There's more than whales :)

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Well, I have recently left the lovely Ecuadorian fishing town of Puerto Lopez and have plenty of stories to tell about the goings on there… in a nutshell, it’s a small relaxed town dominated by fishing and eco-tourism – tourists largely come to watch the whopping humpback whales. There’s the Machalilla National Park too which is great for all manner of wildlife, just around our house on the edge of town we saw iguanas, stick insects and blue footed booby birds. I was there for two months teaching English through a foundation called Café de Lenguas y Culturaand had a great time with the students, volunteers and the president of Ecuador!

As is the travelling life, I had mixed feelings when I arrived in P.Lo - excited about a new challenge but missing everyone from the last port of call. Travelling from Guayaquil’s huge bus terminal it took five winding hours to reach the shabby centre of P.Lo. When I arrived at the foundation I was so happy to see that it was right on the beach; the waves were literally coming over the balcony. I've always wanted to live by the sea and there I was 😊 I met the other four volunteers and Paola, the lovely lady who set up and runs the foundation and its sister language school Clara Luna, and her sons Paolo and Josef. The foundation works to improve education for kids in P.Lo with an emphasis on enjoying reading, teaching English in schools and to adults. I taught at local primary school (Jaime Roldo Aguilera) and to adults in the evenings, worked at the free kids club twice a week (once again I was the arts and crafts prof) and took part in the weekly language exchange.

The foundation was on a sweet spot on the southern edge of town, right by the reef where you can snorkel (and find prostitutes) and so peaceful, well, depending on what you’re doing. The kids loved coming to kids club as they could run wild on the beach. At night the waves were pretty loud as they were just feet away from our bedroom. It was a good place for wildlife inside and out. In our bedroom we had tarantulas, lizards and bats... and outside we had crabs, pelicans and jumping fish – we didn’t have TV but the view was better than the discovery channel. It was pretty basic living – bunk beds, a cold shower and occasional power and water cuts, but the location made up for it. We also had two ginger cats – Shakire and Colorada, and two dogs – Lola and Lucas, who I loved going for walks with, even though being former street dogs they were a tad loco. The foundation has just moved to a new house. We were sad to leave the beach but now there are hot showers and a garden, and the beach is still very close. And you can watch the neighbour training his fighting cockerels…

As I said, P.Lo is a fishing town and the fleet of small boats dominates the beach. In the morning you can watch the catch being brought in and there are some pretty crazy fish out there – hammerhead sharks and swordfish for a start. After lunch the town is quieter as the fishing is done for the day. One of my students told me that Puerto Lopians have a relaxed attitude to work, about four hours a day is enough; if someone catches two fish, one to eat and one to sell for some beers they are happy. Well, there is certainly a relaxed vibe in the town, though all may change. There are big plans to transform P.Lo into a major tourist resort. Rafael Correa, aka The President, visited while I was there to open the new pier and showed plans for the transformation. The fishing area will be moved, a train line will be built to ferry the fishermen and their catch, and the beach will be cleaned up and modernized for the tourists. The video actually looks pretty good in my opinion. It will mean big changes but local people say that the fish stocks are dwindling, so I guess the town will need income from other industry to survive and it may as well be tourism. P.Lo is great but has some issues: all the roads bar the main road are dirt and when it rains it’s a mud bath. The water supply is unreliable so the locals have to buy lorry loads of water, there are a lot of stray dogs and cats and litter is a problem. Many of the problems are down to a bad local government. The previous mayor pocketed the money for himself and the current one is trying to pay off the debts from the last. Sometimes there’s no money to pay the municipality's employees. Corruption sucks. The renovations are set to be complete by 2015, but the local people are not convinced things will go to plan as they have heard promises before. However, with the President’s support maybe this time P.Lo will get what it’s promised. On the other hand beautifying P.Lo comes at the expense of the jungle; Correa is allowing greater petrol exploration there and this is where the money is coming from.

So many of the kids of the kids at my primary school may not grow up to fishermen like their dads. English will be very useful with the tourists. I have to say that the kids there are super cute. I had to work hard to keep them interested in the lessons as discipline is not too hot at the school. It was really nice to have my own project; I decided what and how to teach. We didn’t have a book so I made the lessons and did stupid stuff with the kids like singing and dancing, bingo and acting like animals, Heamoor the bear got a lot of action too. They probably thought I was a bit mental, but they did throw me a surprise goodbye party when I left, complete with a happy birthday cake. Over two months I hardly had the kids fluent but they know some words and another volunteer from the foundation is carrying on with the classes now.

