Getting stuck in Montanita

Joined this week by the legendary Hugo to discuss his travels and how he came to be a volunteer in Montanita, Ecuador! Including:

• ​Surfing in Hong Kong
• ​Diving in Ko Tao
• ​Snorkeling in the Galapagos Islands
• ​Volunteering in Montanita
• ​The infamous "poop" story
• ​& much more!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
3 jet setting through the neon lights from Tokyo to Rios.
Go riding high, the beef drops low.

(00:27):
Number one everywhere he goes late night with stories ball
gold plated and tails untold microphone his mighty sword.
Podcast world he can't ignore. Welcome to the Up in the Clouds

(00:48):
podcast featuring your host Adrian Hustling.
What is up everybody? Welcome back to another episode
of the podcast. If you've been following my
socials, you'll know that I was in Montanita for the past two
weeks and it was fantastic. Spent the weeks just surfing,

(01:09):
laying on the beach, taking naps, relaxing.
And then the weekends we got a little rowdy.
We got into the partying a little bit.
The first weekend was actually along weekend for the Ecuadorian
people and all the locals flooded the town from nearby
cities to go out and have a goodtime.
Well, good times were had. Met a lot of good people.
Shout out to my little house, great little hostel where we end

(01:33):
up staying for the most part. Like I said, great people, great
volunteers, great vibes. It was very hard to leave.
We actually tried to change our bus ticket to stay one more
night to do the open bar but unfortunately didn't work out.
And I'm here now in Cuenca, justhere for a few days, and they're
going to be hopping across the border to Peru and then over to

(01:55):
Cusco to meet my boy Luke from back home, who previously was on
the podcast. Check out the American road trip
episode. And yeah, we're going to be
doing Machu Picchu, and I'll be sending the next month in Peru.
So super excited for that. It's going to be full of a lot
of hiking and outdoor activities.
So I think that's going to be a good time.
But Montanita has a special place in my heart now.

(02:16):
It had a lot of hype going into it, and it definitely lived up
to the hype. So great little spot down in
southern Ecuador. And today you're going to be
bringing on Hugo. Hugo is one of the volunteers.
My little hose. He's an absolute beauty German
fella, so I apologize in advance, but no, I'm just
kidding. Uh, great interview.

(02:37):
He was able to share some of histravel stories and then he dived
into the whole volunteer experience, particularly with my
little house and some of the stories and some of the things
that he has seen happen over themonth that he spent there.
So Montanita, easily place you can get stuck in beautiful
little beach town. Couldn't recommend it enough.
But as you know, I don't like talking to myself.

(02:58):
So without further ado, let's head on over to the interview.
OK, well, this time I'd like to welcome on our next guest to the
podcast. He's an absolute legend on local
mountain Eden, or at least that's how long he's been here.
He's the host of volunteer and fearless leader who's always

(03:19):
first to rally the troops, whether to be for a day of surf
or a beer pong tournament. He comes from Germany, so I
apologize in advance and he'll certainly make sure you know it.
The first to help, the last to leave the club and the one who
who refuses to be beaten in beerpong.
Hugo. The undeniable and almost

(03:40):
undefeated champion, as they say.
Almost, almost, almost. Up until recently, Up till
recently. Yeah.
Is that the first time you? Left.
That was the first tournament I've lost.
The first tournament. In a month of Montanita, I have
been undeniable. In every Fear Pong tournament, I
have taken home every picture ofMojito, Cuba Libre or whatever

(04:01):
they gave me. Yeah.
Until last Saturday. Wow, Doctor, down to earth.
Dark Day in History, I would say.
What about the quiz? Like Chris doesn't count the
number. We cannot play on the Chris
cause I'm too smart and already know all the answers.
Seriously, they're just don't change the quiz.
It's always the same. They're kind of lazy here.

(04:23):
Yeah. Go off to talk to.
Dave, about that one, certainly easy.
Yeah, definitely. Poor man.
Well, there's always something to do at the beginning of every
podcast interview, and it's called Speed Round questions.
OK, I'm gonna give you 2 options.
You pick the option you like thebest, but it's speed Round, so
as quick as it can. Yes, I know you're rolling the
joint. Right now I'm.
As quick as I get. Your dialed in I love it.

(04:45):
Here we go. Volunteer paying customer.
Volunteer Tuesday morning shift or Sunday morning shift?
Someday, Yeah. Work at the bar or reception.
Work at the bar. Yeah, beach or mountain.
The beach. Love them both.

(05:05):
Techno. Reggaeton.
Techno from Germany what the fuck bro?
Well, I know, but I gotta ask for.
Yes, I'm sorry. Sorry.
Yeah. After it or take it easy.
Take it easy, Take it easy. OK.
We take it easy while it's getting after it bro and that's
why I'm always high. Bro you're chill guy, chill guy.
Sunset or sunrise? Sunset.

(05:27):
Serve or beach volleyball. Surf.
Beer pong or quiz night? Beer pong.
Thought you Thought me or you. Definitely me.
Not it. Yeah, I've won the last 1-2 nil,
don't you remember? Everyone listening his line
right now, he's lying. He's got the beer pong.
I'll give it to him, but last one did you?

(05:48):
Yeah, 2 nil it was. I had Argentina, you had Croatia
featured 2 nil penalty and NO32AB232.
Oh, that's right. Yeah.
I mean like come back. And then I hit the power shot.
Yeah, that was a nasty shot. I was beautiful.
Yeah. Yeah.
We've been playing a lot of human mounting with, that's for
sure. I never even really played much

(06:08):
before long. So it's like a boot camp here.
You had if. You spend enough time here you
get good at quizzes, beer pong and FIFA pretty much.
And you try to get good at Sir. Yeah, yeah, but that doesn't
happen, bro. I've been doing a mom for I
still suck. Yeah, it's just pretend.
Like I always take the small boards and then just lay on them
backwards imitating Chicken Joe.So nobody asked me to actually

(06:29):
serve because they think I can. Then they don't need to see me.
Oh, you look like, you know you're doing out there.
I mean, you balance on it prettygood.
But yeah, that's right. I didn't really see you catch
any loose. Spot off the whole illusion.
Did you surf before you came in Montanita, or?
No, a bit. I once went surfing when I was
like 15 or something in England and after that my last table was

(06:53):
in Hong Kong. Hong Kong when surfing in the
big wave Bay in Hong Kong with my Big Brother.
What? The heck is the big wave Bay?
Other than Obviously it's a big wave, but.
It's the literal only paying allof Hong Kong, which is not a big
country, to be honest. Yeah, but it's the only way in
all of Hong Kong where you can go nothing.
And as somebody who had the lasttime saw five years ago in

(07:17):
England, in the Wall, the waves are small and chilly.
The big wave Bay was maybe a little bit too big for us, so we
just spent the day getting absolutely fucked in the ocean.
That sounds like a good day, butyou're in the wave.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now what's a good one?
OK, well, I was gonna ask you, Bill Montanita, but now I'm

(07:37):
curious about Hong Kong. How the hell did you end up out
there? And what were you doing?
So at the start of my trip I went with my dad to Shanghai.
Shanghai. Had to work in Shanghai and he
has a friend there. Yeah.
Who moved to Shanghai 20 years ago, married a rich Chinese
woman. Long story short, I had royalty

(07:57):
treatment pretty much in Shanghai.
Get driven around in a Maybach with a driver, whatever,
brilliant star dinners all on his cost.
It was fucking amazing. And after that, before I made my
way down to Southeast Asia, where I would actually start
traveling on my own, I stopped in Hong Kong, where my brother
has a friend from university that he met in San Francisco.

