Whales and Surfing

In my last post, I talked about our new found freedom in not having to plan anything for the future for a couple of weeks. Well I'm glad to report that we still have managed to keep that freedom but its definitely a struggle! I have this nagging feeling that we shouldn't be here. That we should be looking up flights from Columbia to Brazil and planning what we want to do in Columbia while we're there. I think in large part the ability to avoid all this is where we are. We're currently on Ecuador's coast. Here in this location happens to be over 300 humpback whales who come here every year to mate and have their calves! Since that was one of Suzanne's goals for this trip, we decided to take a dreaded overnight bus to see them. Below is a couple of pictures of these huge but graceful creatures!

Suzanne's super-excited face:

From Whales

From Starred Photos

From Starred Photos

Suzanne loved them so much that we went back the next day. Unfortunately, I happened to get sick that day and ended up barfing over the edge of the boat! But afterwords I felt much better and the tour continued!

From Whales

From Whales

While we were down here we decided to check the surrounding area and then we found out that just an hour away was the surfing village of Montanita Ecuador! Since I had been wanting to do surfing ever since my appetite was whetted in Peru, we put the rest of our plans on hold (yes!) and headed down. After getting some antibiotics from the 14 year old pharmacist in town for my stomach, I was feeling good enough to go surfing the next day! So today was the first surfing day and it was fantastic. Suzanne opted for just a body board since she thought she would enjoy that more. I felt like I improved considerably from the first time. I think the reasons for this was that the ocean floor was sand (instead of rocks) so I could walk my board up to the waves instead of paddling constantly. Next I think my shoulders are a bit stronger due to their previous beatings from last time. Anyway, I was getting up pretty consistently and now my goal for tomorrow is going to be learn how to turn the board and follow a wave. At least that's the plan.

So for now, that's where we are and what we're doing. We're liking this place so much we think we'll stay another day at least before heading back to Quito.

~Mike