san vincente; ecuador

After a lot of time in the mountains and the jungle, I felt like going to the coast again.
In Ecuador you can do like a zig-zag between the coast and the mountains, but since I wasn't planning of spending that much time there I left out some places. Actually a big city with a beach, or a small party town with a beach, didn't really call my attention.
So I took a nightbus from Quito to the pacific coast, but instead of going all the way back down south, I went pretty much straight to a small city called Bahia de Caraquez. On the other side of the bay lies the village San Vincente, a typical small fishing village, standing in contrast to the business like Bahia de Caraquez.
I decided to cross the bridge and find a place to stay in San


Vincente, because it looked just nicer and not as expensive as Bahia.
It wasn't hard to find a place to stay, since there weren't many options. I decided for a bigger place, right next to the main part of the village, and across from the little fish market.
It was a very simple room, but it was okay. I got rid of my stuff, and took a shower. I still find it incredible how the climate changes within 8 hours from one place to another, and since I came from the Andes to the coast, I was dying in the heat. And I was hungry.
What I love about small places is, that it's always easy to find a good and cheap place to eat. In San Vincente there was a variety of little stands along the main road, selling a fish and onion soup called "encebollado". I think it was one of the best breakfasts I've had until then, apart from the strange Ecuadorian habit to eat popcorn along with everything.
After that I went to find a place with internet, and tried to find out what to do. I liked the village because it was very roots, and it seemed like not many tourists got lost here.
I found out about a place called "isla del corazon", the island of the heart, close to San Vincente. It was a mangrove reserve on an island shaped like a heart, and supposedly you could do a tour around there and watch the variety of bird species living there.
I took a bus, and told them the village where I had to go to. They dropped me off there, and I found out that I should've gotten off at the port, not the village. I was a little clueless how to get there now, and just when I started to walk back, a boy from the community on a motorcycle told me to hop on, and gave me a ride.
It wasn't far, but things like this just make me happy.
When I got to the port, I was a little confused and didn't see many people around. Someone came up to me and offered me a tour, but when I asked the price I discarded this option, and just sat down net to the water and read my book. 
After a while one of the guys working there came up to me and started telling me about their project; the whole island was an environmental project, where they had started to plant mangroves again to support the recreation of their biodiversity. Within the last decades, it had been decreasing almost exponentially and many of the species had disappeared - with the mangrove forest many of the birds had started coming back and their colonies were flourishing again. It was altogether a community project, providing work as tour guides for some of the man and protecting their ecosystem, with support from several NGO's. They had built an information center, and even rooms where you could spend the night. There was also a kitchen and something like a restaurant, even though there were no tourists there except for me.
After talking a while to the guy, he told me that they wanted to invite me for lunch, and since I was starving, I gladly accepted. 
They were about 4 or 5 guides and a cook, this day only sitting around in their hammocks. We had lunch together and they kept asking me questions and explaining me about their project. They also told me I could've stayed the night, but since I already had a place to stay I had to decline the offer.
After lunch one of the owners of the little boats came, and they repaired something. When they finished they took me on a test ride, along the shore and he also tried to take me to the protected area. But since I wasn't with a tour guide, the rangers there wouldn't let us in.
Still, I enjoyed the short ride and was happy having met such friendly people.
I went back to San Vincente some time in the afternoon, had an early dinner (what I really love about villages on the coast is that all menus include fresh fish), and spent the evening  taking pictures on the beach.

When I got up the next morning; I decided to go for a run to the other side of the bridge and think about what to do next. 
So I crossed the bridge, and had planned to run up the hill on the other side. I followed street, some steps, and then, all of a sudden, I landed in the woods. The was a lonely wooden hut, and I started to feel a little uncomfortable. Then the owner appeared out of the nowhere and scared me to death. Moreover, he told me that this was a dangerous area, and I shouldn't spent too much time around here. That explained my weird feelings.
I promised to leave as fast as possible, and the guy told me he would check on me on my way back. Fortunately it wasn't hard to find a way to the road, and from there I didn't go left, as I had planned, but right, in direction of the city of Bahia. 
I found myself on little streets and stairs, winding between some houses. There also was a huge cross, where you could climb up the stairs inside and so get to the top and enjoy the view.
When I got there the whole area was closed, but soon an old man appeared from the house across with a key and let me in.
That's another thing I love about those non-touristic places: everybody is just happy to see you, talk to you and people are much friendlier.
From the top I could see the whole bay, until the Island of the Heart.
I took another way back down, having decided that after breakfast, I would pack my stuff and spend another day at the community project. When I was waiting for the bus, I happened to run into one of the guys from there, also on their way back with some materials. They took me with them, on the back of the truck.
When I got there everybody seemed happy to see me again, and they borrowed me a room, to store my things and sleep there if I wanted. 
This day I also got lucky to find some other tourists there, doing the tour around the island. In the beginning I still hesitated, but then the guide, Francisco, told me I should just go and not worry too much. He took us to the other side of the island, where a colony of frigate birds was living. I'd seen them before, but only in a documentary about the Galapagos Islands, and was excited to see them now in real life. We also saw a variety of other bird, of which I unfortunately forgot the names.

At the end we entered the island, and did the wooden circuit they had constructed through the mangroves. It was a type of forest I had never seen before, with muddy ground and mangroves, the strangest tree there is. Between their trunks were holes, where the red crabs lived. 
After the tour I had lunch with the guys again, and since I also took some food with me, I shared my salad and invited everybody a cookie I had brought for them. The atmosphere was relaxed, and it was a beautiful day again. I also gave them all the pictures I had taken throughout the tour, which later turned out being a big mistake.
In the afternoon, some of the guys took me to the island again, to do some crab fishing. This time we left the wooden construction and climbed around between the trunks of the mangroves, looking for the holes. There, the guys just stuck their arms up to the shoulder into the mud, trying to catch a crab.
Unfortunately we weren't lucky and it seemed like all the crabs had disappeared. 
Back at the center everybody went home, and they left me by myself. I joined some kids, playing around in the water and took a swim in the last sun.
Then I put up my mattress and got settled for the night. It was kind of strange being there all by myself, but they told me there would be a night guard as well. I slept outside, but on the second floor, next to the door to the information room where the guard was.
It was a strange night, more so as the night guard left in the middle of the night and I only saw his shadow with a machete in the hand passing by.

The next morning I got up early, and packed everything. I had some bus rides waiting for me to get to my next stop, and I don't like arriving at night.
I left the isla del corazon community with a heavy heart, since they had received and treated me most friendly until the end, and I felt like the whole community was full of good people.