#punta prieta

[restrictedareas-pr0ject]

Unnamed Road, Punta Prieta, B.C., Mexico

[ecuanora]

So Long Beach Life...For Now

After breakfast we reluctantly said goodbye to the ocean and our quickly adopted beach lifestyle.  We boarded our bus and spent most of the long ride back to Quito sleeping and scratching ourselves (sand fleas are the worst).

It was sad to depart, but I take solace in the fact that I will be back on the beach for spring break shortly!

[ecuanora]

Beach bums for a day

[ecuanora]

Free Day on the Beach

Our final day at Punta Prieta was completely free.  I awoke in the morning to the sound of the waves.  As soon as I convinced myself to get out of the tent, I went for a run on the beach and collected shells.  I spent the rest of the day swimming in the ocean, making sand castles, laying in a hammock, and reminding myself that I am in school right now (hard to tell isn't it?).  

After a relaxing day on the beach we had dinner and then a bonfire.  We swam and rolled in the sand until the roaring fire was just embers.  I didn't want the day to end.  Even though I was exhausted, convincing myself to crawl into my tent was an ordeal.  Can't say I've had a better "school" day so far.

Nora

[ecuanora]

Mangrove wildlife

[ecuanora]

Mangrove cruise

[ecuanora]

Punta Prieta beach

[ecuanora]

Mangrove Adventure

After our final goodmorning by the howler monkeys, we ate a fast breakfast and piled our stuff and ourselves onto an open sided ranchero.  Our first stop was a visit to Ernesto Campo's farm.  Ernesto Campo is a local organic farmer who lives close by to the Lalo Loor reserve.  Ernesto took us on a tour of his farm and let us try many of the vast number of crops he grows on his land.  We saw mango, yucca, sugar cane, plantains, bananas, cacao, coffee, beans, peanuts, breadfruit, vanilla, pineapple, bamboo, and many more.  After the tour he let us try and purchase the chocolate that his wife makes out of the cacao he grows.

Next, we headed to the Punta Prieta beach where we were going to spend the next two nights.  We set up our tents on the beach and explored the resort above the beach.  The hotel is a funky little place owned by, using my professor's words, an alcoholic hippy.  The place was filled with interesting things, from a bar complete with a stripper pole to a lighthouse that doubled as a loveshack.  

Following a seafood lunch, we headed to the nearby town where we got into fishing boats to tour the mangroves.  Along the shore, in the mangrove trees we were able to spot herons, egrets, pelicans, frigate birds (even some with their red pouches out) and iguanas.  As we got to the ocean, we had a wild ride flying over the huge swells in our tiny boats.  Eventually, we turned back and headed back to the beach for a wild night.

We splashed around in the ocean until dinner.  Then the real fun began.  After dinner we made our way down to bar where the owner let us put on music and we had a great time dancing and singing and getting pretty drunk.  One of the girls on the trip had taken pole-dancing lessons and taught us all how to do some of the basic moves.  The highlight of the night was convincing our professor to try the pole for herself.  After a while at the bar, we moved the party down to the beach where we spent the rest of the night dancing and playing in the surf until we collapsed in our tents.