammock reading. Pure paradise but it doesn’t make good copy….

The day had arrived which we had both been looking forward to, we would be moving into our AirBnB, a little beach house (£17 p.n) for a week to spend Christmas.

Our plan was to catch a bus from Montanita which would take us over the mountain and into the next bay of Ayampe. However, it was an absolute scorcher and we had noticed that the bus stop had absolutely no shade and nobody could really tell us when the bus would turn up. This, together with the fact that google told us that it would take 2.5hrs by bus and 20 minutes by taxi was the deciding factor, we would treat ourselves to a taxi.

We weren’t due to check into Casa Azul until 12 so we got up and had a lovely late b/f and smoothies before packing up and jumping in the taxi.

The journey took us past some stunning scenery and it wasn’t long until we were turning into the dusty one horse town of Ayampe. Following the directions the owner gave us, we quickly found the beach house (wasn’t difficult, you just found the road by the sea). 
 

 

We were greeted by Teonila, the lady who looks after the house on behalf of the owner, Pepe. Teonila speaks absolutely no English but very VERY fast Spanish! Despite my ‘No hablar Espanol’ and Glenn asking her to slow down, she babbled on at a pace and we were quickly given a tour of the house.

 

The house was a little more basic than we had anticipated. Firstly, no cooker, only a hob which quickly killed our ideas of cooking a proper Christmas dinner. We also couldn’t find the advertised Washer/Dryer. That was until we went outside and around the back where we discovered a sink and a washing line and presumed this was it.

But, what we did have was our own space! Air conditioning, a downstairs kitchen/living room, bathroom and a little porch outside with a hammock. Another hammock on the upstairs veranda, a huge bed with a much-needed mosquito net, plus another bathroom. Heaven!

 

After a lot more babbling and showing us the little private gate that led to the beach, Teonila finally took her leave! We spent some time excitedly jumping up and down for a bit, did the usual opening and closing cupboards and drawers, before deciding we needed to head out and get some supplies.

Ayampe is a sleepy small village with a handful of restaurants and hostels. It doesn’t have a supermarket but one general store where we were told we could pick up most things. Pepe also told us there was a fruit and veg van and a fish van that came around daily, perfect!

The village proper was only 5 mins walk and we were soon outside its only general store which was closed! Peering in, it looked like the owner was in the middle of having lunch so we decided to do the same. We found a lovely little restaurant where I managed to convince Glenn, who isn’t a big fish lover, to try Ceviche. Marinated fresh, it took a while to turn up so we treated ourselves to some ‘welcome to Ayampe’ beers.

 

After the Ceviche (Glenn now a convert) we headed back to the now open store to get some supplies. First things first there were beers which was a relief. However, there wasn’t much else in the way of fresh produce. After poking at some meat that looked like it had seen better days, we opted for tinned tuna and a salad (not knowing that tuna was to feature quite heavily on our menu).

We dragged several bags of beer and a small bag of groceries back home and as it was now dusk, decided to save our dip in the sea until the next day and crack open some ‘welcome to Casa Azul’ beers!

The evening was spent chilling on our veranda, watching the sunset and drinking ice cold beers out of the fridge. We like it here!

Day 2 – Puerto Lopez

The morning was spent doing some much needed washing in a bucket and the outside sink, before heading to the next town to see if they had better meal options available.

We were told you could get a bus at the top of the road so that where we headed. It wasn’t long before we boarded a lively local bus blasting out Salsa and cruising along the 20/30 minute journey to Puerto Lopez.

 

Puerto Lopez is a largish coastal town with one supermarket, we headed there first to get an idea of what hob top meals we could muster together. Pretty good, as it had mince for Glenn’s now famous Chilli but no chilli Peppers so we went off to find the fruit and veg market we were told about.

After a lot of searching we finally gave up and settled on buying a bottle of hot sauce, that sorted we went for a wander along the front and to find a bar to have our ‘welcome to Puerto Lopez’ beer

 

The beach was clean and had a few cabana’s selling fruit juice and cocktails. We settled in a bar opposite which looked cooler where a lively waiter called Antonio kept us supplied with ice cold Cerveza’s and tried to tempt Glenn to a bottle of the local hooch, he declined!

After too many welcome beers we went back to the supermarket, cleared them out of wine and caught a taxi back home.

 

It was time to check out the beach. After negotiating with the many keys, we finally found one for the lock and was on a pretty little surfers beach with just a handful of surfers catching waves.

Now hungry, we headed back home to shower and enjoy Glenns home cooked Chilli (the hot sauce worked!). The rest of the day was spent chilling on the veranda, sunset and beers!

Day 3 – Chilling

So, here’s where the blogs start getting shorter. Today was spent chilling in hammocks, a dip in the sea, a bit of exploring over some rocks, trying to get rid of Teonila and her daughter who turned up to check how we were and discovering the fruit and veg van which had chillies!

