Blogs from Puerto López, West, Ecuador, South America

Puerto López is a small coastal fishing town with a population of just 14,000 alongside a pleasant beach. Whilst not a beach destination for travellers, most head to Montañita in Ecuador or Mancora in Peru, Puerto López whilst lacking surf unlike its rivals, does have one thing that pushes it above its relative neighbours, Puerto López actually has plenty going on outside of it's beach, specifically in the shape of Parque Nacional Machalilla, the reason that we were in town. Our first day in town was following our first night bus experience in Ecuador, something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. A war movie was put on for the first two hours and despite their only being a few gringos on the bus, the movie was put on in English, good for us, utterly confusing ... read more

Luckily we did manage to catch the bus to Baños that evening, and arrived at midnight. We were expecting to be dropped off in a bus station and instead it was the side of the street with groups of men lingering everywhere. We didn´t really want to be left there, but had no choice as the bus quickly sped off.. leaving us pretty scared. We marched to the hostel as quickly as possible avoiding eye contact, ignoring comments, and with our heads deep inside our guidebooks trying to see the map in the dark. Baños is Gorgeous! Lots of waterfalls everywhere, and famous for its thermal baths as well as its extreme sports. Unfortunately when we were there it rained non stop... it was pretty grim. Instead of cycling around all of the waterfalls we climbed ... read more

These were now my last days in Ecuador! I spent a week on the coast in a small fisherman´s town called Puerto Lopez. Now is the season for whale watching, so of course I did it! Whales are now in the bay to get their cubs and to eat enough to get the warming fat they need for their long and tiring journey to the cold cold north. The first day I arrived in Puerto Lopez I went on a boat and we saw a whole group of whales. I had a few glimpse of their enormous humps and I saw a tail. But unfortunately they were now too heavy to attempt any jumps from all the food they had eaten! The rest of the day I spent on la Isla de la Plata (island of ... read more

Michelle had another friend visiting her that week too, and as Sam was only in Ecuador for one week we decided to head straight for the beach. Michelle and I had done all the booking when I got to Ecuador, and following recommendations from José, Michelle's husband and some of his friends, we decided on Puerto Lopez. We also decided to fly instead of getting the overnight bus. It made sense, Sam had spent all of Friday flying down from Detroit, and we didn't think she'd want to jump straight on an 9 hour bus... and to be fair, neither did we! So instead it was a 30 min flight to Manta followed by a 2 hour drive to Puerto Lopez. I was a bit worried about the accommodation. Along with flying instead of getting the ... read more

So the final instalment of my 7 months in South America starts here and over the past 2 weeks I have endured many quizzical conversations from bemused Ecuadorians as to why I, a 36 year old lady am travelling “alone” and “single”. It seems that off The Gringo Trail I am a bit of an oddity to be, at my age, both “solita” and “soltera”. I’ve taken it upon myself to invent a Venezuelan boyfriend so I seem less of a social outcast in these parts….. Aside from the emotional battering by Ecuadorians obsessed with husbands and babies (like I need reminding!) , I have had a fantastic fortnight and my time here has made me fall even further in love with the country. Yeah, I know – I’ve been waxing lyrical about Venezuela and Colombia ... read more

Just a quick flight on a small commuter jet and we go from chilly mountain air to hot and humid beach town. This is the "winter" in Ecuador and that normally means hot and sunny days at the beach with rain every afternoon but we've had no rain at all. We landed at the airport in Manta with too much luggage for the little car so I had to have a bag on my lap for the 2hr drive to Puerto Lopez (no air-con) but it was fun nonetheless and we had a laugh every time the car bottomed out on the huge speedbumps. We took a winding coastal road instead of the highway and I guess the idea was that there would be no other traffic. The only other vehicles we came across were the ... read more