The town draws people for two main reasons 1) the open air hot baths and 2) it is a stop off on route to the Amazon jungle. But there are also other quirks of interest here, such as stunning scenery with lots or waterfalls and their very own dangerous sport: puenting, some odd cross between a zip wire and bungee jumping. In the town, there is sugar cane on sale everywhere and also the melcocha, a nougat like substance made from the cane.
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| Cuy (guinea pig) on sale in the market |
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| Melcocha (sugar candy) makers at work |
However, for me the most interesting part is the town museum, located in the cloisters of the Basilica. This is possibly the most unintentionally bizarre display of artefacts in the world, due in large part to its taxidermy collection.
That is so wonderfully, amazingly, spectacularly awful..... its ace! I want them all, the mad boggly skinny creatures..
ReplyDeleteWere they made by a one armed blind guy ..... in the dark.... after a heavy night on the beer... oh, and by a man who had NEVER seen a living animal of any kind nor understood the concept of one?... I get that often skins were given to people to stuff and theyd stretched, or the taxidermist was following a random drawing of an animal hed never seen... but at least on THOSE the eyes tend to be looking in vaguely the same direction!
I'd forgotten how truly insane some of those animals looked. The pickled things in jars looked almost natural by comparison.
ReplyDeleteWheres me pics of them then.... come on, you've whetted my appetite (and put my off my pizza at the same time!) with these.... mooooore!
ReplyDeleteHi, I've stumbled upon your blog in my doing research about doing the CELTA course. I've a couple questions. It seems like you both liked and disliked the course facilities? You obviously put up with them but what about a single female? How has your job hunting gone for you? You'd mentioned few hour a week job. Does it seem like there are more options? I'd love any information you'd be able to give me. JulsSW@comcast.net Cheers, Julie
ReplyDeletePlaya Kamala is safe for single females, with the usual condition that you use common sense.
ReplyDeleteThe facilities are a bit rough but you also have the benefit of living on a beach and having a zero minute commute to your place of study. Jobs teaching English are pretty easy to get in Ecuador, many people have about 20 hours a week teaching. I´ll email some furter details, but perhaps any other Kamala graduates who find this post could comment, particularly single females.