(08:18):
He was studying over there. Yeah.
And then we spent two weeks sleeping on that guy's parents
floor and a tiny minuscule apartment in Hong Kong, going to
two different boat parties, celebrating Halloween in the
streets of Hong Kong, and just getting absolutely smashed every
single night. And also smoking weed in a very,

(08:40):
very restricted country. So yeah, that was a fun time.
And I can tell you, Hong Kong, these bitches go fucking crazy.
Really. OK, there are different kinds
and they like the gringo. Just they like.
If you think they like the gringo here.
Yeah. Go to Asia, Really.
Actually, no, I, I kind of believe that because you look at

(09:01):
like countries like Philippines or Thailand, all the old white
guys go over there and find themselves a white wife, right?
So kind of like your dad's buddythere in Hong Kong.
Exactly. Yeah, no, but he actually got a
fucking businessman. He got a good one.
Yeah. She's like, smart man.
Yeah, damn. OK, no, it was nice.
So many questions are sleeping on the floor and then obviously

(09:23):
weed over there is illegal, right?
Like even. Smoking a highly illegal, but
you can get weed from Thailand. Yeah.
So as we know in Thailand, it's legal by now.
It is legal. It is legal in Thailand.
They try to make it illegal again this New Year's, but it
failed because everybody was like, guys, you made it legal.
Everybody built their living nowon weed shops, right?
Like in every street in Bangkok,there's at least one weed shop.

(09:46):
Wow, real. Families depend on it.
I had a guy, yeah, but weed fromand Katao, where his little
child was always just sitting inthe corner and he was watching
it because he had nobody else todo it.
And really sitting in this weed shop.
Yeah. No.
And you can import that. Ty Kelly is what we call to Hong
Kong. Yeah.
And then we went to this dudes apartment and it was just these

(10:11):
two very rich hunting these guyschilling on their couch smoking
weed. And then we went to the kitchen,
they gave us our pack all of a sudden from the door behind U.S.
Open. And there was also just this
servant and little child both sleeping one room over folk from
where there was smoking all the weed.
And like the whole place stank. It was just crazy.

(10:33):
Holy shit. Like rich people who don't give
a fuck about their child and just kind of bad.
Yeah, yeah. But that's the people you get
the weed from in Hong Kong, OK? It was fucking.
Good and it was good because I find the weed here is not very
good. Like it's not very strong.
Like I smoke a joint back home and I'm I'm sitting on the
couch. I'm pretty, I'm pretty blitzed,
but here I I barely feel it. Yeah, you see those the size of?

(10:57):
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, that's why I have the endless pipes.
Yeah, for everyone listening, you just rolled massive blunt
and he's about to smoke it and it probably won't even do that
much to be honest. I smoked the bigger one just
before we started. Because.
Yeah, there you go. Exactly.
You have one every 15 minutes just to.
Keep it going. Apologize for the coughing that
might occur. It's all good, It's all good.

(11:19):
No worries, buddy. OK, so you did Hong Kong.
That's that's crazy as it is forsomeone that's never been there.
Is there something you'd recommend if we're going there?
Obviously you had a different experience with getting the.
Yes, so treatment, but I had theabsolute best experience, kind
of got thrown into the international, into the life of
an international exchange student in Hong Kong, pretty

(11:41):
much. OK.
And that was sick. Yeah.
But even if you don't do that, you have to know that
accommodation is expensive in Hong Kong and partying is hella
expensive in Hong Kong. Because it is expensive.
Or the booze is very expensive. Really.
Like what are we? Talking like $7.00 for beer. 7
for a beer. Wow.

(12:02):
Expensive. Expensive.
Yeah, unless you go to Mr. Wong.Mr. Wong is the number one
student bar in all of Hong Kong.OK.
You go there and you pay 50 HongKong dollars, which translates
to €5 roundabout, which, yeah, no like 8 Canadian dollars.
That's cheap, yeah. Something and then you get he
has like 2 of those big ice cases filled to the brim with

(12:25):
only ice pulled beer. Yeah, and for those $50, you can
drink as much beer as you want the whole entire night until the
police shot shows up and shuts the place down.
And that's that's a common thingis the police show up and say
you're. Done.
Single night. Really.
Every single night. And Long live God.
But still before that get fuckedup and then go to the club.

(12:45):
So clubbing and partying in HongKong is fucking amazing.
Wow. And what most people don't
think, cause it's like very small, it's still has a
widespread of very nice and verypretty nature.
OK, that's actually a great place to visit.
And I say cultural bias. It's close to China, but very
more open and friendly and non restricted.

(13:05):
OK, so my opinion, nicer than China.
Yeah, having only seen Shanghai.See, I know nothing about Hong
Kong. I couldn't even tell you where
it is on the map, to be honest, so there you go.
But I'm gonna get to that side, hopefully after Australia just.
Have to go swimming? Go to the beach right here.
Go swimming straight line you make.
Straight line. OK, OK, that's doable.
Just me in the surfboard or I'llbe like that guy that sailed

(13:27):
from Oregon to Hawaii. He seemed to gain some
popularity. Yeah.
Yeah. So it's like an open bar concept
here then, right? Exactly.
But it's only beer and it's a bit more rough because you get
it yourself and you're like sitting on these what the
general female age? You're just sitting on the
little as plastic chairs that are quite uncomfortable.

(13:47):
Well, they actually have chairs because usually it's just like
little cushions, right? Or.
In the inside was talking about sitting on the street like.
Next to a subway station. Always people passing through
it, getting that kind of like they're getting annoyed by you
as well. That's why the police shows up
every night. Right.
OK, it's a common theme. Yeah, we're podcasting right
now. I don't know if you knew this,

(14:08):
but I have a treat. She escaped to listen.
Uh, well, you want to talk aboutSoutheast Asia a little bit?
Like where did you go? What did you do?
Before you tomorrow. So I flew from Hong Kong, I was
debating if I should fly to Indonesia or Thailand to go
diving and then I looked at the rain radar and saw that the big

(14:31):
rain cloud was moving to Indonesia.
So book my flight to Thailand. Got to Thailand, got out of the
plane into my hostel and as soonas I stepped outside of the Uber
it was pouring down as hard as it could.
Then still went to the islands down South, went diving on
Cotai. It was kind of shit, yeah.
It didn't see much. But the island was still

(14:53):
beautiful. Cortana is amazing.
I'd be in there. Yeah, riding around in like
thunderstorms on your like, Muppet, just shirtless in the
rain because it's hot as fuckingraining and it's just beautiful.
OK, I like it. Well, yeah, I experienced that
moment. Tape a little bit.
I was out on the scooter and just torrential downpour,
couldn't see a thing. Everyone's pulled off to the
side of the road. I'm like, why are they pulled

(15:14):
off? Oh, that's why I yeah, but I
just kept going. Yeah, no care.
It's nice. Yeah.
Now and then after that I went up north.
I have a friend in Chang Mai next to Chiang Mai who works in
a school for poor and refugee children.
Oh wow. OK, yeah.
And she's there for years. So I came to visit.
Yeah, with another friend of mine.

