23 hours in the air

Aistė | Travel | June 16, 2010

We have spent half of the year in Mexico. We worked, we rested, we windsurfed and kitesurfed, we were lazy, we were in the island, we were catching waves… Baja was good for us. Still we’d be lousy travelers if we would sit in one place for too long. It was time for us to move on.

We left our car “Zelionke” in La Ventana. It is waiting there for its buyer or… us (if we would decide to come back) Also we left a lot of wonderful people who became our friends and we will surely miss them.

We were traveling to Ecuador. From La Paz to Santa Marianita (small fishermen village 2 degrees South of Equator) – more than 4000 km. Our decision to come here was influenced by very friendly and helpful locals and, of course, the pictures of long and beautiful waves. We still don’t know how long are we gonna stay here, however, you can find us here at least until the mid July.

We had layovers in Mexico City, Bogota and Quito. Final destination was Manta. We wanted to reach our destination as quickly as possible, moreover, we traveled with all our kitesurfing and windsurfing equipment, thus we had no time to explore these cities. So we saw only fancy airport in Mexico city. This was the first airport for me that had a contemporary art gallery full of really impressive art works. On contrary Bogota airport wasn’t fancy at all. However, I, as a dogs lover, enjoyed a perfect opportunity to watch Bogota customs dogs at their work. We spent a night in Quito. We were really tired, thus, everything was a little bit annoying. Flour sweeping machine, personnel… Even the fact that for overweight luggage we had to pay only 68 ct/kg was annoying.

However, once the plain got up into the air, we were bewitched by the views of Quito (which by the way is one of the highest capitals in the world). It is situated 2,8 km above the sea level. Thus, tha plain was flying among the huge and impressive mountains and volcanoes. We were even more lucky – we were going up together with the sun. It was really hard to get our faces off the window. However, this flight was only 30 minutes long and in no time we were already landing in Manta.

Nicole and Wladimir from Humboldt kites greeted us in Manta airport. They have put all of our equipment onto their VW Bus and drove us to Santa Marianita where morning breeze was already blowing through the early clouds.

We are here for four days already. Kited three. Enjoyed a little wave on Saturday. The climate here is incredible. Though the village is almost on the Equator, it’s not too hot. Though the sun is right above the head and is intensive even through the clouds, it’s really fresh. Still the Pacific here is really warm and the neoprene is not needed.

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