Sun, blue skies, the ocean - Puerto Lopez!

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Not sure why I spent more than half a year in Ecuador´s sierra (mountains). Sure, I love mountains and hiking happens mostly in mountains. However, when arriving in Puerto Lopez just for sunset by the beach I must admit I jumped in the air for joy, and wondered why it had never occurred to me to travel to the beach earlier.

It is heaven here. Blue skies and sun, sun, sun. It is hot, but not too hot. And the place is a real laid-back fishing town and as it is off season now, there are maybe a maximum of 50 tourists around. As they get distributed over the kilometers of beaches and the various attractions around Puerto Lopez one does not see too many of them during the day. Only in the evenings they all hang out around the few restaurants and juice bars along the beachfront.

Puerto Lopez is surrounded by the Machalilla National Park which includes some stunning, empty beaches and some inland areas. It protects coastal dry forest it is unique in the country. There is also an indigenous village trail as well as an important archeological site.

I went on a two-hour hike to Los Frailes and a couple of neighbouring beaches and was the only one far and wide on those beautiful, kilometer-long beaches. What a paradise!

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