Beyond these similarities, the coast of Ecuador has few comparisons to the Jersey shore. Our first visitor from the U.S. was my great friend, Mary Ellen St. George. She loves the sand and the warm climate, oh and I guess she loves us too, so I decided to take her to a beach here called Puerto Lopez. However, in order to have her really appreciate the beautiful environment of the hostel there, we had to spend a night in a freezing cold, spare, noisy hostel in Quito. Traveling with me can be quite, um adventuresome, because I have a high tolerance for a wide range of accommodation and travel standards, from a shack to the Hyatt Regency and everything in between. The next morning we hopped on a quick flight to Manta. I should have let the taxi driver take us to Puerto Lopez for $30, but noooo, we had to save money by taking the $3 Jippi Jappa bus to Puerto Lopez. No shocks, no bathroom, tight seats, a real third world experience. We arrived safely 3 hours later and plopped our bags on a cute motorcycle taxi to the beautiful Hostel Mandala.
Located on an isolated undeveloped stretch of beach on the northern end of this fishing village, this hostel was built by an Italian and Swiss-Italian couple who we didn't have the pleasure to meet because they were out of town. The hostel is a work of art. Nicely appointed thatched roof cabins immersed in lush botanical gardens. I truly enjoyed walking through the gardens with Mary Ellen every day as she pointed out the different species of plants and flowers, of which she was very knowledgeable. The hostel is appointed with wood on many surfaces and each wooden construction is a piece of art, from the gates that invite you into the place to the frames around the bathroom mirrors, to the inlaid restaurant tables, to the toilet seats, to the giant key rings for the locks on the door. How I lost that giant pinguino key ring is still a mystery to me.
Across from the hostel is a nice white sand beach looking out on to the warm Pacific Ocean. The hostel provides open air thatched cabanas where you hang your hammocks and drink bottles of beer or carafes of wine. It's also a great place to watch Frigate birds and Pelicans diving into the ocean while the sun gets buried at days end. Day one was for lounging on the beach and mild intoxication.
Day two was for our fantastic adventure to Isla de La Plata, so called for the shiny bird dung that covers the island. This island is located about 30 miles from the village, so it's a full day boat trip. It is affectionately known as the poor man's Galapagos. There are colonies of birds there that are only located there and the Galapagos Islands. We trekked along with our guide on the dry, hot island and almost immediately came upon a baby Blue Footed Booby (I can never say this without a British accent) sitting under a tree.
The birds have no fear of humans and remain under their bush as you approach. The babies don't get the color in their feet until later. A little further on we ran into a Booby couple. They were playing and scrapping at each other with all kinds of fun squawks. Finally, we came to a huge Frigate Bird colony. These birds are huge and have very cute eagle like faces. I was enthralled by the numbers, size, and beauty of their flying. The guide gave us the option of carrying on to see the Red Footed and Masked Boobies, but as Mary Ellen pointed out, "If you've seen one Booby, you've seen 'em all." I pointed out that this probably isn't true for the birds or other kinds of boobies either.
However, we turned around and headed back to the boat so that we might have more time for snorkeling.
The birds have no fear of humans and remain under their bush as you approach. The babies don't get the color in their feet until later. A little further on we ran into a Booby couple. They were playing and scrapping at each other with all kinds of fun squawks. Finally, we came to a huge Frigate Bird colony. These birds are huge and have very cute eagle like faces. I was enthralled by the numbers, size, and beauty of their flying. The guide gave us the option of carrying on to see the Red Footed and Masked Boobies, but as Mary Ellen pointed out, "If you've seen one Booby, you've seen 'em all." I pointed out that this probably isn't true for the birds or other kinds of boobies either.
However, we turned around and headed back to the boat so that we might have more time for snorkeling. The guide decided to take us back on a trail that maybe wasn't an official trail and might be a bit "slippery", but would get us back faster. That was the understatement of the day. The trail had 45 degree slopes of dry dirt, grass and rubble. Some of the tourists were unprepared for this terrain in their flip flops and were paralyzed with fear on their descent. Even those of us with "sensible shoes" slid down and arrived with scratches and bits of twig sticking out of our legs and butts. These are experiences nobody would have in the U.S. for fear of lawsuits. Anyway, everyone did eventually make it back down the hill and we had a nice time snorkeling before heading back for the day. We caught an amazing sunset at days end on our beach back at Mandala.
The next day was for once last beach experience and then a hefty 8 hour bus trip back to Cuenca.
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