Bananas!

Last trip to Tiink (this time)

Save the Frogs!

Tungurahua!

more Puerto Lopez

and more Puerto Lopez!

A vacation to Puerto Lopez

We wanted to go to the Galapagos, but didn’t have the money. We wanted to visit Peru, but didn’t have the time. We settled on 5 days in Puerto Lopez, and couldn’t have made a better decision. We enjoyed the beach, the wildlife (not the wild LIFE), some delicious coastal food, and a general feeling of relaxation. We had originally planned to do another week of work before taking our vacation, but decided that we may as well get away while we anticipated that everything would be closed Easter weekend. We left Friday morning, and had a rather uneventful drive (although navigating our way through Guayaquil presented some difficulties) and arrived on the coast mid-afternoon. We were anxious to get to the beach, so we didn’t stop for lunch; however, we did make a quick stop at a roadside stand marked “coco helado.” We thought we were stopping for coconut ice cream, and Brad waited in the car while I made the purchase. Wasn’t I surprised when they pulled out two entire coconuts from the fridge, chopped off the tops, and stuck a straw into it. I carefully balanced the two coconuts, and passed one to Brad through the window before getting in the car to continue our trip! We sipped our coconut water and continued on to Puerto Lopez.
We arrived, checked into the hostel (it wasn’t where we wanted to stay, and it wasn’t much to look at), parked the car, then headed over for lunch. I think half of Ecuador had the same idea we did, and came to the coast. Although it was 3:30, we waited almost an hour to be served lunch. Then we went for a stroll down the beach, enjoyed a beautiful sunset, and sipped freshly made juices on the beach. Puerto Lopez has the right set up. There are plenty of hostels just across the street from the beach, plenty of restaurants and tour companies along the street, and juice bars with hammocks and beach chairs and music right on the beach. We turned in early that night with anticipation of our scheduled tour for the next day.
We woke up early on Saturday, found a nice little restaurant to have breakfast, and packed up our things for our tour. We were scheduled to go to Isla de la Plata that day, and the tour company had come at 8:00 to confirm our reservation and collect our money. We waited, and waited and waited. By 9:45 we were fairly certain we had been scammed. However, the guy who ran our hostel was amazingly friendly and helpful, and went to scout out the situation. He found the lady who ran the tour company with which we had made a reservation, and although her boat had already left, she walked us down the beach and made arrangements with a different company. Seems in typical coastal style, they had simply forgot to collect us from the hotel. Well, it turned out for the better because in about 10 minutes we had passed the boat we were supposed to be on. We had a beautiful day for the tour, and when we arrived at the island they gave us a snack and explained the island to us. Isla de la Plata is named for two reasons, two large ships filled with stolen gold are sunk off the coast and it is famous for the spondylus shells which were formerly used for trading. We hiked around the island for a couple of hours, during which we got to see blue footed boobies and magnificent red frigate birds. Our guide told us about some of the nuisance introduced species, such as cats and rats, that have been really detrimental to the native island fauna.
After our land tour, we went back to the boat for lunch and some snorkeling. Unfortunately, the day of our tour was one of the 3-4 days/ month when the snorkeling wasn’t good. The water had been stirred up by the wind. However, our guide threw some pieces of watermelon over the side and we were still able to observe some of the fish. Brad and I braved the conditions and snorkeled for a bit, but soon decided it was more fun to enjoy the swimming then to be frustrated by the snorkeling conditions. Our boat then took us back to the mainland, we found a nice spot on the beach, and drank passion fruit juice while we watched the sun set.
We had printed out the Easter Sunday readings before leaving for vacation, and decided to visit what is known as one of Ecuador’s most beautiful continental beaches for the holiday. The beach, Playa de los Frailes, is a part of Machalilla National Park. The park service charges $2 entry fee, but also keeps the beach clean and protected. We found a nice and comfortable spot, generously applied our sunscreen, and laid down on the warm beach to relax. We did the readings, then headed into the water for a swim. The bay which isolates the beach is absolutely gorgeous, the sand is soft, and the water was the perfect temperature. After our swim, Brad reminded us that it was time to reapply the sunscreen, and we also decided to rent a beach umbrella. Well, something went horribly wrong. Despite our precautions with sunscreen and the umbrella, our skin just kept getting redder and redder. We had planned to do a short hike to a viewpoint and to a black sand beach, but instead we needed to get out of the sun. As soon as we got back to town we started applying lotions, but the damage was done and we were miserable.
The next day, we moved from our standard not-so-nice hostel to another place down the beach, Hosteria Mandala. The address says “extreme north” but it is about a 10-15 minute walk from the hubbub of downtown Puerto Lopez. No loud music or beachside juice bars, but the hotel has set up covered cabanas on the beach complete with hammocks. It was the perfect way to spend a day out of the sun (since even my eyes seemed to be sunburned!). We read our books on the beach. We lounged in the hosteria’s nice dining area. I took a nap in our private cabin in the cool and leafy garden.
However, by Tuesday we were getting restless but knew we needed to avoid the sun. We visited another place run by Machalilla National Park, a community called Agua Blanca. Here, we learned about some of the ancient cultures that lived here and the evolution of pottery found at the archeological site. We walked through the coastal dry forest, and our guide pointed out useful plants such as a cactus with edible fruits called “tuna,” a tree with a sap that can be applied topically called “sangre de drago,” another tree that produces an oil that is a topical remedy and essential oil called “palo santo,” and another tree that only has leaves for 3-4 months each year and whose flowers are used to stuff mattresses and pillows called “ceibo.” He told us that it hadn’t rained for about 5 years, and that the plants were really resilient to the conditions but that the people had a pump system to get the water.
After walking the trails, we stopped at a natural hot spring. The pools smelled slightly of sulfur, and our guide invited us to go for a swim and be healed by the water. He also gave us each a cup of mud which he said two families in the community are responsible for getting each day as a part of the cultural tourism and community work. We didn’t know the pool was a part of the tour so we missed out on the swim, but we did coat ourselves with the mud and when we rinsed it off our skin felt nice. Who knows, maybe it was good for the sunburn! We spent the afternoon swaying in the ocean breeze in the hammocks in our beachside cabana, and enjoying the beautiful scenery.
Wednesday was the last day of our vacation, although we weren’t ready to leave. We spent one last morning on the beach, then began making our way back to Cuenca. We stopped in another beach town called Montanita, which is known as a “hippie” place, and we were glad we had decided on Puerto Lopez instead for our vacation. We continued our drive, made it through Guayaquil without too much difficulty, and found our way back to Cuenca in time to pick up some empanadas for dinner. Although I’d rather be at the beach, our little apartment in Cuenca feels like our home in Ecuador.