Puerto Lopez Vacation

Last week I spent a few days on the Ecuadorian coast with two fellow English teachers, Barbara and Reena.   Although I had spent 5 weeks on the coast in February and March during my English teacher’s training course (CELTA), I was happy to go back and experience it in a different season. 

Our destination was Puerto Lopez, a fishing village about an hour’s drive north of Montañita where my course had taken place.  We stayed in the nicest hotel in town—Hostelería Mandala.   It was a complete pleasure to fall asleep to the sound of the surf and to awaken to bird song (and no car alarms, barking dogs, beeping cars or blaring school loudspeaker!)

View from our patio

The coastal weather I had experienced in February and March had been incredibly hot and rainy.  Some locals call it “summer” because of the heat.  Others call it “winter” because of all the rain.  Don’t ask me what season it is now, but it is much cooler and usually overcast.  It is also the beginning of whale season, when the humpbacks return to Ecuadorian waters from farther south.  We got to see several on our day trip to Isla de la Plata.

Our traveling companions

Isla de la Plata (Silver Island) supposedly got its name from the hoards of silver that Sir Francis Drake buried there, although another explanation is that the guano-covered cliff glisten like silver in the sunshine.  It is nicknamed “Poor Man’s Galapagos” since you can see many of the same birds that are on the Galapagos—e.g. blue footed boobies, frigate birds, albatross and pelicans—for a fraction of the cost.  Since I had experienced an 8-day tour of the Galapagos last December, it felt a bit like déjà vu.

Elvis might have been singing about these shoes...

Another day we visited the inland community of Agua Blanca where we enjoyed a dip in a sulfur hot springs—and gave ourselves a mud bath.

Natural beauty treatment

Refreshing in a sulfur-smelling way

Later, we went to Los Frailes Beach.   This was the beach that Peg, David and I went to each weekend during the CELTA course.  Unfortunately, we discovered that just as it is whale season, it also seems to be jellyfish season.  Reena and I were in the water no more than 10 minutes before a jellyfish attacked her.  Within a couple of minutes, a German girl down the beach also got stung.

Poor Reena!  She  had gotten hurt earlier when her hammock broke and dumped her on the patio floor.  And we all survived a small earthquake one morning.  It was nothing more than a mild shaking, but it added a bit of excitement for a few moments.

Once again, I was reminded of what cultural, linguistic, climatic and geographic diversity there is in this small country.   I also realized that, although I managed fine traveling alone last fall, it is much more fun to have traveling companions!

En route to Isla de la Plata