Volunteering at Tagua Lodge, Manglaralto...The work we did

Looking back, and summing up our "work for stay" on the Ecuadorean coast, a lot is to be said...

We really felt at home in Manglaralto, and never once felt unsafe.  The town itself was amazing.  Small, nothing too fancy, and easy to walk around in, it ended up being the perfect 'pause' in our travels, and an incredible learning experience.

The hostel, Tagua Lodge, was an amazing place upon entry, but now, after all the work we've done, we feel it's even better!

When we arrived, we walked in the gate, to a nice yard full of trees and plants, and 2 separate buildings and an outdoor, covered kitchen...The back (far) building (2 story), in the rear of the yard, was the owners Luis and Caty's place downstairs, and friends of theirs, Jose and Marga's place upstairs.  The other, front building, also 2 stories high, was four guest rooms, two finished, and two yet to be finished.  Simple cement/re-bar construction for the beams and walls, and the bottom unfinished room was close, but needed mosquito netting, electrical, and a bathroom door.  The unfinished upstairs room needed everything, for it was just bare cement, no doors, windows, electrical, and the bathroom still needed a shower installed.

We started with the bottom room, and Danica began painting murals and walls, and we installed the mosquito netting together.  I continued, by building a bamboo bathroom door, installing electrical outlets, and wiring the hot shower.  This room was to be ours while working on it.  Soon as we were done, we began working on the upstairs room, which needed a ton of work.

 

Mosquito netting on the bottom room

 

Building a bathroom door (bamboo)

D's first imprint at the lodge...

First, I made a railing, which was very necessary, as the balcony was a drop off, and I felt as if I might fall off while carrying up supplies.  We used what we could find around the property, where there was a ton of wood, bamboo of all shapes and sizes, and plenty of hand and power tools, like hammer and nails, saws, drills, screws, etc...

 

 

 

Upstairs railing finished

Danica painted everything in the upstairs room, including a huge lotus flower mural as you walk in, some ocean waves in the corner, and tons of tropical fish on the back walls.  Mark and Carlie, also helpX volunteers, came for 2 weeks, and Carlie and Danica painted, while Mark and I manned the upstairs, continuing construction.  He made some fold-up bamboo windows facing the street, and a bamboo cover for an existing window that showed through, before the ad on.  Mark then did a really nice varnish job over the raw bamboo, and by the time they left, the upstairs was almost done...

 

D's lotus almost finished

 

Mark varnishing

 

I installed a circuit breaker box on the outside wall, and wired the whole room, including the bathroom, and hot shower, lights and switches.  Once connected to the downstairs, main breaker, we had power, and we could see at night!  I added some finishing touches inside, like some bamboo strips to cover the cement edges on the walls, and built a bamboo bathroom door...The room was pretty much finished.

Electrical to the bathroom, with bamboo conduit

 

 

 

 

floor painted, room pretty much done...

 The next project was building and putting up a sign out front, and overall upgrading the look from outside...First it was to build a sign support, and I had an idea to use a pulley and rope above it, which made it sort of resemble a sail rigging on a boat...

 

Support installed...

Building a roof for the sign...

Some palm fronds for the roof...

a haircut...

 

almost ready to hoist up...

Roof's up, and ready for the sign!

Danica's perfectly double sided sign...bout to give Tagua a make-over...

Sign's up, and now for the electrical connection for the light...

 

 

railing at the entrance...

Many other projects took place at Tagua during our time there...I added a ton of new lights to the place, where it was super dark...I made bamboo light fixtures to replace all of the existing outdoor lights, and installed new lights in the kitchen, as the beginning of a kitchen remodel...I added electrical sockets to 2 areas outside, where there were none.  Built some shelves in the laundry area, and put light fixtures in there as well.

Installing an outdoor plug, hidden in bamboo

Another couple, Matthew and Poppy from HelpX showed up, and they began working on finishing an outdoor shower, that had been turned storage space...They cleared the stuff out, and Mathew began skimming the cinder-block walls with cement, then finally plaster.  Poppy added some paintings to the rather dull room upstairs, and we ended up hanging out quite a bit.  I built two hanging wine and cocktail glass holders up on the wall in the kitchen, and then began building a new kitchen counter...

 

 

Tiles atop, and just needing a couple things...

