Ayampe, Ecuador December 2015

I recently did a solo surf trek to Ayampe, Ecuador. Herewith, my ruminations.

Travel to....
So, in the course of this trek I made a few mistakes. As you would on any trip, right? My flights, DCA-MIA-GYE on AA, were fine. I just effed it up because I picked an arrival time of 2am at GYE. And then AA never put my boards on the flight from MIA-GYE. Landed, cleared Immigration (very friendly locals at airport), then stood around for an hour waiting for boards. Then stood in the long lost baggage line for another hour. By the time I finally emerged from the airport & got to the waiting taxi guy it was daylight. And then another 3 hour drive to Ayampe. This one stung. Started the trip exhausted & never really felt back up to speed.

btw, AA is the only airline who will deliver the lost boards/luggage to your hotel. Which, they did: 3 days later. By contrast, if you fly on LAN or Avianca & they lose your stuff, you have to go back & retrieve it at the airport when it finally arrives.

Lodging...
Stayed at 6-room hotel in Ayampe. Run by American expats. Really super nice people. Room was fine, basic accommodations, comfortable & clean. As I went to sack out for a couple of hours upon arrival, that's when the construction on the tile roof immediately above my room commenced. Break out the ear plugs. Break out the noise cancelling ear phones. Finally pass out from exhaustion even with the hammering & chopping 10' above my pounding cranium.

Food was excellent & plenty of it. The food felt better, hard to explain but my body responded rapidly to the fish, the natural foods without processing. Beer good too.

The owner is a tremendous surfer. One of the best I've ever seen. Short board ace. Knows every single break & when & where waves will be breaking, like stone cold. Impressive local knowledge. Hotel owners very generous people. A really cool place.

Surf, Wind, Weather...
Lucky at love, unlucky at surfing? Oh, wrong cliche. Well, my luck with the surf was not great. Onshore wind the entire time I was there. I mean it was pushing the flag on the beach horizontal. The locals kept saying, it's never like this for this long, never. Well...my karma was not in a good place, my apologies fellas.

So perhaps my take on the surf isn't what you should say is 'the story.' My experience was that for a week surfing there it was tough conditions. I surfed very poorly. Because of my crappy surfing, no other reason. Felt like a major batting slump.

Having said that, this is what I encountered.

Constant sideshore paddle. Impossible to sit on one's board or else it's into the rocks 1/2 mile down the beach you go. The swell sweeps around the north headlands & piles down the beach creating really intense barreling rights. But. Also creates a mass of moving water. So, you're literally constantly paddling facing north, parallel to the beach. That's how my week felt: paddling north. Sometimes giving up, like some of the locals, catching waves & getting pushed way down the beach, getting out, walking back up.

 

Weather is tropical. Overcast nearly the entire time I was there. In winter it can be overcast for weeks. But the sun is very strong (Equatorial) when it's out, as it was for a few hours my first day. Bring serious sun block & lip protection.

The first couple of days it was DOH. Barreling, shifting beach break a ten-minute walk north up the beach. This wave is no joke. For experts only. Which, I am not. Rumor has it Brett Barley is heading here soon for a photo gig.

You have to play the shuffle game: hang out & try for medium waves, which were OH, & then paddle out like hell to try to either catch or avoid getting demolished by the DOH set growlers. Then scoot back in to catch waves during the long lulls in between growlers. As the locals say, you cannot take your eyes off the horizon.

The waves were a range of conditions: DOH growlers to gentle waist high, longboard surf. Like all beach breaks, many closeouts & dependent on swell direction for rideability.

Stingrays the size of dinner plates. Shuffle, man, shuffle.

Rental boards are not an option. It's a tiny village. One surf shop, which just opened. You have to bring your own boards, bring all of your own gear & bring ding repair & extra supplies. Give away some wax to the locals.
There's a terrific point break located a few minutes outside of town. Great, sweeping lefts with a mellow paddle back out. No crowds.

Speaking of crowds? Uh, no. It's actually kinda nice to see a couple guys out. That's really all you'll ever get for company. The worst I saw was 12 surfers over a couple miles of breaks. Yah.

Locals have some talented shredders. Totally mellow ocean scene. Everyone smiles & nods, give waves get waves respect is easy & people hoot you into waves. Nice vibe, always. Nobody on the beaches when I was there.

