Mompiche

Buenos dias, beautiful people!

So here it is, we left Rio Muchacho for a while now. We did a big tour which will be presented in two episodes.

First chapter!

After one goodbye night to Canoa, we left for a small village called Mompiche. Over there, we stopped time in order to refresh and truly think about our project and our trip. Mompiche turned out to be wonderful for that because it is the type of place we would live in.

 
Mompiche is a hidden treasure hosting a mere 700 souls. The town is a sweet mix of fishermen, beach (7km of it) and monkey-filled forest. But what makes it so ideal for us is the way it is located. The only real place that could be developped is the center. A little wall is limiting that center in order to prevent erosion. Therefore, the beach is very wide but not accessible during high tide.

The beach is empty (or almost empty) with a big hotel at 1km and few cabinas way further. But then again, all those vacation rental options are only accessible at low tide.

There is no risk of seeing big all-inclusives hotels moving in and still surprisingly, tourists (mainly locals) are still coming all week long (in smal but regular amount).

The Pikero

Soa is talking a lot about kidnapping dogs...

The water is clean, the beach is wonderful, the surfing waves also, there is plenty of secret corners and many lodging options (hotel, hostel, cabanas, lodges, etc.)

 Ian (on top), Argentine, Ernesto (down), ecuatorian, 

and a urugay guy in the back, during the 
qualification game of Ecuador into the mundial 2014

Of course, we went for the cheapest, Pikero hotel on the main street, made of sand. The Pikero is a typical hostel, but with many many private rooms. We were leaving inside an international micro-community. Our neighboors and kitchen mates were french, belgian, american, ecuatorian and lots of argentines.

We can find argentines in every corner of the city. Most of thems are expats, organized or improvised. The organized ones have their own business, their visas, their plan to stay, and the improvised one live out of handicraft, exchange a bed for work or simply sleep on a cloud.

 

From those planning to stay, there is the couple from La Chocolata, little artesanal pastrie-bakery on a corner. Not perfect, in the heart of a rented house, most likely built out of plywood, this business charmed us so much we felt completly hopeless the few days it was close.

La Chocolata owners

This couple, with their tasty simple concept, inspired us a lot for our life project. Soa is even talking about taking baking classses in Quito, no surprise here.

 

Mompiche is also a colored city where we feel like we're walking in a live art gallery.

 

Finally, Mompiche is the fighting ground for the fisherman and the surfing bird. A dozen fishers are hunting the equivalent of a whale of fish while hundreds of birds are filling up the cloudy sky waiting for their Mobydick.

The final moment: the crazy man run, fish barril on his shoulder, from his boat to the parked truck at the end of the beach.
Thankfully, it's a food chain that all players know is inevitable... so the war is mostly metaphorical.

In Mompiche, we hang our worries in space, we float in time like a big hammock in the waves.

Hasta Luego!

Simon y Soa



Bonus : How to warm your girlfriend with raw materials!

Secret beach and hammocks: perfect combination

But the wind is ruining Soa's moment...

Simon's gotta bring the lumberjack in him.

Because even if the end result is not perfect...

The girlfriend is happy after all!