puerto lopez

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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 air-con) but it was fun nonetheless and we had a laugh every time the car bottomed out on the huge speedbumps. We took a winding coastal road instead of the highway and I guess the idea was that there would be no other traffic. The only other vehicles we came across were the 2-3 near misses as we came over a blind hill on a corner and were surprised by an oncoming truck.


Beautiful Hosteria Mandala is right on the beach in Puerto Lopez, small cabinas with a loft for the kids. They were a little worried about bugs because we had to sleep under mosquito nets, but really we haven't seen many bugs at all, maybe 5 in total but granted the ones we did see were BIG.

Went to Agua Blanca, which is a native owned ruins with a great guided tour of the museum, grounds and then a splash in the thermal mud pool. We were given black mud to smear ourselves with and then had to swim in the black water to wash it off.

We had to put one of the kids on the back of the moto-taxi to ride everywhere, the kids loved it with no seatbelts, no helmets, no rules, just speeding down the highway to the ruins and to the national park with a kid hanging on the back of the 3 seater taxi.

Next day we went to Los Frailles Beach which is perfect white sandy horse-shoe shaped beach with zero buildings on it, no roads, only a gravel trail from the highway. Beautiful mirador for hiking and photos but we did find some agua mala (jelly fish) in the water. They are like pearl necklaces dangling vertically in the water and they wrap around ankles and wrists and sting you.

Also went out on a boat to snorkle the reef in Salango, this is as close to Galapagos as we can afford to get without paying the extra $2000 airfare for the 4 of us to get there & back (never mind actually going around on a boat to see the islands). We saw a ton of fish at Salango. None of them trying to get away from us, they were all just swimming with us. I don't know any of the names but they were all very colorful, big and small, schools and singular, some looked like rocks swimming on the bottom, others shiny and purple, yellow, blue... it was great. And the ride out there was gorgeous too, the shore line towering over us, filled with birds. (tracy this looks like a good place to scuba dive)

The town is centered around the fishing industry and the whole town comes out to the beach when the fish boats come in the early morning. Very unfortunate that they come in with every kind of fish including the baby hammerhead sharks that shouldn't be caught. No one here seems to be thinking of conservation of the wildlife or sealife, its all about getting enough food to live on. The ladies set up temporary restaurants on the beach if anyone wants a fish cooked (of course Doug & Harry did) . Sophie & I opted to have yogurt & fruit instead of whole smelly fish bbq'd on the beach at 7am. In the late afternoon the families are all on the beach, boys playing soccer, Moms chasing toddlers, everyone waiting for the sun set, few toursits.

Next stop Puerto Rico & Las Tunas Beach for some bigger waves and surf school....however there were no teachers around so it didn't go as planned. We walked the beach and saw a huge turtle that seemed to be stranded and shouldn't have been there at that time of morning. Some other people showed us it had been bashed in the head, it was alive and trying to get to the water and looked fine from a distance but up close you could see its skull was smashed in. Vandalism Ecuadorian style?.....or maybe a shark? or run in with a boat? It was so sad. The people around lifted it to the water and within no time it was dead, it must have happened just that morning.

First to get sick was..... Harry. I knew it would be. We have been battered by sun, salt, dehydration, heat, way way way too many papas & arroz instead of veggies. The beach is where I just knew we'd get sick. Not to mention the wood in the cabin is soaked with creosote and the hotel guy goes around spraying insecticide everywhere in the garden... can't be good. Poor kid was really sick... might have been that little house on the beach where we stopped to eat fish. It was basically someone's kitchen and I think they just filled up the water bottles from their tap and sold it to us.

Overall the beach is amazing, wish I had surfing legs, dreadlocks and a backpack. However we are all excited to get clean and comfy tomorrow back in a good hotel in Quito. (if harry can make it through the drive and the flight back there )

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Photos

games room at mandala
they also have a music room full of instruments, the kids loved it here

Comments

[Tracy]

Awesome. Love the pics of the family motorcycle too!