Upon arrival I walked the 2.5km south from town to the Sundown Inn, an ex-mid-range hotel now a cheap backpacker hostal right on the beach. There Jess, Chris and I re-united with a love as strong as the magnificent waves crashing into the shore behind us. They then related their bitterly harrowing 2 week experience at the Sundown in which they were forced into doing nothing in the sun, surfing and eating fresh lobster and prawns. Also staying there were Eric and Laurel from California and Joe and Martha from England on a tur-de-volunteering through Ecuador. Charasmatic family abuelo (grandfather) Jaime (sort of) ran the place while also teaching the others Spanish a few hours each a day.Canoa was a quiet fishing village and obviously was once `found`by Lonely Planet, because it now boasts more bars, cafes, restaurants and accomodation options (all in the `tourist`end of the price range) than actual locals (or gringos for that matter). Mind you the fiesta-happy locals somehow manage to party and in some cases dance in a ridiculous fashion most nights of the week despite a lack of business. They were also friendly enough and unobtrusive towards us visitors which made a welcome relief from most gringo haunts. The buildings were tastefully developed and several places had beautiful design-work and very relaxed and green settings to chill out in.
The next night I caught up with a SAE crew who were co-incidentally in Canoa on a tour of the coast. It was a grand night of meeting newbies, listening to people holding court amongst 8 others while discussing studying neuroscience and looking for two missing SAE tour members. We also soaked up pounding techno at a beach bar in a rather cliche fashion, but all good. On this night my crew definitely wasn`t avoiding sincerity - at one point I was asked what I write about on my blog to which I replied `oh, just take the piss out of people really` which I of course had to explain what meant. The explanation sunk like a stone, dragging the conversation with it. Not even a `in a nice way` disclaimer could save my evil soul. In process of the missing persons search I was escorted to the police for questioning... That was me questioning them if the would fire up the kick-arse quad bike to give me a safe ride back to Sundown. No, they said, because it didn`t go on the road only on sand. Instead, after a tearful goodbye with SAE, I rode shotgun on a long-distance bus with the drivers for free! Saved $2! The next morning upon jogging to Canoa on the beach I ran into SAE again and discovered the missing persons had been found, but I didn`t quite figure out if this was a good thing or bad.
I swam regularly in the lush and warm surf, relaxed, ate lots and started to read my first adult (not that kind of `adult`, J-nett) novel in Spanish, `The Pilgrimage` by Paulo Coehlo. Slowly. On the Friday morning Chris and I sought out `Coffee & Eggs`, a house/cafe nestled in the scrub and hotels not far from Sundown. As we approached a gated fence I wondered if the family had kids - Chris decided it was to keep the vicious pit-bull inside. Ha ha, very funny Chris. I had gotten just far enough into the yard to not be able to escape an athletic and highly aggressive pit-bull attack when this very scenario materialised right before our eyes. Luckily `Julz` (or something) held off on ripping out my jugular until he could be called off. And as we later found out he was a complete pussy-cat; a `pat-slut` if you will. Canoa`s current (temporary or otherwise) downturn and issue with locals had apparently left the owners closed, by for us `non-Ecuadorians`, no problem. There we drank good coffee.
That night we saw Joe and Martha off and in our wanderings in the middle of town came across what I thought was some kind of African tribe calling in high voices to each other - it certainly sounded like it. It turned out to be frogs!! Trippy. After eating we found a beautifully set designed `eco-lodge` where you could lounge secluded under palm trees while enjoying the perfect sea-breeze and quite ocean ambience. This we did. Without being approached by any staff about buying or anything for that matter. It seemed quite odd that we could just gringo on into a place, sit down and soak it up without having to spend a dime! The other highlight of the night came from Laurel who is a mental health therapist for young sexual offenders and the people that work with them. She kindly enlightened us all on the 8 rules of an Appropriate Sexual Fantasy. Here they are. Take note Thiess.
1. Age. The subject must be within 1 year of age of you and you must be some kind of a relationship with them. The subject must (in real life) give permission or be a made up person.
2. The fantasy must be set in privacy
3. It must involve mutual satisfaction
4. It must involve condoms and/or a conversation about birth control
5. It must involve foreplay
6. It must involve afterplay.
7. The subject must give verbal and physical consent
8. It must not involve force.
Now I was of course fine with ALL of those but there was just one small problem. What if you`re not fantasising about humans? In our subsequent discussion Laurel did use the word `deviant`to describe thoughts and fantasies which I found a little disturbing coming from a mental health worker. Sorry if you`re reading this, Laurel, just my opinion :)
The next day we dragged all our crew to Coffee & Eggs and luckily Julz recognised us at the gate. I brought my Ipòd to plug into the impressive stereo system there and while we grooved away we enjoyed our coffee with milk and all the laptops hooked into the WIFI. Our friendly hosts shared some homemade ginger and orange moonshine and promised home-smoked bacon for the others the next day. As we lounged we saw 2 tourists walk past on the road, we supposed headed for the Sundown which as custodians we had abandoned for coffee. The English surfing couple Niall and Anna soon came back and found their way to our cafe though and we convinced them to stay for not only coffee but Sundown and the Spanish lessons.
We had a nice final night of cards and table tennis and said my goodbyes and retired for the night.
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