One Night in Puerto Lopez

OK, so The Lonely Planet seriously needs to be re-examined and maybe written by people who have actually BEEN to these places. Whoever said that Puerto Lopez was a "must see" was delusional; OK so it has a relatively picturesque seaside location, nice fishing boats etc etc, but it was an absolute ghost town when we got there. apparently the only big draw with this place is that you can do day trips to Isla de la Plata, which is like a miniature Galapagos Island, and if you're lucky you can see whales on the way. But as it costs 2 days worth of our budget for a trip which apparently just pales in comparison to the Galapagos meant that we decided against it and just arsed around instead.

We left our "comfort zone" of the ever-giddy Montanita to head to Puerto Lopez, about an hour north of Montanita and close to Machalilla National Park. From a height, as you drive down the hill into the town, it looks quite picturesque, like a small Greek fishing village. It has a lovely crescent moon-shaped beach. But as you get closer, you realise that those lovely cute huts are infact just neglected shacks and that everything is just a little, well, dirty. It's pretty much no more than another sprawling, poor market town, trying to make as much of a living off the fishing industry as possible. We met a father-son American couple from Manhattan Beach in California, an amazing place I would imagine. They had arrived here on a short tour of Ecuador with the hopes of tropical, equatorial beach-side perfection and needless to say, their faces showed that they were a little disappointed. There is a smattering of small cocktail huts on the beach and some "authentic Italian" restaurants, who do NOT know how to make a lasagne.

We found a nice, cheap hostel with a very eccentric owner, so we threw our bags down and went for a stroll around town. The place was kind of ugly to be honest, with loads of either half-built of half demolished buildings and litter-strewn streets which I'd imagine would turn into mudbaths in the rain. There's just a general appearance of neglect, some saying that the place has never regained its "glory" since the weather phenomenon "El Nino" wreaked havoc around the area back in the 1990s. However, we spent the night, and the next morning, after a pretty shitty night's sleep due to several over-eager roosters and a window-pecking bird, we had brekkie and there met a couple from LA who were heading to Los Frailes beach, which apparently is Ecuador's most beautiful beach. Considering it was a great day, we tagged along, and we were greeted with an absolutely amazing beach. It's located within Machalilla National Park (it's free to get in now, before it was $10), so it's spotlessly clean and well-kept, with beautiful white sand and turquouise water, so clear that you can see your entire body when you're out swimming. There is an abundance of funny little orange crabs that scuttle around the sand in front of you and then disappear into little holes in the sand.

Puerto Lopez beach

Los Frailes Beach

After a few hours of sun-bathing and swimming we decided to head back to the mecca of Montanita for some action; as it turned out, we missed the constantly pumping music and cheesey Gringo bars! We found ourselves back at Hostal Pakaloro where we were greeted with smiles and demands to make some more of our lovely popcorn (!). Here we enjoyed Calle de los Cocteles for one more night before we fell into bed slightly tipsy in preparation for our trip to Cuenca the next day.

Where we stayed in Puerto Lopez: Hostal Maxima http://www.hotelmaxima.org/
How much?: $7 per person per night for private double room, private bathroom.