The longer you stay, the more you see and feel.

Ahhh, 30 plus days in Montanita! Time reveals various layers of local life that typically go unnoticed. Vendors and hawkers still smiling while recognizing we don't need that woven basket or piece of costume jewellery. Mui bueno.

National surf champion

 Whitey is always whitey regardless of suntan. Children are so honest and sometimes just stare as we walk by! Kinda funny as we're a bit of a rare sight. One day while walking alone I noticed many faces looking at me, later to realize I had two pairs of sunglasses on, one on my head and the other covering my eyes, no wonder their looking at me! What a goof!  LOL!!! What else have I done without noticing!

The locals LOVE their soccer and daily we watch the action on the beach. They play a soccer type game drawing a rectangle in the sand with a line thru the center. Vollying with feet and heads back and forth with similar rules used in ping pong or tennis. Also there's daily beach soccer where the locals display great skills and strategies. Many wear their national colour of bright yellow with corporate logos looking quite pro.
The predominant catholic fertile families tend to be large with 4-6 kids. They also like to hang out in large groups including pets when doing anything.
One night it was funny to watch the neighbourhood kids playing in the streets setting off an alarm on a chain lock then do the old hide and seek. One father scolded the kids then joined in on the prank. Hilarious!
Another major rescue at the beach, such powerful rips here! Watched two life guards and a surfer save three people! OMG, I came back to the room feeling very emotional, a few tears to release! These lifeguards in Montanita are amazing! Hope they get paid well as they certainly deserve to be rewarded.
To save money we'll bring our own store bought wine to our favourite restaurants avoiding the forty dollar menu wine. At first we did it on the sly then the servers insisted we place our box of Clos wine on the table and even brought out grande sized wineglasses. Gotta love it! Saving money is making money!
On the beach or from our deck we witness many sights including various forms of transport. Para gliders, powered para gliders, hang gliding, ultralights, bikes, motorbikes, quads, dune buggies, surfing, boogy boarding, unicycle, powered unicycle, flying drones (great for filming surf competitions), horses, cows, and a girl running the beach with springy shoes which made her 6 inches taller while bounding along like a Kangaroo.
Every night we'd witness spectacular sunsets followed by the first star and then the distant lights of fishing boats out working the rest of the evening! Never boring. Thank you Montanita for such a great experience, we will truly miss you!

Ceviche!

Fine wining and dining.