(15:35):
We toured Pai Chiang Mai and theschool for a bit and then I flew
to Malaysia, where did Penang with a group of friends before
heading to Vietnam and travelling up all of the coast.
Yeah, the whole coast. Yeah, doing the Hujiang Loop
before going back to Thailand for New Year's, down South again
on Topanga and then did Malaysiafor real with my parents for two

(15:57):
weeks. Holy smokes, man.
So you've done some traveling there.
I've heard about that loop. Yeah, I had another friend.
Come on, Ashley, you spoke aboutVietnam and doing that loop.
He highly recommended it. What was your thoughts on
Malaysia? Because I've heard some mixed
reviews. I didn't like it to be like,
it's beautiful. Don't get me wrong.
It's beautiful countryside. It's just amazing culture, I

(16:18):
guess as well. Yeah.
But I felt like they just didn'twant you there as much.
Like in Thailand and Vietnam, the people are like, delighted
to see you and everybody is always friendly and happy.
Yeah. And I know that stems from a bad
place of like they needing the tourism and everything, but in
Malaysia, like even if you don'tneed it that much, still be nice

(16:39):
to the people. Like I had a fuck off attitude
and a lot of restaurants, real hostels that stayed only in a
few hostels, 2 to be exact. But both of them were kind of
social, but still not friendly social.
Yeah. So it's kind of weird.
OK, so weird vibes, yeah. Yeah, no.
And but other than that, food isamazing, beautiful landscapes.

(17:02):
It's not. Just not yeah, yeah, openly
received as well, because that'sthe one thing I've liked about
Ecuador is everyone seems to be super receptive to you and like,
super helpful too. Yeah, I've been a little closed
off all of it because I had a bad experience in Cartagena
where a guy tried to scam me andbasically demanded money and I
said not a chance. And ever since then I haven't
been as like, open to meeting locals or talking with them

(17:25):
because I always think they wantsomething from you.
But I've realized here in Ecuador, like 90% of the time,
they're just being friendly. They're trying to help, which is
being nice. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Yeah. OK well let's Fast forward cause
the reason I brought you on is we're here in Montanita.
Yes, still here 2 weeks now. It's been an amazing two weeks
and I want to know how the hell did you end up here and what are

(17:48):
you doing here? So yeah, after I finished all of
Asia, I did Panama and Colombia before coming down to Ecuador.
Made my way the usual through Quito, over Cotopaxi, down
through Banyas, and then in Banyos already.
I decided that I wanted to volunteer someplace, OK, And

(18:08):
then send out my application to different places here in
Montanita, got accepted by the Hidden House and here decided to
go through this place. And I'm forever grateful for
that. That's a good call.
Yeah, Yeah. And ever since then I've been
kind of stuck here, had a littlebreak going to the Galapagos.
But yeah, Montanita has a special place in my heart.
So afterwards I texted David, told him I had to come back.

(18:31):
He said no, fuck, you were fool.I said, ah, it was like very
upset for two days. And he said somebody canceled,
come on. And I was happy again and went
to Montanita. OK.
Oh, I thought he was kidding with you.
He was. Serious.
He was serious. He was like, you can come back
as a guest, but you cannot volunteer.
Wow. And then I was like, OK, then
I'm doing Peru. But then you said somebody quit,

(18:52):
somebody cancelled. So I came home OK, And they
should be thankful, bro. I've been running this place.
You really have, though, honestly, like anytime I need
something, even if you're not working, I'm like, yo, Hugo,
like you've got it. You've got it dialed.
So yeah, I'm a veteran. You're a veteran.
That's right. Well, how many weeks has it been
now? We've passed a month, passed a

(19:13):
month accumulative, We've passeda month.
Right, so you did. Why like 3 weeks before
Galapagos? Yeah, 2 1/2 eleven days.
Galapagos now exactly 2 weeks. Yeah, fuck man.
And I'm saying another 8 days. Yeah.
And where did you find the opportunity like what website
are? You using?
I used work away. Yeah, it's pretty much it

(19:34):
doesn't matter which one you use.
You just have to choose one and then you pay for one and then
that 1 is good. So you have to pay like.
Yeah, you have to pay for all ofthe good ones like well, Packers
work away and all of those are not free.
If you can search the places, but you cannot contact them
until. You have the membership.
Really. OK, well, I guess they gotta

(19:54):
make money somehow. Yeah.
So how much is it for? Like I'm guessing it's monthly?
Or no, it's I think I have a either half year or a year pass
for I think $60.00. 60 bucks Wow, OK.
Which I've saved here at least in like yeah stays that I've not
paid yeah and also I've thought about I wanted to do it on the

(20:16):
Galapagos originally but it didn't work out the texting me
actually when I went there like when hostel hit me back but.
Yeah, fair enough. Yeah, good to have a break too
though, right. Cause like even though it's
volunteer, it's pretty chill, you still are on the clock.
So it's nice to take a break from that and.
Just yeah. Also, the lifestyle of Montanita
is beautiful. I love it, but it's not healthy.

(20:39):
No, no, no. Well, now.
It's healthy in the sense we do a lot of shit.
We go surfing, we go gym, we go eat, we go good, Yeah, but we
also sit around smoke joints anddrink a shit ton of alcohol, so.
But I mean, that's, that's anywhere, right?
Delapa goes no. OK, maybe.
Not glass was detox. Yeah, drank 2 nights and didn't

(21:03):
smoke weed for 11 days. Really.
Wow. OK, it didn't take it with.
You switched it off like this. Yeah, well, I can do the same.
But I guess that was kind of Patagonia for me because I've
been traveling now for five months and every new country I
go to I keep saying like all I won't be as like party oriented,
it'll be more chill. And it's never the case.

(21:23):
But I wanted to Patagonia for three weeks and I was able to
same thing, detox like no weed, not a lot of drinking.
And it was it was a nice reset. OHP yeah, but Montanita is like,
it's fun, but only it's that bad.
I mean, you can get into troubleif you want, but you know, at
least you have the week is pretty chill, pretty quiet, and
then the weekend, mainly Saturday night is the big night

(21:44):
out, right? Yeah, you always have the
Mondays, which kind of take a toll.
Of course. Like last Monday I lost my shoes
didn't don't remember the night,just like my last memory is
leaving the beach and then returning to the beach 4 hours
later with a woman is the next memory.
So it just in my mind, I never left the beach.

(22:05):
Yeah, fair enough. One for people listening.
Uh, the hostel, we're out here, my little hostel.
They have open bar night every Monday.
Exactly. It's $8, eight to 12, all you
can drink vodka and rum mixes and mojitos and Cuba libres.
Yeah. So yeah, people get fucked up
for little money, and it's always fun.
The only bad part about Mondays is that suddenly it's Monday.

(22:29):
It's Monday and if you gotta work Tuesday morning, which is
why I asked in the speed round question.
It's it's not a great time, but it is a great chance for
everyone in the hostel to get together and actually get to
know each other. So I think it's a good, good
idea for sure. But people definitely get out of
hand too. Yes, yeah.
Yes. Every single time.
Every time I actually held off, I was pretty good.