 

 Mathew doing his beautiful varnish job...

 

A brand new kitchen counter!

Looking back, we spent exactly 2 months and 22 days at Tagua Lodge.  We loved it, and recommend anyone traveling to this part of the world, to stay there!

 

Still on the coast...Working for a place to stay

It's been almost a month now in Manglaralto.  We've made some new friends, and have done a ton of work on the hostel.  The last couple weeks we spent sharing the place, and some work with Mark and Carlie, the Australian couple, traveling the world on their motorcycle http://www.rtwbymotorbike.blogspot.com.au/ .  It looks as if we'll probably meet up again with them down the road...

Manglaralto is amazing.  It's small, with wide, mellow streets, with hardly any traffic.  There are some cars and motorcycles that drive around with loudspeakers, selling anything you can imagine, from produce to meat and fish, to kitchen supplies.  Some great deals if you're needing something.  The owners, Luis and Caty are gone 4 days out of every week, working in Guayaquil, so it's usually just us here, holding it down.  The beach is a 5 minute walk, and when the sun's out, it's absolutely gorgeous, and the water is warm.  Ther's a few places to eat lunch in town, for $2.50.  Unbelievably cheap, we love it.  Montañita is a 20 minute walk down the beach, and cabs there are $1.50.  There's 2 internet cafe's in town.  Judging by how we like it so far, I think we could live here permanently some day...

The hostel is home to 3 animals...Zeus, the Golden retriever/lab mix, Laura, the one eyed black cat, and Modoki, the grey Tabby.  They are great pets, and very interesting creatures at that.  Zeus is one of a kind.  He follows us everywhere, and waits outside for us, for example, while buying things from the store.  Right now, he's laying right outside of the internet cafe door, waiting for us to finish.  The cats are incredible beggars...If we're cooking something with meat, they are at our heels crying, and if it's raw chicken, they're up on the counter trying to steal it...Never seen cats do that, but that's one trait that makes them special...

Zeus

Laura and Modoki

Manglaralto beach, on a perfect day

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Manglaralto and Montañita: Pacific Coast

 We found a website, while we were in Panama, called HelpX.net.  It is a work exchange site, mostly for volunteer work in many different countries around the world.  Working for a place to stay, and possibly some meals would potentially help us reach our destination without spending all our money...

After joining the site, we found "Tagua Lodge" in Manglaralto, that was looking for a couple volunteers.  We exchanged emails with Luis a few times, and set up a time to come out to the coast and try it out.  Excited for the opportunity, and to have a place to stay for a bit, we booked it through a lot of Ecuador to get there.

Back on the Pacific again, the last time for us was in Santa Catalina, Panama...It's June, and it's very gloomy out, reminding me much of back home this time of year.  It's very comfortable temperature though, not too hot or humid, and not too cold.  We have been volunteering at a hostel for the past week, helping build on to two unfinished rooms.  Manglaralto is awesome.  It's small, very little vehicle traffic, and everyone is very friendly...The only downsides are, obnoxiously noisy loudspeakers placed several places in town, that are constantly blaring with a local man's voice, yelling out dollar amounts that families have donated...And, there are many people selling things via motorcycles and small trucks, also with loudspeakers, yelling out "Camaron," and "muy rico queso!"  It's a little ridiculous, but those aside, Manglaralto is just what we've been looking for.  It looks like we'll be helping out for another week or so, and looking forward to it...Luis and Cathy, the owners of the hostel, are super nice, and we couldn't ask for anything different.  It looks as if after we are done here, the road will lead us towards Peru...

Montañita on the other hand, is totally different.  It lies just 10 minutes north of Manglaralto...It is an interesting place.  Sort of reminds me of a mix of several places I know so well...Like a cross between Carpinteria, CA, and Dominical, Costa Rica.  Something like that...It's a beachside town, full of bars, cocktail carts, tourist memorabilia, and street food.  It costs $1.50 to take a cab from Manglaralto, and we've now been a few times, to eat and to check out a little of the night life.  Worth a visit, but not for everyone, especially if you're looking for some peace and quiet. 

"El Tigre," sells cocktails on the street right by the beach in Montañita

So far, we love Ecuador.  It's a mellower vibe than Colombia, while still having similarities.  Most things are cheap, especially if they're domestic...Anything imported costs three times what it is worth!  People here are friendly, and the weather, has been great.