Then I had my adult students Manuel, Patty and Jennifer – a great trio. They are ambitious to learn quickly so I was giving them double lessons. I taught them at Patty’s eco-hosteleria Punto Piedrero (which is very nice btw if you’re after accommodation). Again, we had no books to work from but we had some good ‘lessons’ ranging from watching films and playing scrabble to more standard grammar stuff.

There´s a nice variety of day trips that you can make from P.Lo, the best was the Isla de La Plata boat trip ($40 inc. lunch, we booked through Luz de Luna), where we saw at least 10 humpback whales pairing up to mate. They are beautiful lolling around with their flippers in the air and blowing water, we even saw some jump. There are huge turtles around the island which surface to gobble up the lettuce that the guides drop; we also snorkeled with beautiful angelfish. On the island we saw blue footed boobie birds, which are adorable. They nest on the ground and aren’t scared of people so you just walk right by them. It was mating season so the males were doing little dances to win the ladies over. This involved padding from one blue foot to another, waving a piece of straw in the air and making weird noises like a broken whistle. We also saw the frigate birds. I have wanted to see them ever since I was a kid, and I wasn’t disappointed. Again it was mating time (Ecuador is a very romantic place right now) so the males were inflating the red membranes on their necks and waving their beaks to impress the señoritas. A memorable day.

Another trip was to Agua Blancas, a community upholding its Manteña heritage, a few miles from P.Lo. We paid $5 each to enter and hitched a lift on the back of a truck down to the village. Here our entrance fee got us a private guide of the small but interesting museum where we saw treasures from the area such as the spondylus shells which the Manteñas dived for to eat and were considered a food of the gods. The spondylus is a protected species now; so the gods will have to look elsewhere. Our guide took us down through the river to the archaeological sites. The sites are large but there’s not much there, although a model shows what the buildings would have looked like. For me it was just lovely to walk through the forest and smallholdings seeing the birds and trees such as the palo santo which is burnt in churches and elsewhere for its perfume and ability to repel insects. Then we finished up with a rub down the mineral rich mud that is found in the waters there and a swim in the sulphurous pool, which I bombed into and then regretted when I got a mouthful of warm eggy water, bluergh.

Rio Blanca is the place to see the capuchin and howler monkeys. I did this tour with just me and the guide, Edgar, on horses ($35). It was a 30 minute drive to the community where the horses were ready. Edgar said pull right to go right, left for left and both reins to stop and off we went. It had been a while since I had been on a horse and we went up and down some steep muddy paths, but my steed held firm. Edgar told me about the plants and animals along the way. We saw iridescent blue morpho butterflies, tree chickens, matarpalo (tree-killer) - a palm that grows inside other trees and kills then with its roots, coffee and tagua, aka vegetable ivory, which is used to make all manner of things such as jewellery and is an important source of income for the community. Then came the stars of the show - first the capuchin monkeys and then the howlers. We saw three capuchins, a male who was busily sacking a palm tree for insects and a mother with a baby. They are fluffy and yellowish brown and make a lot of noise as they move through the branches. Edgar was surprised that we saw the capuchins as he hadn’t seen them for months, so we were lucky. Then further along Edgar heard a noise and went to investigate, we got off the horses and Edgar slapped his boots with a stick to attract the monkeys and hey presto there he was - a solo male howler monkey. Howlers are bigger than capuchins with lots of fluffy dark brown fur. Edgar shook a branch and the howler started to… howl, I presume to say ‘this is my territory’. He made a lot of noise for one monkey and started to come down the tree to get a closer look at us. Howlers usually travel in groups so Edgar was surprised to see another single monkey a short while later. Then we rode up to the viewpoint to look out across the forest. We came back after about five hours for a home cooked lunch at one of the villagers’ houses. The dueña let me try ground bee honey which is held in lumps that look like truffles and tastes like honey and lemon juice mixed together. A lovely day, though my camera was out of action so no monkey pics I’m afraid.

Montañita is the party town of the area and we hit it up on a weekend. I had been warned that it was tacky but I loved it; it’s small and has character. An hour south of P.Lo, we arrived at night and stayed at a jungly hostel called mamacucha. We made friends with a group there and had a great night going to the free discos (remember we don't say nightclubs). BTW Montañita is mecca for Argentinians and is gay friendly. The next day we had a walk along the pretty beach and watched the parascenders then took the bus back to sleepy old P.Lo. There is night life In P.Lo too, but I was there in the low season. It was getting busier just before I left (as July-Sept is whale season); more people were coming down to the beach cabañas for cocktails and dancing in the sand.