(22:49):
Do you know that, for example, we have a guest here staying
whose name is Luca, He's from England.
He stayed at the bar that we went to, Well, apparently went
to, I don't remember. Yeah, he stayed at the till 10.
AM the next morning. Oh my God.
And then walks back here, the long walk of shame.
And then slept till the next evening.

(23:10):
Wow, yeah. Yeah, that'll happen though.
It will happen, it will be fun and then you go to another town
for three days to just chill outand come back for the weekend.
Well, look what Harden I did. We went to the burbs for a few
days just to get away from the chaos.
Yeah, that's what Luca did as well.
He went to a guava or something some town over.

(23:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, you kinda need to, right?
Cause you have the weekend, you have your Friday or Saturday,
maybe even your Monday if you'redoing open bar.
And then, yeah, like we went further down the beach to
hostile Sylmar had private rooms, we had the whole place to
ourself. It's right on the beach.
It's super peaceful. Stay there for three days as a
perfect detox. And then we got kind of bored

(23:52):
and we said, hey, we're going back to the hospital to have
some fun. So, well, and I know it's a
common strategy among people here, right?
They come to the hostel the weekend, like, you see it fill
up and then during the week it'scompletely empty.
Everyone takes off. Yeah.
Yeah, we have a few hot Co guests that stay here like weeks
on weeks on end, Yeah. And we have also a few regulars
that come in from the Have you met Gustavo the.

(24:14):
Only. The only long haired blonde
Ecuadorian I've ever met. Gustavo is a buff, blonde
Ecuadorian guy that has pretty much every drug you could ever
need on him at all times. Yeah, and he's a regular.
Like, I've met him three times already.
He comes by like every three. Weeks.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he's, he's close by,

(24:35):
right? It's just a short bus ride away.
And yeah, I remember when I met him, I did not realize he was
Ecuadorian. I thought he was like Australian
or European. I had no clue.
He's a funny guy though. So what's a day-to-day for you
look like? Because I'm sure people
listening, they're curious aboutthe volunteer lifestyle.
Maybe they're interested in doing it.
I know I am personally, I just haven't had the chance yet.

(24:57):
Was your day-to-day look like? Like how many hours you're
working? What kind of things do you have
to do? Like how strenuous is it?
Yeah. So generally it varies.
It very much varies. I only have this experience, but
as I've been told in other places, you actually have to do
shit. Here, my day consists normally
of waking up. If I don't wake work the morning

(25:19):
at like 11, stumbling out onto the patio, getting my job starts
at 2:00. And then I just have to be here.
Pretty much, yeah. I circle around the hostel,
check the toilets, if everythingis clean, clear out the kitchen,
drying rack. And generally, like you said,
I'm pretty much just trying to be available.

(25:40):
So whenever I get caught by the boss man or the other boss man,
Adrian, as a guest, I have to belike, yes, Sir, respond and just
be helpful with whatever there is to do.
Even if I have no clue to do it.Then I'll just be like, yeah,
wait, let me call somebody. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly how many? How many hours are you working?
I work 6 hours so from 2:00 to 8:00 but it varies so if it's

(26:04):
not full and like there's nothing to do.
So we got some, we got some background noise here, but it's
the only private spot in the hospital.
Do the podcast so. Yeah.
So there's an overlap from the evening shift, which starts at,
which starts at six. Yeah.
And the afternoon shift, which ends at 8.

(26:24):
Yeah, like anal. Since you're good, man.
So sometimes it's OK for the person that works later to start
later or the person that works early at finish earlier.
Yeah, that's just play it by ear.
We're eight. We're 7 volunteers at the time
again. Yeah.
So pretty much there's always somebody around.
You can just be like, yeah, I had to head out, grab something,

(26:46):
you cover me. Yeah, there's more volunteers
here than there are guests. Yes.
And during the week, yes. Yeah, yeah, I've, I've never
seen anything like it, but I think it's kind of cool to be
honest, because it brings you closer together too, right?
Like you're hanging out all the time, you're working together,
so. Yeah, yeah.
I remember when I was first herewith me and Rose, Yeah, Dutch
girl I was working with, and we were the only two volunteers

(27:10):
only. So we had one day off a week.
Wow, that like switched off pretty much every shift.
Yeah, that would be, that would be a lot harder.
Yeah, and then did you meet Alex, the British volunteer that
filled in after me? No.
OK, he was here for a week, completely alone.
Alone. Alone.

(27:30):
Ohhhhh. My God.
So what? Him and David, Yeah.
Yeah, him and David and Nico washanging around downstairs, Yeah,
which doesn't really help, though.
No, no, definitely not. Yeah.
Oh my gosh, I couldn't imagine. So maybe that's why they have
more now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I guess it really just depends when you get here how lucky you
get. Yes, definitely.
OK. And then did he ask you for like

(27:52):
a minimum time frame, like two or three weeks like?
They always specify on walk away.
You can check what they are looking for.
And I already texted him saying only have 2 1/2 weeks because I
want to go to Galapagos on that date.
Yeah. Yeah, and then they said there
is no problem. And now when I came back it
wouldn't matter because as I said, we are a shit ton of

(28:14):
volunteers. So if somebody leaves, we we
also like have two guests saying, you know, that one or
two volunteer and like people asking all the time.
So yeah, if you want to leave now, after a week, you can
leave. Yeah, it doesn't surprise me
that people want to volunteer. Like I would do the same if I
could stay longer, for sure. Now, just for everyone listening

(28:34):
that's not familiar with Monica,do you want to give Malaya the
land? Maybe kind of what you can do
here? Maybe some of the best places to
eat or go out? Just give me an idea of what the
town's like. So yeah, Montanita is very chill
surf town located on the coast of Ecuador, down from Guayaquil
now. Up from Guayaquil actually.

(28:55):
So north of Kill its three hours30 minute bus ride you get here
and it's a 2 parted. Town.
With a river in the middle. On the main part you have a gym,
a lots of food places, little shops, souvenir places and a lot

(29:15):
of bars and clubs. So that is pretty much where all
the life is really happening. That's where the action.
Happen where the action happens perhaps?
Yes. And then you have the right side
of the river where the hostel isand then you get further down
the beach. There's more hostels, more like
private hotel areas, like whole lodge facilities, whatever.

(29:37):
Yeah. And what you can do in Montanita
is pretty much hang out, chill, ride bikes around the landscape,
but most importantly surf, go tothe beach, eat good food, smoke
some weed and party hard. That's it, That's it right
there. And the surf, the surf I'm on
the itself, it's pretty good, but I think Olans preferred in

(29:58):
terms of beginner. Level.
So um, staffing exactly depends on your level.
If you're a good safe, Montanitais a safe bet to bet on because
we always have to point. The point is a point break.
As you can tell by the name, yeah.
So good waves, rocky bottom, yeah.
So only if you really know what you're doing, you supposed to go
there because it can be very dangerous, especially the

(30:19):
currents around the point, like if you try to peddle out,
especially if it's low tide, yeah, it gets very strong and
pulls you so. Don't fucking.
Do it. No.
Yeah, but the beach break in Montanita is OK if you hit a
good day or loan is a cheap option.
Just one $1.50 for the taxi ride.
It's the next town over, and thebeach break is just.

