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Our first stop in Ecuador was Guayaquil , which is for most people a stop over for the galapagos. For us, it was a stop over for the poor man's galapagos. As the second biggest city in Ecuador, we'd once again been alerted to the dangers on the streets. It didn't ease us when we crossed the border from Peru and were given a safety guide on how to avoid express kidnappings. It was a boiling hot sweltering city (hitting around 30 degrees) that was mostly a hub of commercial activity. We did use the time though to visit their equivalent /better Starbucks called Sweets and Coffee. Here they used Ecuadorian beans and had a huge array of cakes on offer that all the locals were indulging in.
From Guayaquil we travelled to Montanita, a hippy beach town on the coast three hours away. Similar to Mancora in Peru (surf destination), travellers tend to prefer one or the other. Our preference was for Peru. Montanita offers more partying but to us it looked reminiscent of somewhere like Malia or Magaluf. Ok when you're 18 but 10 years later less so much...
We didn't waste too much time there and swifty moved on to an eco lodge (Azuluna) closer to a town called Puerto Lopez. Only half an hour from Montanita, it was much more local and authentic. We stayed in a little wooden cabin here. Very cute and twee, the bed was so small Rory could barely fit in. The lodge itself was a bit too real nature for me though, especially when I woke up to see a cockroach crawling over our toothbrushes. They were swiftly replaced.
All in all you can see the last 3 days weren't the best. However, Isla del Plata (the poor man's galapagos) made up for it. Now we didn't have the budget for the galapagos, at a minimum spend of $1000 for boats plus flights, we knew this was close to a months budget. We decided that one day it'd be worth coming back for and until then the poor one would do.We were told that the name of the island, silver island was due to the delightful fact there's lots of birds poo on the ground, which shines silver under the moon. Romantic hey? The alternative story is that Sir Francis Drake buried his treasures here.
It was an hour journey by boat to get to the island, pretty bumpy ride but very fun in the sun. Our guide stopped at one point thinking he saw a humpback whale but there was no luck seeing it (the whale season is slightly later at the end of June where hundreds make their journey through the Pacific). However, arriving to the port there were what felt like thousands of birds in the sky circling the island. It was extremely arid and dry and we began our two hour walk in the heat.
We soon came across several blue footed boobies, always in pairs, they change partners every year. Pretty forward thinking. There were also frigate birds aka pirate birds due to their habit of stealing from other birds (they can't fit for themselves). We returned to the boat to see sea turtles chasing after food in the water. They gave Rory's gopro a good nibble allowing for incredible videos, I've never seen Rory look so excited. Next stop was snorkeling in the clear waters, where we saw lots of fish and starfish, no sharks thankfully. As we swam there were a few p**** as were stung by mini jellyfish.
The next day we headed back to Guayaquil, staying at a different hostel Tomo hostal. A modern new hostel with perhaps the comfiest beds yet. Next up were on to Banos, the adventure capital!
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