Salinas....
(located on the map at the furthest western point of land in Ecuador)
Salinas is a combo of Miami/Waikiki/Ft Lauderdale/Cancun.
We arrive in Salinas after flying in from the Galapagos and grabbing a bus from the main bus station in Guayaquil.
The bus station is literally the MOST MASSIVE bus station we have ever been in. 3 floors tall....with the buses departing from the top 2 floors and ticket sellers on the first.
There are close to 100 bus departure points spread over the upper floors.
It is chaos...we have arrived during Carnival...on a long weekend... and the last blast for fun before 6 weeks of Lent kicks in...(google Lent).....and it seems half of the nearly 3 million residents of Guayaquil have left the city heat and have headed to the white sands, cool breeze and warm waters of Salinas.
Our bus gets us to the outskirts of Salinas...where we hop another local bus for 30 cents that gets us into Salinas.
What can we say about Salinas on a Carnival weekend.....boom-boom noise....traffic ......music.....and crowds.
People on the street...on the beach...in the water......concrete skyscrapers hug the seaside.....
Vendors are everywhere...
Some kind of small eggs being sold hard boiled...in the shell and peeled...
The juice man
The BBQ man...
Chips and more...
The beer man
The ice shaver...
And there were even the cocktail making men...
Complete with the fancy straws...we had a margarita and a mojito. At the end of the day, the chairs and more had to be packed up...
Along with all the people comes the spraying of random people on the streets...walking past someone, out of cars, into cars, from balconies... The spray looks similar to shaving cream, smells quite nice and comes in special cans used specifically for Carnival. These cans are sold in most stores and from people on the street. Here are a few images I managed to capture.,.
Some didn't mind getting sprayed...others not so much!
There was a strong police presence everywhere which definitely kept things civil...but, we couldn't wait to leave....
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Road north along the Ecuador Costa
We leave the concrete of Salinas behind and grab a bus heading up the coast. Immediately we smell the petroleum plants that line the streets...this stretch has numerous industrial/petroleum operations loading/unloading freighters...
Oil is one of the primary sources of export revenue for Ecuador.
Passing through several non-descript beach towns. The landscape is monotonously flat and scrubby.
Shrimp farms dot the mangrove vegetation ...
(Shrimp farming is big business for the Ecuador economy....but the process of clearing, dredging vast tracts of mangrove to allow shrimp farming produces about the same effect as clearing the the Amazon rainforest for ground crop. Eventually, the mangrove can't sustain the shrimp farming, is abandoned and new tracts are opened up)
Massive shrimp farms as we flew near Salinas/Guayaquil
Montañita
An hour north of Salinas is the über-popular beach/surf/party town on Montañita....popular with just about everyone, including the Carnival beach going crowd....it is jammed packed on the beaches....in the streets and on the roads.....we grab some lunch and soon leave.
It is THE party spot and surf location for a lot of travelers on the coast.
We would have loved to stay and drink the cheap concotions and dance all night...but not this day. Besides, the beach like much of the coast so far.........flat and dull.
As we head north again we notice large white piles in the fields...
salt production is another business in the area which provides salt to the whole country
Olón
Just a $2 taxi north of Montañita is Olón. While on the last day of Carnival...it is the polar opposite of its hedonistic sibling (Montañita) .....just a wave curl to the south.
Although a few blocks on and around the beach have some life, it is really a quiet beach town with little to do. It does have a group of long term tourists escaping winter to the north, several decent eateries and drink places.
Live entertainment on the beach for Carnival
A beautiful sunset...
And good eats...
We stay one night and then decide to push north again. Rainy weather, cloudy skies...gloominess seem to permeate this part of the coast. Drab gray structures....an air of decay in the humid, damp conditions and a feeling of isolation surrounds.
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Puerto Lopez
This town looks promising.....a decent malecon.....quieter beach and the last night of Carnival the day we arrive.....weather breaks and the sun is ours for most of the stay.
The Victor Hugo Hotel where we stay...
Our balcony view...
We find a nice beach bar to have a few...
Even get sprayed...
The best part was when we heard music on the malecon below our room...we love music so watching the family of close to 20, we decide to bring some beers and join the fun...they welcome us openly, ask us all sorts of questions about Canada then one of the men asks Yvonne to dance...
So much fun to embrace a culture...
Being a fishing village, the seashore is always busy with fisherman coming, going or doing repairs... plus the seabirds waiting for their free meals...
This dusty muddy town uses tuk tuk taxis for transportation around town. Cost is $1 US for most trips...
Many unpaved roads here...
But, rain returns during our second (and last) night there....pours all night ....power goes out and we awake to more gloom...we leave town and realize the extent of the storm's damage....partial road washouts...mudslides....flooded fields....we head for Crucita another long (4 hr bus) ride...
Rice fields...
Honey for sale...
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Crucita
Rave reviews in the guide books.... ....a spot to hangglide when the winds blow......a growing expat community that resides full time or winters here....and a sprawling upscale spread of gated communities along the dusty, dirty beachfront road....
....we didn't get it.....with only 3 paved roads (seriously) ...and numerous unpaved/ muddy/dusty ones...the buildings mainly resemble the outcome of a massive wind storm (and...that's being kind)
....we talk with a number of tourists who somehow found this place...after looking nowhere else in Ecuador.....who think their 90 days stay in an Airbnb ocean front gated condo....is the next best thing to muddy streets and cheap beer..(which they have in abundance here).
Sun came out for a day........we walked the beach....swam in the surf...and watched the fisherman. Later, we found a local bar/restaurant to watch the sunset...and loved the tuk-tuk taxis.....ah, all in a day...
Tents available for rent for $3 a day including plastic mats inside
When do we leave......(ah...we found a flight out of Manta....yes!)
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Epilogue
If the Andes are (in our opinion) the heart 'n soul of Ecuador....then the coast/beaches are the ragged hem of a pair of jeans.....well worn for some.....but unkempt to others...
Sorry....but there really wasn't anything we found that would keep us in any of the beach towns mentioned above for more than a night or 2.....
Dusty...muddy.....run down..... there may be another......better section of the Ecuador coast....but...this wasn't it for us.....and we really like beaches!! We really do!!
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Next blog.....Back to Ecuador's heart n soul....the Andes....
Hasta Luego
Shayne y Yvonne
Additional Random Photos
Adios!!