(30:41):
More consistent and better. And it's only 5 bucks for a
board rental ray, whereas here it's, you know, 10:15 depending
where you. Go.
It's also 5 but 5 for the hour. We as the My Little House House
will have a special deal with the Long Surf school.
So you get it for $5 for two hours, which costs normally $8,
and if you take it for three hours, it cost $8.

(31:02):
Yeah, see, I didn't know that. I didn't know that.
So there you go. So well, you know, useful
information. I mean, I've only been out
twice. The one time I went with you
guys, the one time I had a lesson, the lesson was a ton of
fun. There's I got him from 30 bucks
down to 25 because we just stayed here in Montanita, ended
up riding 7 or 8 waves. It was.
That was worth it, I'd say. Why did you not do through the

(31:23):
hostel? We offered 15.
I didn't know, man. You never told me.
You never asked on the board. Yeah, I never.
Did if you want to go, I think our David.
Yeah, it's 15 bucks. 15 Nothing.Wow, it could.
Be 20, but still. Who's my instructor, David?
No, we have a guy here and also you can do it in along OK with

(31:43):
one of the guys there. Well, there you know, so
everyone listening, there you go.
Just. Stay in my little house and ask.
David Exactly, exactly, David, Always be here, right?
David is leaving and is he August?
Yeah, really is traveling Germany and then opening his own
hostel in Montanita again. He's opening his own muscle.
He had his own hostel before he closed that down, Yeah, then did

(32:05):
whatever, and then Nika called him to help out here two years
ago. Wow, so he's been here two
years. Yeah.
That's crazy. I need to bring him on too.
He has some good stories. If you had a hostel, that's kind
of the the goal. I don't know like how you feel
about that is traveling has madeyou wanna maybe open a hospital
or do something like that, but Iwould love to open a.
Hostel it's like. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(32:29):
Cause I was in Nicaragua. There's a group of eight of us
and Nicaragua, there's still some places that aren't fully
developed. The land super cheap.
You could easily build a hostel for like probably 50-60
thousand. And if there's eight people in
on it, like that's a pretty cheap investment.
So we we talked about it like we're bullshitting, but the same
time like kind of serious. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(32:51):
I see that could. Very much so.
See that right because. If you can do the hostel, maybe
you run it for a little bit so you get the right volunteers,
the right workers, and then you only have to be there 6 months
of the year, maybe even less andyou have the freedom to go do
what you want and just make sureit's running alright.
So I think that would be awesome, but.

(33:11):
Yeah, exactly what you're saying, like not stay there all
the time, just like circle back and forth for you, it's easier.
You're from Canada, bro. I have to fly halfway around the
world every time. Well, yeah, well, that's fair.
I mean, if I'm doing Central South America, yeah, for sure.
It's a little easier. Yeah.
Wow. How long is the flight from

(33:32):
Germany? It's like you fly to Madrid or
whatever and then I think I flew11 to 12 hours to Panama.
Oh, so you went to Uruguay? No idea, I flew to Panama.
Panama, OK, OK. Yeah, Panama City was 12 hours
direct flight from Madrid. Yeah.

(33:52):
And then from Panama City to. No, it's the sudden.
Panama. You started Panama?
So actually that was better thanmine, dude, because I started in
Nicaragua and I had to take three separate flights down.
I had to spend a night in Texas.I went, Where did I go?
Texas, Miami and the Nicaragua, yeah, there's like no direct
flight. Crazy.

(34:13):
Well, least the cheaper ones anyways.
Maybe if you spend more about now.
Any stories for Manzanita that you want to share?
Some fallen memories or something silly or goofy that
happens? Not to put you on the spot, but.
No, it's OK. The thing that directly springs
to mind is the shit incident to be honest.

(34:34):
The shit incident. The shit inside.
Oh boy. So this is this is before your
time. We get a lot of shit stories on
this podcast, actually. It's kind of funny.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stuff like that fit the.
Feet So the shit story um, this was before your time when I was
first here yeah and I was staying down in the volunteers
room all by myself until three surfer dudes arrived but stayed

(34:56):
um first in the shared dorm withregular guests but were deemed
unfit for regular guests so wereput to me with me like in my.
Room I would. Do you mean unfit for regular?
Like they were just loud and I'mlike OK, not nice to have
around. Pretty much, yeah.
OK, so I got deemed worthy to get that punishment.

(35:17):
Whatever. Wow.
And then they went out drinking on a Monday after we had the
open bar. Yeah.
And I go to sleep and I wake up the next morning.
She like, loud noises. And what had happened was that
the guys came back from partying.
Yeah. And one of them was so fucked up
that he just decided in the moment at like 8:30 to go into

(35:43):
the kitchen, pull down his pantsand shit on the floor.
Ah in the and not like a little shit bro.
That thing looked like it came straight from a bear.
Oh my. God, that was that was juicy.
Yeah. I was like 8 inches and like,
what? Thick.
Yeah. I don't know what that man ate,
but like, it was compressed. Yeah.

(36:04):
Wow. He got his fiber in.
Oh my God. And then he went to sleep and
Nico found the shit. And then he directly went to
pull the guy. And like I said, what the fuck,
man? You shit on my floor.
And the guy, still very inebriated, pushed him off and
like, started swinging at him. And they got into a fight and
the guy got removed from the hospital.
And then the friend came, yeah. And, like, started arguing and,

(36:28):
um, then Niko told them to get their shit and get the fuck out
of here. Yeah.
So they were sleeping in my room.
So I just hear that part. Waking up to get your shit, get
the fuck out of here. I wake up this storm and I'm
like grabbing my shit, trying toprotect it.
And I just see him. He's like, yeah, all of this
gone, Get it out of here. The guy reacts by pushing him

(36:50):
violently into the wall. Wall.
Like, smack that boom, head hitsthe wall.
Wow. And Nico comes back fucking
swinging because he's like, still, yeah.
Stuff from the first guy straight in the face.
I stand up, like want to go out,realize fuck, I only have
underpants on, put on shorts, run outside.
We like David and I start grabbing Nico.

(37:11):
Uh, like the guy that connected them that lives here.
Yeah. And the other friend started
grabbing the guy that hit him like.
But they fought outside too. Like *** had a fat black eye and
the. The guy was bleeding and
everything. Yeah.
And so then they were screaming at each other.

(37:31):
And then, like, we calmed everybody bit down.
So Nico started talking to the guy that he knew that lives
here. Yeah.
Like what the fuck happened? And like, yeah, you guys shit on
my floor. He's like, no.
And he like, yes, he shit on my floor.
He's like, no. And Nico didn't want to argue
anymore, so he stormed inside, grabbed the fucking shovel.
Yeah, scoop up the garbage with.Yeah, just picked up the shit,

(37:52):
came outside and threw it at theguy he punched.
Before Oh my God. And then, like, at that point, I
was like, holding down the, like, the shit was lying there,
like Nico and think I was screaming and I'm gonna kill
you. I was holding down the thing
like the gate so that the guy wouldn't come in.
Yeah. And like, he comes back.
Like he went away and he comes back and he's holding a bottle.

(38:15):
Like bro, don't throw that bottle.
And he's like, Oh no. You wanna fight like wow, puts
down the bottle and like, OK, I'm like Ecuador, yes, 3
Ecuadorian surfer guys OK and sohe was the bottle down, but he's
still like in Spanish. She's like, you wanna fight,
gonna fight. I'm like no bro, please don't
throw bottles. Desk guests here.

