17/1/23
Today was a longggg bus ride day. I got the 06.30 bus from Mompiche, after grabbing breakfast from the bakery cafe, and remained on the bus until around 17.00. I was very impressed with my nurse bladder which managed not to need to wee the entire journey. Perks of being a nurse, ayyyy?!
The bus ride was very pretty and we travelled through lots of jungle in small roads, picking up and dropping off school kids on route. At various points, the bus would stop long enough for various vendors to come on and sell their wares on the bus. At one point, we pulled into a bus station and I was told we had fifteen minutes break before leaving. I went to grab some pizza but when I turned around, the bus had gone. I went to ask someone about my bus, and then thankfully found my bus! The ticket vendor was also looking for me, which was nice! We headed on and made it to Puerto Lopez in time for sunset on the beach.
By the time I arrived in the hostel in Puerto Lopez, I felt drained but pushed myself to go out for sunset. I bought a can and some chocolate from the supermarket and walked along the beach to enjoy sunset over the ocean. Afterwards, I came back and chilled in a hammock a bit before going to bed early – I was knackered!
18/1/23
A fresh day. Today, I hoped to go to Los Frailes, the best beach in all of Ecuador recommended to me by the esteemed S Amercian traveller Kevin, who I had met in Laos years before. After a very cute breakfast overlooking the sea, I went to get the bus to Los Frailes. When I got there I was shown a map of the area and what there was to do there before being told that it was closed due to ‘fuerte’. ‘Fuerte’ means strong, so I understood it was due to strong waves/currents in the sea. I was pretty gutted but caught a local bus halfway back to Puerto Lopez to a place called Agua Blanco, which a Canadian guy I had been talking to that morning had mentioned.
I paid the entry fee of $5 before getting a mototaxi (hold on to your hats folks!), to the museum. I wandered through the museum showcasing old pots, pans and jewellery as well as seemingly pickled anals such as snakes and lizards, before heading along a footpath past some goats into a woods. The woods were bursting with activity, with loads of birds singing in the trees. I made it to some archaeological site, at which there was no information nor indication of what it was. I continued onwards to eventually find the sulphurous spring.
There were a few people there and a man came to give me some special mud which looked the same as the mud in the Dead Sea. I put it on my face and waited a while. Then I went for a swim in the dark waters before chilling on a sunbed with my book. A thirty year old man came to talk to me, whose name I have already forgotten. He was Ecuadorian and called himself fat. After awhile, I returned to my book and he went to wash the mud off his face.
I went for a final swim and then showered before heading to the viewpoint, which looked down over the national park. It was pretty beautiful, although reminded me slightly of Somaliland due to the river having dried up. Afterwards, I began the long walk back – it was only 5km,but on that hot black tarmac, it felt like a lot longer. I saw goats, pigs (and piglets) and only two barking dogs, for which I had a stick to keep them at bay. Afterwards, my legs were shaking for awhile but luckily there were no other ferocious fogs after that. A couple on a moped stopped to give me a mango before waving and setting off again. How cute!
When I finally reached the entrance, I got a taxi back to Puerto Lopez for $0.50 – not bad! I went back to the hostel, read a bit and then sat in the pool. Afterwards, I showered and got ready for the evening. I went for my sunset walk as per and got hungry along the way so went in search of food. I found a very wholesome looking kitchen with only two local people sitting there eating and decided to go for it. The meal was moderately expensive at $8, but I was hungry and prepared to risk it. I ordered a fillet of fish in some sort of coconut milk sauce with plantains and rice. It took nearly an hour to prepare and I was brought a complimentary appetiser as I waited. It was pretty good, but the fish blew my mind. It was soooo delicious in its sweet coconutty sauce with fresh tomato and peppers – mmm! I told the owner it was ‘muy rico’ and the best meal I had had in Ecuador, thanked him, paid and left.
On my way back down the beach, the Canadian guy from the hostel spotted me and waved so I figured I’d go over. He had invited me for drinks with his diving buddies earlier but I had gone out and figured maybe I’d see them later. And here we were. I joined them (seven of them – three Canadians, two Swedish and two Chilean) for a drink. I made a slightly questionable and very strong margarita and we chatted for a couple of hours. The Canadian guy had been travelling for a few months, and the Swedish couple were doing a belated post uni long trip and the rest were on a vacation. They were a nice bunch and I had a good evening. We walked back around 22.30, by which time the streets were empty!
19/1/23
Another travel day! I woke up fairly early and lay in a haock for a bit before sorting my life out and packing. Then I went for breakfast at my spot from the previous day and ordered glorious tortillas de papa, which consisted of a potato’s based cheesy pancake. It came with the usual scrambled egg, fresh juice, plate of fruit and a coffee. Afterwards, I got a tuktuk to the hostel to get my bags and head to the bus station – I didn’t feel like rushing around and it was only $0.50 to get a tuktuk. Back at the hostal, Angel, the owner, loaded my bags into the tuktuk, and off I went.
I arrived at the bus station pretty early and got my ticket for the 12.00 bus to Guayaquil. When 12 noon came by I climbed onto the bus, only to realise that I’d left my chocolate (Hotel Chocolate, a local bar and my nougat) in the hostel – nooooo! 😭😭 It was too late to do anything, so I messaged Angel to enjoy it.
Supposedly the bus to Guayaquil was only four hours, so hopefully I would have time to buy food supplies and snacks before flying to Galapagos, where everything was apparently very expensive! I bought a corviche (fish in a potato pancake) on the bus which was pretty nice. Surprisingly, the journey wasn’t far off four hours and I arrived to a massive bus station in Guayaquil. I looked up buses out of Guayaquil for when I returned from Galapagos and then got a taxi (Cabify) to my hostel. On arrival, I was greeted by a happy Venezuelan who showed me around before offering to take me to the mall as I had asked where I could buy shorts, since I had left my fave hiking shorts in Mompiche (😭😭😭). He took me to a nearby mall, and it felt like Cyprus again when I was looking for wedding shoes with a Russian/Ukrainian bloke. I enjoyed the experience and eventually got some skin tight (it’s the Latin way, I was told!) cycle shorts (all the way from Colombia). Then we headed back and I chilled a bit before heading back out solo to do a food shop for Galapagos.
On returning to the hostel, I ordered falafel from the cafe next door and then read my book in a hammock in a very nice chill area with pastel de chocolate (fancy dark chocolate cakes) and chamomile tea. The owner Michael came to chat to me and another guy Jake and then Jake and I got chatting. Jake was another Canadian who was escaping winter for a bit, hoping to do a few workaway to make the money go further. We watched a lizard skillfully catch and eat a dragonfly almost the same size as it and watched a frog leap about in the rain. Then, I went to bed as I had an early morning and was already feeling stressed with the thought of paperwork and the airport looming.
wanderingwelshie2 travels 