http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Ecuador , West , Puerto López en-us Thu, 23 May 2013 11:50:37 +0000 Thu, 23 May 2013 11:50:37 +0000 Hola amigos Once again I am in recovery phase after 2 months of intense work as substitute manager at a coastal hotel. During the last few weeks of each stint accumulated fatigue hears me saying Im getting too old to keep up this pace or Ill never put myself through this again but as soon as the owners ask Im chomping at the bit to go back. Ive accepted this repl http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-760873.html We traveled from Puyo to Guayaquil on a ninehour bus ride spent a night in Guayaquil and then ventured onward via another 4hour bus to Puerto Lpez Ecuador. Since we will be travelling through Guayaquil soon to get back to Houston and will spend another night there I will blog those two days together at the end of the trip. About Puerto Lpez the guidebooks deem this town as a sleepy http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-745231.html In the space of barely three days we descend from the peak of Cotopaxi to Ecuador39s Pacific coast a vertical drop of nearly six kilometres. It39s a long journey from Baos the highland town located at the foot of Tungurahua and where we spend a couple of days recovering from our Cotopaxi climb to the coastal town of Puerto Lpez. We are again lucky with bus connections meaning we do http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-726008.html Ok so after returning to Quito hoping for a package to arrive from home I found myself facing a slightly different issue than I was thinking. I spent the weekend meeting up with the friends I had previously met in Quito and also booked my flight to the Galapagos for the Wednesday. When it got to Tuesday night I got all my stuff together in the hostel ready for the night bus to Guayaguil then the f http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-722010.html Long time no blog some of my loyal readers have complained. Well it39s finally here This entry covers a full four months the longest stretch I39ve gone since starting to blog in Aug 2006 In late Feb I made the long solo drive back down to the coast 10 hrs Scarlett39s maiden voyage A good audio book and the trip flies by It was nice to be able to spend a week with Angela the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-716427.html Puerto Lpez is a small coastal fishing town with a population of just 14000 alongside a pleasant beach. Whilst not a beach destination for travellers most head to Montaita in Ecuador or Mancora in Peru Puerto Lpez whilst lacking surf unlike its rivals does have one thing that pushes it above its relative neighbours Puerto Lpez actually has plenty going on outside of it39s beach sp http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-677856.html After our adventure leaving Peru things returned to normal. As is our wont we boarded a bus for the next leg of our travels. This particular bus was going to Guayaquil which happened to be where we wanted to go. Your correspondent was quite happy about this but Ecuadorian buses are not to the same standard as Peruvian buses a boneshaker would be an appropriate description.It trundled along http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-668247.html Luckily we did manage to catch the bus to Baos 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 didnt 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-653230.html These were now my last days in Ecuador I spent a week on the coast in a small fishermans 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-652265.html So we eventually left Mancora. It was hard but we did it despite Eoghan trying to convince me to ditch our bus ticket and stay longer. I would have happily stayed there longer a year maybe but time was running out before our flight out of Quito to start making our way home. And Eoghan was dying to see some turtles. So we booked a night bus for the Sunday night to Guayaquil which we had heard http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-635750.html 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 Jos Michelle39s husband and some of his friends we decided on Puerto Lopez. We also decided to fly instead of getting the overnight bus. It made sens http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-631935.html So I know this is coming about 3 weeks late. After a crazy final few weeks in Ecuador and a closetodisastrous trip home I am finally wrapping up my blog with my final posts. Bear with me and thanks for your patience. So Saturday morning I woke up in shock to find the time to be nearly 1030 am. Why was I not woken up 2 hours ago Where was the call to breakfast Have I been abandoned Nope. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-626910.html 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. Ive taken it upon myself to invent a Venezu http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-614915.html Only those who have lived near the beach will be able to truly grasp the overwhelming joy I felt when I heard the roar of the ocean felt the warmth of the sand between my toes and smelt the salty waves crashing on the seashoreA story about the boy with the curly hair and the girl who always wore a smile.Jeremy and Jess anticipated buying bicycles and riding along some 120odd coastal kilometer http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-610600.html 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 ai http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-586644.html HolaWe enjoyed our stay in the high Andes at Cajas National Park. We saw llamas feeding on the high paramo and giant conebills foraging in the worlds highest woodland Polylepis Forest. The landscape was gorgeous with mountains bromeliads and hundreds of lakes with andean pintail ducks fighting over territories. We are now down on the coast in the dry forest at Machalilla National Park. It http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-561132.html Meeting this mornibg then lunch with a bunch of the locals. Our whole meal with fresh juice was 2 dollars. Then Dene took Josh and I and some of the local kids for a ride into the jungle. Very pretty area. Kids brought there dirt bike and we some some runaway horses in the creek. Only one more full day left here on the coast. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-539698.html Service yesterday and today. Very interesting. Meet the group in the morning then get set up with a partner and start walking. Streets are dirt houses are mostly brick some dont have doors many dont have windows but the people are very nice everyone will talk to us and we have long conversations. Yesterday I got to work with a foriegner a brother from florida who took most of the doors and http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-539488.html Got our camera jacked last night on the bus on the way here so hafta get a new one. Which really sucks because we had some awesome pics yesterday. First our taxi drove us in circles around quito which has a population of about 2 mill tryin to run up our fare. So we didnt pay him the full price. Then we took a twenty minute bus ride to the middle of the world. We did a lil tour of the museum t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-538920.html Michelle is one of my closest friends from the time I lived in Atlanta. She's not an avid traveller in fact she didn't even have a passport. I was pretty much resigned to the fact that she'd probably never be down to visit me in Ecuador. Her elderly dogs passed away she had new puppies to train there was no one to take care of her animals... and then she wrote me that she was coming I'll beli http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/West/Puerto-Lopez/blog-533218.html