(38:35):
That had nothing to do with this.
And then he goes to hit my hand,like pull it away.
He hits his hand on the fence and like that fucking hurts.
So he gets angry like he like scream.
He has a, he has a bottle. Get down, get down.
Like nobody listens. And the guy picks up the ball.
I stand like behind one of thoselike pillows.

(38:56):
We have that, OK, the move. And like he throws that bottle
in that direction and it splatters on the beer pong
table. Like there's guests just sitting
right next to it. Yeah, it's a whole.
Scene And then like this guy, yeah.
Yeah, alright man, let's do it. Have a good surf bro.

(39:21):
Yeah, no. And then everything calmed down
a bit. The guys left and then I had the
great job to clean up the. No, you got.
Shit cleaning duty, glass, glassshots, Yeah, and Rose had to
clean up the shit. No.
I was uh. All of all of the drugs, I
guess. Yeah, just too fucked up.

(39:44):
You know, some people do that. Yeah.
So it's just on the floor. I've never taken a shit off the
floor. Just so you know, it's you.
You're. OK, on the ladies.
And gentlemen, you're on the podcast now.
We're doing an episode right now.
This the Luca that. Spent the whole last Monday
until 10. AM in a bar.

(40:06):
Ah, that was yeah yeah, sick puppy and he's hacking up along
because he won't stop fucking smoking.
Hey, it's still the weekend, OK?He's going back to Guayama
tomorrow. Yeah, turn off air.
Talk. Sing again.
We're making a full circle, you know, We're coming back to
themes from before. Detox.

(40:27):
Yeah, well, you got one more like it's open bar, then you
detox, then you have the Tuesdayto to Friday.
Yeah, that's that's why we're getting out of here.
We gotta, we gotta detox. Oh, I don't know how much of a
detox is going to be. Cusco has got the party hostels.
Lima's got the party hostels. My buddy from back home, he's
coming and he's a degenerate. So we're gonna be drinking a lot

(40:47):
of beers. But anyways, what the fucking
story, though? And you wonder, right?
Like that's why I like bringing on volunteers, because you guys
actually see what goes on behindthe scenes or just in general,
right? Yeah, yeah, I like this.
There's a bunch of like, little stupid shit happening, you know?
Yeah, yeah. Tell me, man.
Tell me. I want to hear it just the most

(41:08):
random. See exactly.
They get so much it kind of blends together.
Let me think for a minute. Fair enough.
Like just like people break. You know how we have suicide
chairs? Pretty much.
So the layout of the My Little House is very beautiful, but the
seating arrangement is not perfect.
We have 3 couches, 4 couches to sit on and the rest is like

(41:34):
hanging swinging. Yeah, like one piece of socket.
On two ropes that you can sit on.
And it's just like the amount oftimes that people fall off those
things. Yeah, so Adams fucking dance
moves. We have a volunteer that gets
low every 5 seconds, completely out of beads, snaps up again,

(41:55):
claps 2 times, steps forward, steps backwards, drops low
again. Yeah.
It looks at you like the most serious.
And he's just this tall as whitedude.
He's the biggest green girl I'vemet.
Like he's just honest. Just the most yeah.
Why? Why does white dude?
He he's white as white, he's from Canada as well, and he's

(42:15):
already ripped out 2000s of his pants from dropping it low.
So he might not have any pants left when he leaves here.
But yeah, he yeah, he certainly likes his dance moves, that's
for sure. No, I don't know.
That's the kind of shit that happens here.
Or like after, after Niko's wifeleft.
Nico, the hostel owner, is a very spiritual, spiritual guy, I

(42:37):
would say. Like he's, is he not spiritual,
but like he has a like aura. OK, OK.
You know what I mean? Yeah.
Maybe if you can phrase it better.
I don't know the word. It's not my first name.
No, but he's like eccentric. I would say that.
OK. Yeah, Yeah, centric is a good
word. Yep.
And he has a wife and a kid and they were here for like a week

(43:00):
or a week and a half last time Iwas here.
Yeah. Was nice.
Somehow that kid always came down when I was lighting a
joint. That could also work because I
was always letting a joint. But then I always had to like,
put it away, hide it for a second, wait till the kid is
gone and then it was good again,right?
No, but after they left, Nikhil always walks around.
It's this French guy in Ecuador walking around in the kimono.

(43:23):
That's what I mean with the eccentric.
OK. And then he walks away, walks
into the street, puts him in a bus, comes back into the hostel,
grabs his kimono, rips it open and screams, I'm single again,
let's get drunk tonight. And it was on a Monday morning,
so yeah, we got drunk. It's open bar now.
You fucking lost speech and cameback the next morning at 10 AM

(43:44):
and it was empty. It was empty.
Yeah. Yeah, no, but like, that's a
little like the little shit thathappens that's just constantly
funny. Well, and he he told me he has a
rule. He drinks one night a week and I
think it's usually open bar nights after the long weekend.
He no, it's mostly Fridays. Mostly Fridays.

(44:05):
OK, he said. Tonight, though, he's getting
after it. Yeah, cause he didn't do it on.
Here, Right. Champions League.
Ah, yeah, he went to bed early. Yeah, that's the other thing.
He's a big PSG fan. So PSG just won the What is it?
Champions League. Champions League are you?
If I champions? League.
So he was celebrating early and end up falling asleep at 11:00.

(44:25):
So Azyna his night. Yeah, yeah and yeah.
For people listening to like Lost Beach is kind of the main
club here in Montanita. I'd say it's biggest night is
Saturday, although this past weekend was pretty quiet both
nights I think. But yeah, it depends it this
place is built on tourism right now it's the low season.
So every weekend is not going tobe as good as like the ones a

(44:47):
month ago. Yeah, but it has weekends.
Like for example, last weekend was was a national holiday here
in Ecuador. So they had an event where you
could get the weekend pass for $50 and the day pass cost $30.00
but then you would have Friday, Saturday, Saturday, Sunday and
it was amazing each night and from Saturday to Sunday I went

(45:09):
on during the day. It went on till 11, they had a
quick break till 2 and then it started at 2 again and like
people were partying 48 hours. Just fool.
You could see zombies Monday morning.
Like you could see that they've been up like 3640 hours,
something like that, just partying, drinking, doing drugs,

(45:30):
walking through the streets here.
Why laugh? Cause you even see the posters
for Lost Beach and like there's actually don't know what you'd
call it, like a mural or art piece at Rose's Burgers and it's
for Lost Beach. And there's a guy in the corner
of it and you see his eyes and he's just completely zombie
mode. And Hot was telling me when he
went the other weekend, he's like, you go in there and
everyone has their sunglasses on.

(45:51):
Like, you know, everyone's on something and they're just in
their own world. Just pop, pop, pop, going to the
music. Yeah, Do you know that it has
the same sound system as the backyard in Berlin?
I don't know the that you. Don't mind the kind no.
Never heard of the Burkland no so most exclusive club in
Germany it's like. I am.

(46:12):
It's it's the biggest club in Berlin and like you have to be
pretty much German and fit the vibe to get in and like you
don't stand a chance pretty muchit's just a foreigner.
You don't think I could get? In I, I don't, I don't think so.
Realistically, I've, I've, I've never met somebody travelling
that said, he's gone. In I have never been.