Bring bug spray: mosquitoes will devour you.

 

Food & Drink
Excellent restaurants in town. Very affordable. Dinner w a couple cervezas, $8. USD is the official currency. Very friendly people everywhere.

More
Guayaquil is one of the places I hope to never encounter in my travels again. It's a dirty, grinding, crime-ridden sprawling concrete air polluted cacophony of the worst drivers I've ever seen. And I've been around, and have driven in dozens of countries. The locals all had stories of being robbed at knife or gunpoint. You just don't go to ATMs at night, apparently, anywhere in Guayaquil. Gringos are major targets. The thinking is that because you have, it's acceptable to rob you.

The Ecuadoran drivers like to run over the dogs who wander onto the roadways. I saw this happen three times. The drivers do it on purpose, particularly the bus & truck drivers. This is some sick stuff that bothers me, immensely. Saw similar actions in PR - - another reason I don't have much desire to return to PR.

Several houses & restaurants under construction. Land very inexpensive. House & land with short walk to beach is $120k & up. Plot of land near beach is $40k.
Can build near beach or on hills w view of Pacific.
Heavy development is coming within 5 yrs., you can see it looming.
Be careful if you buy here - - there's two types of land titles. You'll pay a bit more for the 'real' land title. Seems worth it to avoid having to deal with some local dude claiming his grandpappy owns your land & your new house. Heard several of those horror stories, too.

Everyone here says hello to one another around 'town.' You don't need a vehicle in Ayampe. Very safe place, 180 degrees different from Guayaquil. So far, the locals get along with the increasing influx of gringos. Welath & shiny things changes all, though - - time will tell what happens here.

I didn't surf Montanita. And too tired at night to make the 20 minute drive over there. Big party town, lotta all-night booming music & noise, lotta drugs, hookers, and a pretty good wave with lots of good locals on a narrow take off spot. You're likely better off in Ayampe if you want to surf.

Would be easy to lose track of the days in place like this.

Travel from...
Taxi driver picked me up $100 to airport is the one-way fee. Reasonable for 3 hour drive. He fervently genuflects at least a half-dozen times before starting the engine. I'm looking at him doing this, he finally looks at me & says, "Highway very bad, muy peligroso."

He is a great driver, and he was right about those roads.

 

I appreciate the props, guys, I really do.

To answer HH's query, the people at the hotel were nice enough to lend me (no charge) the only stick there. It was a 7'6, can't recall the brand. It had duct tape for the nose, several massive patched craters in the deck & because it was waterlogged, paddling it was akin to paddling one of those Indian dugout war canoes with your hands. I actually caught a couple big waves but usually....denied!

My take on it was, oh well, at least I'm on a board & the paddling for several days is good for shoulder strength. As I silently cursed American Effing Airlines.

 

DPSUP, never any offense taken with you, thanks mang, you nailed it: there are better options for the money.

Slash, yes, yours is the tantalizing & difficult question that I spend far too many hours pondering!

I'm basing my answer on overall live-ability & my experiences on location, not just the waves.

Of the nations / distinct locales that I've been to & surfed, which are Barbados, Uruguay, PR, CR, DR, France, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Hawaii, California, right coast USA, Israel, Thailand, Colombia, Trinidad & Tobago my picks would be 3 months in Barbados, 3 months in CR, 2 months in France & the rest of the time in the good ol' USofA. I'm kinda ducking & weaving here on your question

If you pinned me down as to which one foreign surf-nation that I've been to would I retire to, probably CR.

If you pinned me down as to which one surf-nation anywhere would I retire to, I still would like to experience places in Indo (although I would never ever retire to a Muslim-run/majority nation) as well as the Virgin Islands (Tortola), Portugal, Cuba & several other places in Asia.

I have a half-baked idea that living near Wilmington or Jax would be ok. Utilize the digs there as a jumping off place for extended surf treks to everywhere.

Seems like living in ILM or JAX the cost of living is decent, waves more often than not, granted not world-class but neither am I, very close to international airports for the extended 3 month surf treks, Florida lower taxes certainly a factor & the USA is still, IMHO, the easiest place to live on the planet from a convenience / pretty good quality of life aspect. If I really found 'the spot' to set up long-term, I'd then do so.

Long answer, sorry.

 

You taking the cash or the 30 year payout lol

Hope you nail it.