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Published: December 18th 2006
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We survived the 11 hour bump and grinds of the bus journey...to finally get to our destination..Puerto Lopez.. a kind of wild west vision of a place, dirt track roads, people chewing straw on hammocks, pigs and cockerals wandering onto the beach....theres even vultures on the beach - they stomp down the beach in this kind of very human way, tromp, tromp, their eyes masked by what looks like a death mask but really is just folds of skin..its all very atmospheric and we love it!!!!!
We felt like being still for a bit and the whole atmosphere around here is conducive to this. We are staying at the north end of the beach in a crazy but beautiful hostel owned by a swiss women and a crazy, eccentric Italian who reinforces the stereotype of an Italien by being all curvacous in his language and even more expressive with his hands...he´s amazingly creative and all the time is inventing things...he´s a great woodsmen...carving, and creating amazing marquestry on a really big scale...but what they are both into big time is inventing games...the whole hostel has hundreds of games that they have made and invented themselves, aside of this - although
the hostel is right onto the beach and hence the soil is basically pure sand...Maya has planted up a tropical oasis with orchids and palm trees and beautiful fragrent flowers, whilst we have breakfast...hummingbirds hover by and little punky looking birds hang out by our cabin. The first day we collapsed in our cabin and a thing that looked like a monkey came swinging by..on further inestigation this is not a monkey but apparently a marsupial that looks like a monkey and is the only surviving species left in South Ecuador, if anyone knows what it is - please let us know!!!! See http://www.hosteriamandala.info/
Puerto Lopez is generally renowned for its whale watching, but we are unfortunately out of season, but whats kind of cool about it, is there aren´t many tourists, just people getting on with their daily lives ...and we kind of like that. its a small fishing village and every morning we go and watch the fishermen bring in their catch...they get tons of fish. The men plung into the sea to greet the boats, with their bellowing guts highlighted by their neon orange string vests, they fill their baskets full of fish and then the
fun begins! The game is to try and get the fish to the van without dropping any fish or letting the birds devour their catch, as they run the frigate birds and the pelicans dive and swoop, maybe upto about 30 or 40 at a time, dogs hanging out on the side just in case they get lucky. I think the vultures are just lazy or just fuelled by the odours of death as they just seem to wait for dead things to float onto the seashore. This is our favourite pasttime, and pete has discovered drawing again, I´ve managed to make my camera take a couple of images before it sighs and gives up on me and then we read and walk and eat really good seafood and fish...really knowing that its as fresh as can be.
Walking long ther seashore you find these amazing green stones washed onto the seashore, there the kind of magic stones that glisten and you go wow I´ve never seen a stone look like that before and you put it into your pocket to take home, and then when you get home you take it out of your pocket and somehow it
doesn´t quite look the same again.... and i guess that kind of symbolises being here...life is very much in the moment.
People here seem to live in the moment...life is very simple, homes are very simple, jobs are very flexible, there is time to swing in hammocks and chew straw, speed hasn´t quite made it to Puerto Rico yet. See www.puertolopez.net
Well its time to say goodbye, its very strange to think of England and Xmas, whilst we miss all you lovely folks we don´t really miss the commercialism of Christmas and its good to be away from it all, and now we must head off as a warm pacific ocean beckons a good swim, a plate of grilled shrimps and a large glass of pina and maracuya juice.
Loads of love keri and pete
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