(46:33):
Really. Yeah.
Wow. I haven't gone partying a lot in
Berlin yet. What?
What's the vibe though? Like what are we talking?
Hard techno and like very much all the drugs all all goes.
It's like there's another club called Kit Kat and that's just
latex pretty much. There's oh God.
Yeah, it's like very, very, very, very.
Few had to go to the German equivalent of Value Village.

(46:55):
You have myself an outfit and try to try to blend in a little
bit. I think I could pull it off and
that's get rid of the stash though.
I don't know it just get the mullet going.
Ah, OK, I could do them all. I could do the mallet.
Yeah, I had one going actually for a little bit, beginning of
the trip, didn't cut my hair forlike 4 months.
That's getting pretty greasy. And yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

(47:16):
Well, that's too bad because I didn't get the last speech
experience because on the long weekend I didn't go because they
wanted $30 entry and I was like,I'm not, it was already 3M2 was
like, you know what, maybe I'll just call it.
And then of course, last this past weekend it was dead.
Why? Yeah, I guess I went in, but it
was just our group, right? So yeah, yeah.
But there's other good bars too,right?
There's Poco Loco, which is pretty good vibe.

(47:37):
And what's the gorilla one? There's Kanye grills.
So if you stay at the my little House in Montanita, just doing a
little sad quest of advertising here for the.
Whole hey, might as well. Now fucking pay me already.
Now if you said to my little house hustle, you get into Kanye
girl for free. Yeah, and normally how much is
cover 10 bucks or a 5-5 bucks onCove Bucks somebody?

(47:57):
5 bucks, maybe 10 if they're feeling boogie but.
Yeah. They shouldn't um, it's a nice
club though it's a good vibes it's more reggaeton music yeah
more Latin vibes, but it's very,very nice, very cheap, very
cool. Then if you go out with the
manager David, you probably willend up at Poco Loco at some

(48:19):
point and if you go with him, you'll probably get for free.
Yeah. So that's a good deal.
That's a. Good deal, those two are always
good and my preferred options tolast speech because I've tried
it like 4 times sprinkled over the month and every time it was
just disappointing because I never wanted to spring the big
bucks on it. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. So I always go when it's $10 and

(48:41):
then it's always just. And then there's no one there.
And that's why it's cheap, right?
Because, yeah, they gotta get people in.
Yeah, I'm not a huge techno guy anymore.
I had my rave days, don't get mewrong.
But I like the reggaeton becauseit's better be to dance to and
it's easier to meet people to like can go up to the girls and
actually talk with them and, anddo your thing, you know?

(49:01):
Now in Germany, we just intensely stare and bump our
fist in the air like, yeah, that's the, that's.
What? How do you even approach a girl?
You just make eye contact and you go alright, and then just
start. No, you just intensely stare at
her and then you slowly tilt your fist downward whilst
bumping open your hand and startmoving it towards yourself,

(49:22):
singing her to whilst also she'salso definitely bumping and like
yeah, looking serious. And then she starts very unbeat,
stepping over to you and then you start very formally making
out. Now very formally.
Yeah, yeah, like. What?
Figurative slave shoulders. Yeah.

(49:44):
Very pointed lips barely touching.
Yeah, maybe the tip of the tongue would.
We don't want to overdo. It OK.
But preserve phase German. They do it differently in
Germany. No, no.
And after that you go straight to fuck, because then you cross
all the boundaries and then you got to be efficient and you also
without a condom, so you make babies.

(50:04):
Well, Germany is all about efficiency.
Definitely. Yeah, Oh my God, I want you.
Final closing notes on Montanita.
Any other stories you can think about and then have a couple
last questions for you afterwards?
There was a guy here just for the surfing side of Montecito,

(50:27):
cause I normally like to organise surfing on my off days.
So I tried to get as many peopleas possible, take them too long
because it's always fun to have a book group.
Yeah, and there was one guy he got off the bus right before we
went to a sunset surf, got off the bus when surfing with us,
lost his, uh, lost his like, board and had to get rescued by

(50:53):
like, lifeguards. All they got in the water, yeah.
Oh. She's like, his leash snapped
and he, like, panicked. OK yeah.
So he had to get rescued. Yeah.
Um, those OK, Nothing happened. Like you went out after again
and it was all good, and then the next day we went out again
and then motherfucker broke a fucking surfboard.

(51:13):
Ohhhhh my. God.
Then he vowed to not go surfing again with us.
And every time still I went like, yo, we're going surfing,
you wanna come? Yeah, like.
I gotta go chill on the beach, play some beach volleyball.
Fuck you guys. How?
How do you break two boards? That's why I don't care,
especially in Olon. No, he did.
He only broke one board in one leash.
Leash snaps. OK, it wasn't even broken, was

(51:35):
just the Kinect. Kinect like the what do you call
the zipper thing That's not a zipper.
Just Velcro, Velcro, Velcro. The zipper thing, that's not.
Yeah, dude, I got you. Yeah, that does like that.

(51:56):
No, I don't know. That's just, it's always fun.
There's always good people here.Yeah.
Keep switching through where it's always the same cost pretty
much. And it is really good vibes
here. Actually this has been one of my
favorite hospital just in terms of the vibes and the activities
and and the people are staying here, right.
So it's actually look at these two.

(52:19):
It's going to be hard to leave. I'm not gonna lie.
I could easily do another week or two here or even volunteer,
right? Like that'd be such a good time.
I almost kind of wish I did it at the beginning, but that is
what it is. I can always come back.
Definitely, Yeah. So there is a song for it.
And if you edit these things, you should put it at the
outright. OK, I've got to go back to

(52:40):
Montanita. All this asshole song.
It's an actual song. It's just.
I I heard that song in my head the whole time in Galapagos.
OK, just. Like I I had it, like, singing.
Like, I heard David singing it. Yeah.
And then I texted him to apply for the volunteering again.
And the song goes, I've got to go back to Montanita.

(53:01):
Yeah, well, everybody's happy tosee the place.
There's no place I'd rather be. So I texted him, Hey, David, I
just got to go back to Montanita.
And I hope that you're happy to see.
Me. Oh my God.
Because if I would like to volunteer again.
And there's just no place I would rather be.
Wow. And then you said fucking.

(53:21):
No, I was like, fuck, I think I've actually heard that song.
Yeah, it sounds. It sounds familiar.
It's very, it's very catchy. OK.
Well, last couple questions, youmentioned Galapagos, so maybe
just quickly go over your time and Galapagos kind of what you
did, what the experience was like.
And then the last question is what are your, what are your

(53:42):
future plans? What are you doing after this?
So Galapagos. I flew into Galapagos with Rose.
The volunteer was working with her boyfriend and a friend of
his. So me and three Dutch guys, we
flew into Santa Sanchez Sabal, the smallest island, and
explored there for about 5 for this, for this.

(54:07):
Um, yeah, it's a very nice island, in my opinion, the
nicest island because there's a lot of free shit to do or like,
very like close by, affordable and very, very nice.
The best snorkeling beach just after Punta Corolla.
It's like a little Bay where we saw sharks.
I have a video of a turtle and asea lion swimming together.

