After an 8-hour bus ride from Quito to Canoa, we finally arrived to the small fishing village on Saturday around 7:30am. We took a 10-minute taxi ride to the highly recommended Coconut Surf Hostel. After checking in, one of the hostel volunteers showed us around the hostel and then brought us to the rooftop to enjoy the ocean views. Later that day, my friend and I walked on the beach to Canoa where we browsed the numerous shops and ate delicious seafood. We soon realized that the town was so small that it had no ATM machine, so we had to take a 30-minute bus ride to the large shopping center in Bahia de Caraquez to take money out of the ATM. After returning from Bahia, my friend and I got to know some of the people staying at the hostel with us, 2 people from Germany, 2 from Australia, 1 from New Zealand, 1 from Canada, and 1 from Florida. We all played card games together for a couple hours and then decided to sit in the hammocks on the rooftop to wind down.
On Sunday, we were excited to see that the weather was sunnier than the previous day, so we decided to go on a long walk on the beach. We visited the village and stopped at a juice bar for fresh smoothies. After spending a couple hours in Canoa, we headed back the hostel to prepare for our 12:45pm bus back to Quito. I really enjoyed my time in Canoa and wish that we were able to spend more than a weekend there. I would definitely return to Canoa and Coconut Surf Hostel in the future!
