Sometimes you have such a good time in one place, that the next one starts off with a huge disadvantage. So it was with Moñtanita, the next surf town down the coast of Ecuador, the main beach destination in the country. And not only was I suffering with the hangover of Canoa, but Moñtanita itself was dead, as the crowds are only really around during the high season.

A small village that’s quiet is to be expected, but an empty party town is just depressing. No people, no waves, no sun. No-one in the dorm room in the hostel - definitely was a sign that the time had come to leave the heathen place and head inland, to Cuenca.