(54:29):
We saw, yeah, lionfish. We saw the stonefish.
Crazy shit all the time very very nice and in general like
you have even surfing there you have playing with sea lions and
like yeah shallow beaches. You have land turtles on the
other side of the island. You have a beautiful lake on top

(54:50):
it's like Mystic looking like New Zealand looking crazy um
then after that we went to Isabella, the biggest island,
which was also nice, but not as great.
I would say just we didn't do a tour there.
So in general we tried to cheap out on that a bit.
So we didn't do many tours, justlike bike rides and every free

(55:12):
beach. And that one was just not so
convincing. And I spent one day surfing,
which was also just. Rough, yeah.
OK and after that we went to Santa Cruz where we went diving,
which was very, very cool. Yeah, because we saw a lot of
shit. Not amazing for the GoPro cuz it
was all so far away that you couldn't get it on film.

(55:32):
And I'll select the hammerhead sharks.
We didn't really see the hammerhead, the form of the
hammer was not visible, but still we saw Monterrey 6
hammerhead sharks like swim through a giant ball of fish.
It was amazing. Ah, OK.
And just in general, the island is also beautiful.
Yeah, and just like a laid back library like yeah, island life.
Yeah, like you can do it like very hardcore German ish.

(55:55):
I do six more AM morning wake up, snorkel, and then I go bike
ride and then I go hike and do my tour after that at 9:00.
Yeah, but we didn't do that. We slept in, Yeah.
Enjoyed the beaches. We just lived in paradise for a
bit and it was amazing. That sounds amazing, but yeah,
it does. If you're going go to Santa Cruz
Red Lobster, the guy at the end of the street either was

(56:18):
Marinero and tell him who will send you.
He's the best. Wow I love that guy.
We went there every fucking day.Four days.
Lunch and dinner, $5 soup, giantfried rice with shrimp, fish and
calamari, and unlimited juice. Wow.
And the seafood's probably unbelievable out there.

(56:39):
Yeah, I didn't try it. It was too expensive, Yeah, But
that was the, that was the minute idea.
So you get like fish or shrimps.Yeah, if you want, if you want
the good shit like you got amazing, like actual big fish.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. More expensive.
OK. We also just went to the little
local places, not the big fancy restaurants.

(57:00):
Well out of curiosity, like wereyou able to do it on a budget?
Because I know that clap goes isvery expensive, no?
Yeah, yes, I said myself. I am.
Before the trip, I asked. I told my parents I don't need
anything. I just need.
I'm gonna call you. Yeah.
And I'm gonna tell you which I decided on.
Galapagos or Patagonia. OK, I'm gonna need $2000 dollars

(57:21):
from you and I'm gonna pay you back when I get to Germany and
start like living life again slowly.
And I had that as a top, top budget, but I didn't want to
spend all of it because I also wanted to use that to speed run
the rest of my trip so that I can fly now to Lima.
Yeah, right. Right.
Not take the bus which takes like 24 or 30 or.

(57:42):
Something. Yeah, That's that's.
Yeah, yeah. No.
And I spent 1580 or something on11 days including the flights.
Which actually isn't bad becausethat's 100 bucks a day including
flights. So I mean for Galapagos, that's
pretty good. If you imagine that the guided
tours cost like the cheap ones cost like around 1300 and are

(58:06):
like those ones are like 5 days,Yeah, we had 11 days and spent
$200 more. Exactly.
So that's, that's good. That's I would say that's doing
it on a budget. Once again, like I would never
have done that if I didn't have the opportunity to take this
like boost from my parents. You're right, of course.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's just like just kept,

(58:28):
yeah, yeah. I was like, before I was like,
should I really do it? And then I talked to people and
they were like, oh, it's just that.
And just step with your parents.You can pay them back in like 10
years. So 100%, yeah, yeah.
Yeah. So, yeah.
And then if you take just if, you realize that it's gonna be a
lot of money. Yeah.
Do it. Damn it, now you're making me

(58:49):
think I should have done it. I don't know if I have them.
I kind of have the money as longas I can afford a flight to
Australia. We'll see.
We'll see Machu Picchu first, but.
Machu Picchu? Yes, yes, yes.
When are you doing Machu Picchu?Uh, June 12th.

(59:11):
Yeah, very nice. Let me know how it is.
I will just do a podcast and I can listen in.
Bye. Yeah, yeah.
Well, I'll probably do one with my buddy afterwards for sure.
Well, I really appreciate your time, buddy.
Last question, Yes. What's the future?
Hold my man, where are you goingnext?
I am going to fly to Lima. I'm going to enjoy Lima for a

(59:34):
very short period of time and doa quick stop in for Kachina,
probably go back to Lima and flyto Cusco for very cheap.
Yeah, chill out and Cusco and Climategate.
Acclimate, acclimate, Acclimate to the altitude.
Very good, very good. Thank you.
Exclamation to the altitude and then also walk to Machu Picchu.

(59:55):
OK, OK. Are you in Inca or the other
one? I don't know yet.
That's Saya. Wow, yeah, that one.
It's. Cheaper, probably, yeah.
Yeah, I'm not doing. I definitely not.
I didn't realize it was 700. I kept thinking it was 400 so
I'm like fuck. But if you want to, you haven't
booked. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got
booked, yeah. Yeah, OK.
Yeah, because it's gonna be booked out.

(01:00:16):
No, I'm going to do that. Had back to Cusco, catch a bus
over to the Titicaca Lake on theborder to Bolivia.
Yeah, look at that for a day or two.
Had to Bolivia, La Paz um and had to the jungle.
Amazon. The Amazon see some snakes of

(01:00:37):
some shit hopefully. Fuck yeah.
And after that, I'm either gonnadirectly get to Viru Viru, which
is the airport of the other big city in Bolivia, which I forgot
the name of, just gonna get to that city by bus or by plane.
And fly home La Paz. Something else, right?
Not La Pass OK the other one like Sierra something.

(01:00:59):
I only know Lopez. I haven't.
I'm going to Bolivia too, but I haven't done any research.
On yeah, no, no, yeah, me neither.
I I hope that from the past you can just go to the jungle like
in Quito there was possible. So in La Paz that should also be
possible. I'd probably is.
Probably is. Well, I might see him Peru then.
Never know. Yeah, I'll be there for a month.
Perfect. Yeah.

(01:01:21):
And then maybe come back to Monita, maybe do Galapagos,
Yeah, maybe go to Colombia. In Colombia is fucking amazing
bro. You have to.
Well, I've. Already been.
But you, you know, you know why I wanna go back to Colombia.
Yeah. But first you gotta go back to
Montanita Naturade. Everybody's up.
See you. Yeah, yeah, man.

(01:01:44):
Damn. Nice.
Yeah. Thanks for coming on, buddy.
I really appreciate. It so things so thing.
One of the best gas food high say so you go Jesus.
And the English wasn't bad. The English wasn't.
Bad. I gave them this.
If you want to just let people know where to find you, you can
like link your Instagram now or whatever.

(01:02:05):
Just if you want people to follow you, follow your
adventures or if they can come say hi to you at the Little
house, I think they can come by and say hi to me at the Little.
OK, Alright, sounds good. Sounds good alright buddy.
Thanks again. Thank you.
That's it for today's episode. Thanks for listening.

(01:02:26):
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