traveling through manabi

I have been traveling north along the coast of Ecuador the past few days in order to arrive in Esmereldas where I will be meeting this group to work on the malaria project. Needless to say, it has been a really intense and eye-opening journey through Manabi which is the poorest province in Ecuador.
I left Puerto Lopez fairly early on Monday morning for a place called Canoa, another small town on the coast known for lots of beach and really good surfing. I left Puerto Lopez, by coincidence, with a girl from England who I sort of knew. She was going to meet friends in Canoa and it was nice to have someone to travel with. The trip was much longer than I expected- probably due to the horrible condition of the roads which were neither paved nor dirt, but instead some awful combination of the two that was realllllly bumpy and forced us to go about 30mph the whole way... About 6 hours and 2 buses later we finally arrived in Canoa just in time to watch the sun set over the ocean and eat fresh seafood for dinner. (I have been living on fish ceviche- for $2.50 you can get a big bowl of it served with fried bananas and sometimes popcorn and its so good and really fresh!) We spent the night in this hostal right on the beach and when we woke up tons of people were surfing, drinking coconut water and hanging out on the beach. Canoa was super clean and basically completely opposite from Puerto Lopez, although for some reason I liked Puerto Lopez better- trash and all.
Unfortunately I had to leave Canoa fairly early on Tuesday to continue traveling up the coast. I left before 2, hoping that I could reach the beach town of Mompiche before it got dark since after an intense arrival at night in Tena I am skeptical to arrive anywhere alone at night. So I took one bus to a town called Pedernales where I had to switch buses. It took about 3 hours to get there and when i got off the bus to switch multiple people were like "omg white girl, why are you traveling alone, be careful etc." So, of course immediately I was thinking what have I gotten myself into!? The next bus went to another town called Chamanga, which is a spot on the map I have, but has no description- probably because no tourist has ever arrived there. The ride there was literally through nothing- no towns, nothing just dirt road surrounded by houses made of trees that absolutely could not have had indoor plumbing or running water. The houses are all built on stilts, im not sure why, and are completely square, as if they are just 1 big room . We also passed people bathing and washing clothes in a river- constant reminders of what life must be like in the northern part of the Manabi provice, a place without tourism to stimulate any kind of economy. Anyway, we arrived in Chamanga around 5pm and it was filled with people in the streets, buying food, playing soccer, talking, drinking, etc. I had to change buses again to another bus packed to the max with ecuadorians (as you travel up the coast the composition of the people changes, since the north coast is filled with afro ecuadorians, and I stood out so much as the only gringa on the bus- every time I looked up people were staring at me).
So I started talking to the guy next to me as the bus left who informed me that this bus wouldnt in fact enter Mompiche since it was too late at night and I would instead have to get out and walk 1-2 hours from where the bus dropped me off to the town, which he assured me is very nice. But then he was like you probably shouldnt do that since it will be dark and its not really safe for you to be walking alone... you think? obviously I was not about to do that. He encouraged me to stay on the bus further north until we reached Atacames, Ecuador´s most popular beach. I had no idea what to expect and as it became pitch black outside, I sort of began to panic- but it was way too late to turn back. When we finally arrived, like 730pm, the guy from the bus was nice enough to walk with me to where the tourist area was and point me in the direction of some hotels. Atacames is like Miami beach gone ecuadorian on steriods. It is filled with thatched huts blaring reggaetone all night, vendors selling food, drinks, artisan stuff, hair braids, seafood, etc on the streets, and the main strip is filled with restraunts and trashy stores. It was about the last place I wanted to be last night, espeically since I wasn´t mentally prepared. However, I made the best of it and felt better, and certainly calmer when I woke up this morning.
I had to be in Esmereldas around 1, or so I thought, to meet this group from Fundacion Ecuadent who is coming to do the malaria work. The bus ride from Atacames to Esmereldas took about an hour and when I finally got to the naval base, where we are staying, it turns out things have changed and they won´t be arriving until 4. So here I am, wandering the streets of Esmereldas, once again the only white person in sight waiting to meet up with this group. I am excited to get started working with them though, as the last few days have been lots of travels leading up to this point!