A Trip to Ecuador #6

Montanita

After a string of close losses, and not making the cut for the Main Draw of the draw in Aptos and being unable to get back to Los Angeles with enough time to contest the qualifying, Greg weighed up his options and decided it was time, after being away for 3 months, to re-charge his batteries and also to take some time off tournament play to work on his fitness levels. A string of losses in the 3rd set suggests his fitness may not yet be at the level it should be since his injury and he wants to have a rest and then a short intensive fitness training block before contesting more tournaments.



The accommodation

He and Greg Ouelette took advantage of their locality and accompanied by local tennis player Ivan Endarra, they headed up the beautiful Ecuadorian coast to Montanita.

As quoted in Wikipedia "Montañita is a small coastal town located in the province of Santa Elena about 180 kilometers northwest of Guayaquil. Translated as “little hill”, it became famous very slowly, decades ago, as a place only for surfing, with only a few rustic fishermen houses and one or two surfers tent on summer time. Today Montañita is a multicultural beach, with tourists from all over the world." Still pretty rudimentary compared to some resort locations.

Street scene



Night life

A few days were spent in this little idyllic hide-away before the Greg's parted company, farewelled Ivan and began the arduous trip home, via Costa Rica and Guatemala, to LA, the trip made a lot better by being in Business Class. 

With a full-day lay-over in Los Angles, Greg took advantage of some shopping, to avoid the over-inflated Australian prices and indulged himself in a couple of pairs of jeans, a few T-shirts, a shirt, a jumper, a scarf ( for the cold winter in Oz) and more. Saved heaps he says.

Then it was the hard slog back to Australia, his 6'3" frame jammed in a middle seat between two"smelly" people. Not much sleep on that flight for Greg.

Now to work on that fitness...