Guayaquil: A night in Ecuador's biggest city

We left Baños after 4 nights there.  It rained almost the entire time, and it poured all night last night.  It was pretty cold, so we decided to add to our very beach oriented attire, and each bought local made Alpaca sweaters.  Kind of ironic because we will be spending some time at the beach for a bit...Oh well, they will definitely come in handy down the road when we visit more of the Andes.  Baños was great, apart from someone swiping Danica's camera in a local bar...Maybe Aguardiente and taking photos don't mix...We'd love to visit again, but now it's a night in Guayaquil, which is Ecuador's largest city.

We jumped on the bus this morning, and were told it was a direct bus to Guayaquil...An hour down the road, we stopped on the side of the road, and were told this is where we reconnect to Guayaquil.  The connecting bus was apparently already on its way, and our driver was in the middle of the road screaming at him to stop.  The bus kept going, and the driver of the previous one gave us our money back to catch the next one, which luckily came about 15 mins later right as it started to rain again.

About 8 hours later, (and two movies later), we arrived in Guayaquil, to a gigantic bus terminal station, right next to the international airport.  Just one mellow night here, search for a new digital camera, and we're off in the morning for the coast.  Maybe we'll visit more on the way towards Peru...

Baños, Ecuador

We took the bus from Quito to Baños on Monday evening.  It was only $3.50, and it took about 4 hours.  We arrived in Baños to be greeted by a little rain.  It was pretty damn cold.  We walked about 5 blocks from the bus stop to find our hostel Transilvania.  Everything in Baños is cheap.  We found a traditional Ecuadorian lunch for $2.50, which included a big bowl of chicken soup, a plate of rice, beans, chicken and salad, and a drink.  Baños is a touristy town, but is still the destination for Ecuadorians on their weekends, and vacation time.  It's small, and easy to walk around town.  The view from our hostel balcony included a waterfall in the not-so-far distance, and green mountains surrounding us.

On the bus, heading to Baños

The view from our hostel room at "Transylvania"

Quito, Ecuador!

After getting to the bus station in Tulcan, we jumped on a bus, almost immediately headed for Quito.  Buses in Ecuador are roughly $1/hr. and Quito is about 5 hours from Tulcan, hence it was 5 bucks.  Very reasonable.  The bus ride was fine, other than a million stops along the way.  We found it kind of funny how many food vendors jumped on and off the bus within the 5 hour journey.  At one point, there were at least 6 or 7 people selling all kinds of different food, yelling out loud, "Pizza! Salchicha! Platano! Helado! Hamburgesa!" as loud as they could, fighting for business.  We finally made it to Quito at about 5:30pm, and jumped in a taxi across the city towards our hostel for the night.

So far, Ecuador seems amazing...

We spent two nights at Hotel Koala, which is really a hostel.  It was a nice place, with two kitchens, and a beautiful upstairs deck looking out over the city.  We barbequed the second night, on their small grill up on the deck, with some great local produce and pork chops from the store right down the street.  

We checked out of the hostel, and left our bags in their storage space, along with Agustina and Juan, the Argentinian couple we met, and together, we took the Teleferico up the mountain for an incredible view.  We really recommend it!

Volcan Pichincha up top

 

Ipiales: the church and the border crossing

Ipiales is Colombia's border town with Ecuador.  It's not much of a sight, as most border towns aren't...If you end up in Ipiales at a decent hour, I highly recommend taking the 10 minute cab ride to Santuario de Las Lajas.  It's an amazing cathedral spanning across an enormous gorge, with a river running below it.  The entrance is free, as it is a functioning Catholic church.  The cab only costs a few bucks from Ipiales, and you can leave your bags at the bus station.  We spent about an hour checking out the church, walking around the trails to all the different view points.

After finishing up at Las Lajas, we jumped back in another cab, which cost 4 bucks for the 2 of us, back to Ipiales (bus station).  We retrieved our bags, and jumped in another cab to the actual border crossing, which was 2 bucks a piece.  

Once at the crossing, we walked to the Colombian immigration office, got our exit stamps, and began walking across the bridge to the Ecuadorian office.  The process was very simple, didn't cost anything, and we were in another cab to the bus station in Tulcan in no time.

 

The border crossing