The Trip: Montañita

• 03 December 2009 at 23:41
• Traveling

I didn't like Montañita. But I learnt a lot.

Montañita is a place where many surfers and tourists in general go for the beach. The thing is that the whole town is based on that and you can't find anything traditional or genuine. The other thing is that the gringos own everything, so all the money spent in Montañita goes right in their pockets. Even the youngsters selling bracelets on the streets are gringos. And the divide between the tourists and the locals is stunning. As soon as you wander away from the hostels, you discover a low quality life, crumbling buildings... Besides, everything is expensive in Montañita.

We spent most of the time on the beach. I read a lot (The ending of "The House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende is very nice), Ada, Peter and Luca were doing slack line (it attracted all the children on the beach), and stuff. We went out quite a lot and we had fun, even though the clubs in Montañita play over-formatted music. The Saturday night, we all went out in one of the two clubs open, and we realised that for the tourists, the entrance was free, but the locals had to pay! In the other club, it was even worse, they were not allowed at all! With all the usual apologies: "It's full, bla bla bla.", although we could easily get in. It really shocked me to see that. Somehow, it reminded me of the situation in France, where, if your skin is a bit too dark, you don't get in. The gringos stay among the gringos. It disgusted us and we quickly left.

The last day, Luca and I went walking around aimlessly. We saw the wild landscape surrounding Montañita, the town from high, the nearby village, Manglaralto (which we had already checked out with Ada) and then we came back by the beach. There we found Ada and Peter speaking with nice Columbian people and trying to save baby turtles.

As soon as I manage to get the pictures, I'll upload them :)

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