New Life in Ecuador

Friday January 20, 2017

For the second day in a row, we started our morning with hot tea and coffee from Marty. For the first time since arriving in Ecuador it was raining quite steadily during our breakfast. Marty served us in his bright red slicker, with a resemblance to Paddington Bear.
After breakfast the regular egg truck arrived, complete with tarp for rain cover, and Marty purchased 30 eggs from him for $3.75. Right after the egg truck left, the fruit and vegetable truck arrived. He had a amazing variety of fruits and vegetables available straight from the farm. Costs are so low that most people don't bother growing their own produce in a garden.
After packing our things we visited with our hosts while waiting for the rain to let up. When it became clear that the rain was going to continue, our hosts provided us with ponchos, so that we could cover our belongings during the walk into town. We may have to look into mailing them back to Casa WF when we get home (not really)! Our hosts were so generous that they literally gave us the ponchos off our backs!
We caught the bus to Portoviejo, and Mike and I enjoyed a delicious fried treat with meat inside bought from one of the many vendors who enter the bus regularly hawking their wares. No idea what it is called! We changed buses and proceeded to JipiJapa (pronounced yipiyapa), where we made our final change for Puerto Lopez. This section of the trip was very mountainous. We caught a taxi to our hostal (Monte Libano) and checked in.
We went for a walk along the malecon to check out local vendors and restaurants. There is a 2 km boardwalk along the beach in Puerto Lopez. There are also a number of beach hut restaurants like we saw in Canoa and Same. We walked out onto the pier as well, where many tourists board the boats for Isla de la Plata and Isla Salango. We had supper at a beach hut. Mike had ceviche (what else?) as well as grilled fish with rice and plantains. I has a large plate of rice with vegetables and shrimp. After exploring more of the malecon and a section of the main street through town, we returned to the beach for banana splits and coffee.

We headed back to our hostel, but were frustrated by the fact the the internet was not working, and there was only one questionable power outlet in the room. We decided that we would consider moving to another hostel the next day.