 

We did attempt to hire a surf board but after discovering how expensive they were ($20 for 2hrs), we opted to come back when the surf looked a bit better and we had more energy.

The evening was spent on the veranda, watching the sunset…….

Day 4 – Christmas Eve

We headed back into Puerto Lopez to pick up supplies before the Christmas shut down. The bus seemed to be operating on a xmas timetable so after waiting for about 40 minutes, we decided to jump into a shared taxi, together with a couple of tourists, and head for town

 

There, we picked some supplies, it’s going to be Chicken Fajitas for Xmas dinner, and quickly caught the bus back home.

The rest of the day was spent, lazing in hammocks, going for a dip, sadly discovering a huge dead turtle being attacked by vultures (we liked to think he was an old fellow who died of natural causes), sitting on our veranda, blah blah blah

 

Day 5 – Merry Christmas

Our Christmas pressie to each other was our little beach house. So, with no pressies to open, we made the most of it by playing Christmas tunes, laying out bowls of crisps and chocolates and loading up the freezer with ice cubes, ready for our Christmas dark rum drinkie pooh’s.

 

Just getting ready for our Christmas dip (much warmer this year), Des and Mum managed to connect with us on skype and we were soon toasting each other over the camera and merrily chatting away and catching up. That was until Teonila turned up!, Christmas bloody day!.

In an attempt to get rid of her, I explained I was talking to my folks in England and introduced her to them on camera. She didn’t budge, in fact she started to look around for a chair to settle in, fascinated with the technology and seeing herself on camera. Next, Glenn tried to make her shift, explaining that everything was fine and she should go and spend Christmas with her family, nope, she helped herself to some crisps and stood over as I chatted with Mum and Des.

Finally giving up, we said our goodbyes and after Teonila waved to mum and Des, we switched off Skype and she promptly left! Ah well.

We headed to the beach for our xmas dip and watched the Pelicans dive into the sea to catch fish, pretty amazing to see. There were a few surfers out having a xmas surf too (we must hire that surf board soon!)

 

Back home, we showered off and I managed to connect and have a chat with my dad ahead of the agreed time when we would be speaking to Glenn’s Family.

It was lovely to see Sandy, John and the rest of the family on camera and toast each other. Technology is great! You don’t feel so very far away from your family when you are able to skype each other and share in their Christmas celebrations.

The rest of the day was spent eating our Christmas Fajitas, drinking our xmas rum and sitting on the veranda, watching the sunset…….

Day 6 - Boxing Day

The only notable thing that happened today was that we decided to extend our stay in our little beach house until after the new year. Neither of us fancied the idea of heading back to Montanita, or heading to the capital, we would see the New Year in at the beach house instead.

 

Hammock, swim, veranda, blah blah blah

Day 7 to Day 10 – Ditto

Other than still not hiring a surf board, the next few days was generally doing nothing interspersed with the odd dip, veranda, sunset and dealing with Teonilla or her daughter.

 

We did venture out one night for food only to find half the village was in blackout due to a power cut. Tinned tuna featured quite a lot on the menu as we never did see the fish van.

Day 11 – New Years Eve

Waking up fairly early for me (Glenn not Shell) we spent the morning getting the blog right up to date (Shell) whilst I did a few household chores, our last washing load, going to the shop to get NYE beers and repairing the upstairs shutters.

 

In the early afternoon we watched a few documentaries on our pc before going for a walk along the beach and checking out the pelicans diving in and out of the water.  It was also an opportunity to get a few more pictures for the blog as we hadn’t taken many.

 

As it was really hot we wandered around for a short while before heading back to our digs where we had a snack of a sandwich and some nibbles to finish off the contents of our fridge.

Not really knowing what to do with ourselves we decided to stream the xmas Eastenders to see what misery was served up this Christmas, whilst we cracked open some beers.  We actually really enjoyed it and ended up watching a few episodes (sad!) whilst polishing off the remaining beers and bottle of red wine we had left.

It was now getting late so we thought we would head out to see if anything was happening in town.  We sat down in a restaurant only to be told it was just shutting.  There appeared to be a party for locals but nothing else so we went to the local shop to get a couple more beers to see the new year in with.

 

Going back to the house we then headed through our back gate to see if anything was happening on the beach.  It wasn’t so we just sat on the beach for a while and had our beers.  As there was literally no one on the beach and NYE hadn’t actually been that exciting we decided to resolve this by having a NYE skinny dip.

Stripping off and leaving a torchlight to guide us back we strolled down the pitch black beach until we hit the water which was still pretty warm.  Running back up the beach we finished off our beers before going back into the water for one final dip before we left Ayampe the next day.

We then headed back to the house where we showered and then finished the dregs of our wine off on the Veranda, seeing in the new day, with a couple of fireworks in the distance,  before heading to bed.  Happy New Year everybody