Puerto López: Ceviche, Snorkeling & Sun

We left Quito and traveled for eleven hours across Ecuador's highlands to reach the coast. The goal was to spend a week or so at the beach while planning out a trip to the Galapagos. We settled on Puerto López which is dubbed the "Poor Man's Galapagos" due to its proxmity to Isla de la Plata, which has similar wildlife to the Galapagos. It would be the perfect segway to the real islands. Shanta's Dramamine (motion sicknesses pills) kicked in on the bus from Quito and she was lights out before we had left the city limits. Once we reached Puerto López, we took a mototaxi (motorcycle with a 4-person cab attached) to the beachfront and found a tiki-hut hostel steps from the water for a good price.

As close as you can get

Tiki huts at the hostel

Can't complain about the beach

The first step was to try the best ceviche the town had to offer. All the local restaurants offered the classic dish, and each spot bought their fish right off the boats early in the morning. During the week, we ate at least one per day from a different restaurant each time. In the end, we decided the best came from a small restaurant on the shore for $5 a bowl. I will come back for this...

The fishermen lining up in the morning

The fish market in full swing

No gracias

Before it became part of our dinner 

So good!

Day two, we took a bus to one of the best beaches in the area, Los Frailes.  From our hostel, it was $1 to the bus station then 50 cents to the national park. At the entrance of the park, the estimated walking time to the beach is 30 minutes, but luckily we met some gringos in a pickup truck and got an easy ride to the beach. The beach was amazing and reminded us of Big Sur in California. 

Amazing beach day

The water was perfect

A second away from body-boarding failure

Day three, we embarked to the Poor Man's Galapagos. In a nutshell, this meant an hour boat ride to a distant island to hike through Galapagos-like wildlife. After the hike, we went snorkeling and even saw a migrating humpback whale on the return. 

Pulling up the rear on the hike

The fish were amazing

Turtle eating scraps of watermelon from our boat 

Close-up of these magnificent beauties 

Snorkeling like a champ

Fearless fish with amazing colors 

We spent the next few days organizing, planning, and purchasing various parts of our Galapagos trip. This was the easy part since the weather in Puerto López became dark and misty. We huddled in our room and researched. The weather continued to be a little dull until our last day when the fog burned off and we spent the afternoon in the sun.

Getting her tan

Shanta making sand art

Reading about Ecuador

Just read that Ecuadorian beaches are supposed to be fun!

No beach day is complete without a few beers

We will likely be out of contact for the next 10 days while we're in the Galapagos. More to follow when we return...