David –
Our trip to the coast started early, in fact it was still dark when our bus pulled out of the Banos station and snaked its way back towards Latacunga. For the first time on the trip the buses were actually running ahead of schedule – probably a first for Ecuador as a country too. In Latacunga we made a made dash back to the hostel we stayed in before our Quilatoa loop hike to recover my lost jumper fleecy!
After our taxi driver dropped us back at the bus station, we deduced, with our broken Spanish that we could take a bus half way to Quito and make a switch at an interchange rather than wait 2 hours for direct bus to Santa Domingo (a dirty industrial town half way to the coast). This turned out to be a great plan and saved us a few hours at a bus terminal.
After successfully changing buses all day (and not losing any more belongings) we made it to the coast but we still had two more buses before reaching Mompiche…
The prices of the buses increased each time we changed – first it was $2 for two hours, by then end it was $5 (USD) for 1.5 hours, on top of that, the buses got dirtier, lacked AC and seat belts and instead of movies they had the same racing Latin music. We lost count how many times we had street vendors climb join the bus and start multilevel marketing everything from weight loss remedies, ointments, chocolate bars (which we realised had no actual cocoa in them) to wireless speakers and USB’s with god knows what on them!
As we finally rolled into Mompiche the little town took an afternoon to warm on us. We were welcomed the ocean lapping the beach and the very chilled out vibes from locals and international visitors.
The town really was just a small fishing village, one sandy main road and a pot holed crossroad running right onto the beach – a few ramshackle buildings lining the streets and a few expats from Argentina running pizza and pasta restaurants (clearly for the tourists). We settled into 5 days and 5 nights of surfing, talking about surfing, dreaming about surfing and eating from the handful of reasonable eateries – yes we had a disproportionate number of pizzas!
Our daily routine was awesome, first thing was a surf check then a pre-breakfast a surf before coffee, eggs or an amazing breakfast fruit bowl at La Chocolate (again, an Argentinian cafe serving killer breakfasts, lunches and desserts and pizzas), maybe we’d let breakfast settle a few hours of chilling or planning and then a few more hours surfing the point.
Lauren’s surfing improved through the roof! The waves were smaller than I had hoped but that meant that she could paddle out and catch her own 200 meter plus rides from the point all the way to the beach! I rode a mini-mal style board which was a lot of fun and very easy to paddle onto the bigger waves that would occasionally roll through! Unfortunately there were no North American winter snow storms pushing waves down to us and we (I) left Mompiche without scoring arguably one of South America’s best left hand point break at its best…perhaps we’ll return some day!
Our next stop down the coast was supposed to be the jewel of the central coast – Canoa. Well lets just say that we glad to have only booked two nights there and treated it like a midway rest stop. The town was clearly geared towards tourists but there simply were none that we could find!
The huge stretch of beach was jammed full of shanty bars and restaurants without a single guest at any – we didn’t try any pizza here, but it surely would have been better than the stodgiest seafood soup we’d ever tried, and possibly the lowest food point on the whole trip! We sent it back but later realised that the Ecuadorians like it this way and use green banana’s to make it really goopy!
The out going tide however made for some great photography while we explored the never ending stretch of beach. With the cloud cover low and the mist high, everything sort of blended together into a rather strange white universe!
After a mosquito filled night we packed up and made for the next bus to Puerto Lopez. We’d read quite a few blogs that described the town as horrible without a much of a vibe. Once again, the guides we read couldn’t have been more wrong!
With its paved promenade, cycle paths, big clean beach and a great variety of restaurants we couldn’t have been happier staying in Puerto Lopez after coming from Canoa! We spent our first afternoon sipping Pisco Sours (a Peruvian delicious cocktail) on the beach and watching the sunset.
Of course we found pizza in Puerto Lopez haha (I think we have an addiction and we really need to stop!) – but it was reaaally good, in fact we got it twice plus we found some killer brownies!
One of the biggest reasons people stay in Puerto Lopez is to visit Isla de Plata, named island of silver due to a rumored hidden treasure or the more likely theory the huge amounts of white bird poo on the island reflect the silver moonlight. Its also called the ‘poor mans Galapagos’ as its also home to the same sea birds – notably the Blue Footed Booby, Albatross and the red breasted Frigate birds as the far more expensive and renowned Ecuadorian islands. We had toyed with the idea of going to the actual Galapagos for weeks, and eventually came to the decision (after talking to mannny other travellers) that it was going to cost around 10k and that this was not a trip you could skimp on. So we will return one day to visit there! But for now the poor man’s Galapagos was our next best bet.
After what felt like quite a long one and half hour boat transfer we pulled into the sheltered side of a big brown barren island. We waded through the water and the hike began towards the far side where we would see the island’s famous inhabitants! In our typical travel style we missed the mating and nesting season as well as whale watching and the manta rays…but it was really quiet and it still was absolutely impressive seeing the Blue Footed Boobies. Their feet really are very blue!
The first bird we stumbled upon was in the middle of the foot path, totally unafraid of us as they have no natural predators on the island! The group stopped for ages trying to photograph the first Blue Boobie – we were all stunned by their curiosity and size – and of course their blue feet!
The island was a bone dry bush – it should actually have been much more lush and wet. Our guide informed us that the wet season rain had not arrived (months late) and without it would be a tough year for the young birds not yet able to fish for themselves.
After a simple yet well earned lunch we cooled off from the stifling heat with a snorkel with turtles and loads of fish! Although its not truly comparable to the Galapagos (and we will one day return to visit them), visiting the island was definitely worth while and a highlight of our coastal adventure!
Puerto Lopez also is home to the ‘best beach’ in Ecuador in the Los Frailes National Park! So we spent a day hiking to it along the stunning coast line. On our walk we discovered beautiful sheltered coves between limestone cliffs to dip our toes in – we were advised not to swim here as there were strong under currents!
We really loved the hike and stopped frequently to observe the coastal crabs and shellfish that inhabited the rock pools. As the heat started picking up, we quickly made a dash for the last beach on the trek and spent a long hour swimming in the beautiful ocean.
The last stop on our coastal road trip was Montanita – the beach side party capital of Ecuador. We heard a lot of mixed reviews, both from friends and travelers but the surfing there is famous so we saved 3 nights to take it all in. Once again we were really surprised by how much we liked the place!
It helped that our hostel was down the beach away from the night clubs and that we were upgraded from a two bed room to a five bed room with sea views straight onto the waves!
The local surfers were really good! Both guys and girls shredding the 4-5ft waves and making it look easy, after chatting to a few of them they were actually very friendly and happy to share the waves which meant more waves for me!
We loved the chill vibe of Montanita, it was quite expensive however. Ecuador in general was much more expensive than we had initially thought as everything is in USD which adds up! Bit of a shame the AUD is so weak against the USD at the moment!
Lauren and I agreed that we wouldn’t have pizza in Montanita so we sought out some great Peruvian and Argentinian options! Ceviche, Pisco Sours, Empenadas and more!
With our coastal trip coming to an end – I surfed as much as I could, then we enjoyed one more sunset over the pacific ocean while we reminisced about our adventure around this jam packed little country!
One last bus trip (THANK GOODNESS) and then we are making tracks southwards towards Santiago and Argentina! Thank you Ecuador you have been a blast! Until next time!
Far Away From Home 