We left Cuenca by plane for Guayaquil, a short 30 minute flight and after arriving at the airport we changed into shorts and headed to the near by bus terminal. This bus terminal was huge and as large as most airport terminals we had visited. There were 112 gates on three levels.
This was the start of one of the most stressful days so far. We were looking for the bus that would take us to Puerto Lopez and I had read that a bus from the Jipijapa bus line would take us there. We finally found their counter and at 9:30 purchased our ticket. The bus left at 9:40 from gate 80 but when we arrive there was no bus. It had left!! Vince went down to the ticket counter and gave the guy that sold us the ticket shit and after a while he got the ticket changed to 11:10. After a wait we were on the bus and off on the long six hour trip to Puerto Lopez. When stopped in Jipijapa the sky opened up and then the rain started to come into the bus through the windows and the roof. Just another South American adventure that one learns to deal with somehow. Eventually we arrived at Puerto Lopez and reached our destination Hosteria Mandala.
Puerto Lopez isn’t one of my favorite spots. It is a dusty, smelly fishing village. Yes it has a beach, a very big beach over 3 km long but the fineness if the sand makes it a very dirty beach along with all the garbage that washes up on shore. They do clean the beach once a week but it still is dirty and they only clean part of it. However our Hosteria made up for these deficiencies.
On Monday we took a trip to Isla de la Plata which is an island 40 miles off the coast of Ecuador and is sometimes called the “mini Galapagos” The boat trip was about an hour out, but the homeward bound trip took an hour and a half due to the 2-3 meter swells. We saw some interesting birds and although it was very hot I did enjoy the trip. However Vince was under the weather today and didn’t enjoy it as much as I did.
Our stay here is coming to an end and we leave tomorrow morning for Bahia de Caraquez.
Just two more stops and then home but still more to see and do.
Take care
Regards
Wayne
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Was that a sea cucumber the chap was digging for’ it
looked revolting to me.
You can bring a couple of the hibiscus plants for your sister and me, if you please. 🙂
Take care, see you soon.
That purple thing reminds of something else, but I won’t post it here. The images of the sunset were just spectacular.