The Final Week

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Leaving Peru we crossed the border into Ecuador late in the night, our final night bus of the trip. We arrived in Guayaquil around 6.45 am and quickly jumped on the 7.00am local bus to Puerto Lopez on the coast. Again we were looking for somewhere to relax, enjoy the beach and hopefully continue to have some hot weather.

Unfortunately Ecuador didn't start out how we hoped. It was cold, wet and clouds covered the sky. Our first afternoon in Puerto Lopez was spent exploring the small fishing town and eating rice, chicken and beans for $2 dollars. We have become used to eating well for cheap!!! Puerto Lopez is famous for its Whale watching, especially in July and August when humpback whales come to have their babies. As we were there at the perfect time to see them we felt we should get a boat trip out to see them. Also at only $15 per person, which was a 5th the price of NZ it was a bargain. The trip was totally different from our NZ experience. In NZ we were on huge flash catamaran with another 50 people, they had this fancy listening device they put in the water to hear where the whales were, and we got a long power point presentation about whales. However in Ecuador we went out on a small speed boat with another 12 people, and there was no listening device we just looked out for the whales and when the skipper saw them he sped after them. The trip lasted about 3 hours we saw around 10-12 humpback whales including two babies. The highlight was seeing a whale breeching right out of the water (jumping) maybe 3 metres into the air causing an almighty splash.

The following day we headed to Machalilla National Park near by and enjoyed walking through the bush along the coast eventually arriving at Los Frailles beach, known to be one of the best in Ecuador. We spent the afternoon enjoying the sun albeit through the clouds. Our final day in Puerto Lopez we woke up to clear blue skies and sunshine. We had planned to go to our next destination that day but due to the sun we stayed another day in Puerto Lopez and lay on the beach. The next day we headed to the beach resort of Montanita.

Montanita has a reputation for being a total hippy town. We did not know what to expect. However we were pleasantly surprised by the variety of cafés, restaurants and street stalls. It was an easy town to spend a few days. When we arrived we checked out a few hostals to find the best value for money and stumbled across a basic wood clad room above a snooker bar which had sea views. We spent 2 days there enjoying the beach, and sleeping to the sound of waves.

On Sunday we moved on to Guayaquil, 3 hours by bus from Montanita, and our final destination. We decided to get to Guayaquil a couple of days before we got our flight so that we had time to re-pack our bags, and have a nice meal before our 2 day slog home. We stayed two nights at the Iguanazu Hostel which over looks the city. Both nights were in a dorm room, however the hostel was excellent. It is in beautiful gardens, has a pool and eggs for breakfast!!! Guayaquil has had a troubled past with violent crimes and muggings so we were very wary on arrival. However we were pleasantly surprised by the city. Millions of dollars has been spent on the new Malacon 2000 (a huge promenade on the river) to attract more tourists and businessmen, so we spent Monday afternoon enjoying the sun by the river.

Sorry that we haven’t done loads to make this final blog exciting to read. However it has been exactly what we wanted, chilled time before back to work/starting work. We would have liked to have had a bit more sun in our final week if we're being greedy!!

After 6 months we're eventually writing our blog in live time! It's Tuesday (2nd August) today and the day before we leave. We've moved from our dorm rooms in the hostel to a small hotel near the airport. We've re-packed and are getting ready to go out for a nice meal to celebrate the end of an amazing trip. It has honestly flown by so quickly, we left on the 15th January and it seems like only yesterday. When we think of all the incredible things we've done it feels surreal. We keep talking about other trips we could do and countries we haven't been to yet.

We hope you have enjoyed reading our blogs, some have been a chore, but we know that they have been worth the effort to keep you all informed on our progress. We are looking forward to returning home and planning our next trip!!!

Lots of love Tom & Ash xxxx

PS. We are skint now. If anyone wants to take us out for a meal to hear our travel stories or get more information on a country we are welcome to all offers!

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