Blogs from West, Ecuador, South America - page 4

ALL BUSES ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL Puerto Lopez Bus to Guayaquil Bus Station Transfer to Guayaquil International Airport Place: My room in Alcazaba in Puerto Lopez, Ecuador. Activity: Purchase a ticket to fly to Buenos Aires I bought my airline ticket to Buenos Aires this morning. I wasn’t sure what day I would travel but as I perused the web sites I learned that the cheapest day to fly was tomorrow, so I sat down at the computer at nine a.m. to purchase a ticket. I didn't confirmation until noon. I looked at many ticket sites and chose the cheapest most direct route…twice. A message would come on the screen saying I had made a wise choice and once I filled in all the required information and my payment plans a message would come up saying ... read more

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS My first day in Puerto Lopez, Ecuador and it’s my birthday. I looked up the translation for birthday on my telephone and practiced it all day. I walked out the door of my hotel and looked down at the ocean in the distance. I figured all I had to do was walk down this dirt road in front of my hostel, turn right at the main road and I would eventually run into the waterfront. I could check out a few dive stores and set up three days of diving. I started walking, and was surprised to see that Puerto Lopez has trikes like the Philippines. They are basically a refitted motorcycle with a cab over it. The driver is in front and there is a rickshaw type seat in the back for passengers. ... read more

It's hard to believe that it's been over two months since I published my last blog! I hope that my faithful readers haven't been too worried about me. I've been busy busy busy, working at the beach hotel once again and the weeks have just slipped away. As a result I have a LOT of photos in this entry, some throwback pix from my January travels to Esmeraldas with Sue (thanks for finally sending them to me!) and other images compliments of my photographer friend, Colin who has been visiting from Ohio. There's no way my narration will touch on so many pix, so please scroll down at the end to enjoy them all! It seems like my time at home is so limited --I had only a couple of weeks this last stretch in Banos, ... read more

We flew from Lima to Guayaqui, Ecuado. From the window of the plane we could see large houses sitting on canals, it looked similar to Fort Lauderdale. We rented a room through Airbnb and Manuel was waiting at the airport to walk us to his apartment. The neighborhood near the airport is not very good but we are only spending the night so it is convient for a short turn around. We decide to visit The Parque Historico, it is listed as the #1 activity on Trip Advisor. We grabbed a taxie but I do not think it was an official taxie because the driver did not know where the Parque Historico was, so we showed him where the park was on a map. We ask him how much the ride costs and he said $8.00, ... read more

Guayaquil - Day 11 After breakfast, we spent some time on the porch, reviewing our information on Guayaquil. A friendly dog came by and settled down under Bob's hammock. We decided to call a taxi to get to the bus station. Cab fair was cheap, $1.50, and definitely worth not struggling with our luggage. The bus was very prompt, very comfortanle, approximately a 3 hour trip for $6.00. As we got out of Montanita, several little towns had hammocks for sale. We followed the beach for quite a while, just the sand and no structures or people. In Valdivia, supposedly the oldest culture in Ecuador, fishing boats lined the beach. Then passed a few little shacks with tall sunflowers in the yard. Saw a long dock protruding out into the ocean with a big pipe within, ... read more