We also took a trip up the coast to Montecristi, home of the Panama hat makers (they’re made here but exported) and the national hero former Ecuadorian President Eloy Alfaro. He broke the conservative rule to create a more liberal and modern country. We found it to be a super friendly place; people were falling over themselves to give us advice and info about the town. The museum and mausoleum to Mr Alfaro are modern, impressive and free; there’s a part dedicated to local craftsmanship and another to the life and accomplishments of the big man. There’s enough there to keep you busy for a day.

Ayampe is a village about 30 mins south of P.Lo, which encourages eco-tourism. It has a bohemian feel and some nice lodges to stay at with a hippyish crowd. The way to the beach is marked with signs asking people to respect nature. There’s a lot of bird life along the river (I saw a kingfisher and a golden oriole) and Ayampe has its own species of hummingbird . You can also rent surf equipment and bikes.

Las Frailes beach is part of Machalilla Park. You can take a bus from P.Lo for 50 cents then either walk or take a moto taxi from the entrance. Most times I walked the two hour track though the forest up to viewpoints and two other beaches to reach Las Frailes. It’s a pretty walk full of flowers, birds and lizards. Las Frailes is one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen and it’s never busy; being a national park there’s no development, just a gift shop, ice creams and parasol rental set back behind the beach. The sea is safe but because the beach shelves steeply the waves can really thump down at high tide which makes getting in and out interesting. There are rock pools to explore and we found an octopus that entertained us for some time with its changing colours. Apparently you can see the humpbacks from the beach sometimes too.

There’s some good eating to be done in P.Lo, but really you need to like fish. I’m usually vegetarian, but I succumbed to fish – sorry fishies. You can eat encebollada (fish stew with yucca – cheap and plentiful) and ceviche (raw fish with lime) for breakfast. For lunch you can get a menu from $2 in the market (soup and main course), dinner is pretty much the same in all the local restaurants - barbecued fish, chicken, steak or chops with rice and barbecued plantain. All meals come with a free drink, which is usually a lovely fresh juice. There’s street food in the evenings too – bolones (more plantain but this time in balls with cheese or pork), sausage skewers, corn skewers, deep fried cheese empanadas and burgers. Tasty but greasy, and the side effects show in the well-upholstered locals. A couple of restaurants that you might like to try are ‘Dueña Elsie's ’ esmeraldas style food, a little way out the centre and Etnias – a French café in the centre with great coffee and crepes.

So that’s P.Lo, great people and wildlife, it will be interesting to see how things pan out.

My next blogs will be about Chiclayo in Peru, where I slinked off to a couple of times to see my boyfriend, Ecuador’s capital Quito, then Colombia (where I have another volunteer job). Wish me luck! And hello to everyone back home – love you and miss you 😊 Jen xxx

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Photos

Bringing in the morning catch
The fisherman have to run quick so the frigates don't steal too many fish.

Our school on the beach
Complete with white picket fence :)

The octopus hunter
He sticks a metal rod into the octopuses hole and it's game over.

Paola and Paolo
and a vat of punch

Gingers
love dem fluffies

Lola and Lucas
Our neighbour took them in off the streets, they now eat roast chicken dinners!

View from the school
sure is purdy ma

Insane in the membrane
We worked out most days at the school. Sean T promised us beach bodies after two months... er Sean?

My kids :)
There were 37 kids in this class, quite the handful but they are little dudes :)

Leaving party
complete with happy birthday cake

Boobie
Obviously named by a teenage boy

Frigates
Make robins look quite humdrum

Eloy Alfaro
He led the modern revolution of Ecuador; legalising divorce, allowing religious freedom, and weakening the Church's power.

P.Lo beach bar
With some of the volunteers and the lovely Heidi

Las Frailes
So good, I went four times

Food on sticks
Kristin is a big food on sticks fan

Weekly beach clean up
Hopefully the President's plans will keep the beaches clean

Tarantula
...in our bedroom

El presidente
Not the best photo, but he's there in a white shirt of you look hard

Machalilla fiesta
with eddie, kristin, frannie, angelica, sandra, hilly and manuel

Kids club at the new house
Making monster eyes