A Pirate Town

Arrival

Kate and I stepped off the bus, hit in the face by the smell of fish, pigs, and salt water.

(I can’t smell of course, since my nose has been broken over a year. But that’s another story…)

Looking around, there’s an empty skatepark and playground to the left, a small tienda (store) & restaurant in front, and a church to our right.

We know the hostel is on the beach, so we begin walking towards the ocean.

The roads asphalt has cracked and little rocks are sticking out, there’s dirt blowing across the road and in the air, dogs, cats, chickens and pigs running all over the streets and piles of cow shit in the road.

As we make the short walk to the beach we head south with the curve of the road which quickly turns to dirt.

Walking past loads of colorfully painted fishing boats, with names on the side like “Pedro Jesus”, “Kevin Emanuel” with paintings of Sonic The Hedgehog, Dragon Ball Z characters, Pokemon, and old cartoons.

Peering into houses as we walk with kids, moms, and families inside. Most houses have a hammock or two hanging in them and dirt floors.

“Hello”, “Hi!” some fishermen are yelling at us, as they’re excited to use the english they know.

We stand out with our backpacks, height, and gringo skin.

Navigating the beach we reach our hostel about a 1/4 mile down, a little backpacker’s oasis.

Free Spirit Hostel

Nestled on the outskirts of this fishing town, beach front, offering yoga classes, surf lessons, surfboard rentals, skateboard rentals, a pool, a pool table, ping pong, fooseball, a bar, hammocks, slackline, activities led by volunteers everyday, and more.

This is the ultimate place to chill, mingle, relax, party, surf, reflect and think.

Vegetarian breakfast and dinner included with your stay, this is the best refuel station for the spirit.

After a long journey, backpackers would land here, and feel like they had a home, and a family over night.

We’ve seen a lot of backpackers ending 4-9 month journeys and this is their final stop.

Every night before we eat (family style - together) we hold hands and one person stands and says something before eating. If it’s someones last night with us, they’re required to give the speech.

Thunder the dog’s job is to guard the property and she does a hell of a job at it.

It’s not just the backpackers that love it, on the weekends a crowd of locals come through and hang out at the bar.

I stand behind the bar, grinning and serving them, only speaking un poco (small amount) Espanol but it gets the job done.

Free Spirit Hostel has a Nicaragua and Ecuador location, both are surf hostels.

Six owners total, definitely know how to make a badass hostel.

They pick remote locations with good surf, making the hostel the place to chill for travelers, yet bringing awareness and travel through the town.

They give back to the community, and help fund local skateparks being built.

I’d check them out.

IG: https://www.instagram.com/freespirithostel.ec/

Website: https://thefreespirithostel.com/

Rocketpower.

We head to the skatepark after dinner with our manager Caro, a Danish girl from the Nica location that moved to this one to run it.

The beach is a hustle, it’s just gotten dark and the fishermen are coming back in.

Street vendors are out, cars, trucks, motor bikes, and boats are pulling up left and right. Animals are running around and the birds are looking for fish left on the ground.

It’s noisy, and as we walk you’re trying to stay out of the fishers way as they walk with huge buckets filled with fish on their shoulders, or carrying boat engines on one shoulder.

“They used to fish late into the night, but pirates attacked them a few days ago and took 8 engines. Now they’re not comfortable staying late into the night incase it happens again.” Caro says as we’re walking through.

There’s a few drunken sailors sitting outside a liquor store hollering at us as we walk by.

The empty skatepark we saw earlier was alive now.

The local schools surf & skate club was there with at least 15 kids skating all between the ages of 7 - 16, and some adults helping them or hanging out.

These kids were insane, no fear and natural talent.

Whipping through the bowl in a train and trying to see who got the most air jumping out of it, grinding rails, flying up a quarter pipe trying all types of different tricks on it.

So cool.

Right next to the skatepark is a cement futbol field, and about 15 more people playing fast paced games of futbol, with hoots and hollers coming out of the fence.

Did you ever watch the Nickelodeon show Rocket Power?

like stepping into the live action, Latin America version.

And these kids are awesome.

Seriously though, any athlete talent scouts looking for untapped talent?

Checkout Puerto Engabao, Ecuador.

I’m pretty sure I provided them with some entertainment of the sorts in return…

Imagine, tall, lanky, white boy trying to skate while these kids run circles around me.

The Beach.

In Puerto Engabao they have a point break, and a beach break.

The waves average height right now is 1.2 - 1.8 meters.

We surf the point at low tide, and beach break at mid to high tide.

It all depends on if the fishing boats are coming in or heading out.

A few half destroyed shacks line the beach front, they look cool and provide shade. on the weekends some open up as restaurants serving killer fried camarones (shrimp) and world class ceviche.

Just down the road is a small bakery selling delicious pastries for .25 cents, I’m addicted.

There’s a few sea lions that hangout here which is supa cool. Seeing them while surfing is always a treat, and they’re really playful.

If you walk down the beach around 6 when some fishing boats come back you see extra fish dead on the beach, stingrays, star fish, eels. The birds hang around and eat most of them, it’s an easy dinner for them.

There was a dead sea lion out there, never good to see.

The beach has a lot of trash that washes up on it, it’s pretty sad to see as well.

There’s a lot of dead birds, apparently they’re fresh water birds that end up here, drink the water and die.

I’ve seen a few dead sea turtles also.

Never good but it’s also cool to see the circle of life first hand.

Routine

Overall, I’ve had a lot of time to think while staying here.

I do stay busy, I do yoga often, surf everyday, bartend 2 days on and 1 day off, and am working on my personal branding side of LinkedIn from my computer everyday.

Focused on the Personal Branding because it’s a good way to sustain inbound clients while freelancing.

If you don’t know what it is, google it or let me know. I’m sure I’ll talk about it more.

I’ve been connecting with some really cool people, and hopping on video calls as I have time to grow it.

I aim to wake up at 6am everyday, and typically make it about 5 days out of the week.

The sunrises are amazing, it’s quiet and just me usually in the mornings, a great time to journal, reflect, and get into some computer work.

But the sunsets on this coast.

Thats A Wrap

Overall this is a super cool fishing village.

It reminds of that town in the first Pirates of the Caribbean where Will Turner and Jack Sparrow assemble their first pirate crew.

Just less rowdy.

I was gonna write about work here at the hostel, and how we found it.

But I’ll save that for next week.

The End.

Cheers,

Eliot

P.S.

If you want something bad enough, you’ve gotta go after it.

No one’s gonna make it happen for you, except you.

It’ll be uncomfortable, but that’s good.

The universe will have your back.