Lucie & Rhys´s Honeymoon Adventure: Week 24 - Puerto Lopez, Bahia, Canoa (Ecuador)

Our second day in Puerto Lopez the sea had calmed enough for the boats to go to Isla del Plata. We left the hostel for the beach where the boats launched and hung around for an hour for late comers to arrive. After checking in at the floating lifeguard station we headed out of the bay. Before long the engine cut out and engine oil was pouring down the steering block. Credit to our captain though, a bit of gaffer tape and we were off again and after an hour we were at the island. As there weren’t enough people on our boat wanting to do a longer walk we had to do a short hour walk that took us to the cliffs to see blue footed boobies and nazca boobies including a fluffy one month old chick. The island was beautiful, absolutely covered in flowers and it’s a shame we couldn’t walk for longer. We climbed back aboard our boat and headed to a cove just around from the landing area where the crew threw watermelon overboard to attract green pacific turtles. We got given snorkels and swam around the boat, although visibility wasn’t great we could still see lots of brightly coloured fish and Rhys enjoyed diving off the top of the boat.

The next day we caught a bus to Porto Viejo (and were ripped off for the ticket paying the price of a full fair to Quito). In Porto Viejo we had tens of people meet us as soon as we stepped off the bus trying to get us on their bus next. We ended up following a guy who said his bus went to Bahia and after checking with the luggage guy and the driver we sat down ready to go only for the conductor to run on and tell us it wasn’t going to Bahia and we had to get off. After checking with the ticket office we finally found another bus to Bahia. From the bus station in Bahia we grabbed a taxi to a hostel in the centre of town owned by an Australian lady.

Bahia de Caráquez is quite small and very quiet. The 1997-1998 El Nino climate pattern caused landslides ruining the roads and just as the town was recovering there was a 7.2 earthquake that levelled most of the city so most businesses moved out leaving a quiet residential town. It’s pretty clean compared to places like Puerto Lopez, although it is overrun with American expats. The town is set on a little sandy peninsula, there’s a little beach (although we didn’t visit it), a mirador, a Galapagos tortoise and a handful of restaurants but that’s about it. After we checked in we headed to see the tortoise who lives in a school courtyard where you can just wonder in to visit him. That night, after watching a Spurs game, we went for dinner with a few people from the hostel on the waterfront.

Our second day in Bahia we went back to see the tortoise with some bananas and the camera. He loves bananas but it’s quite scary feeding him, he’s so big and prehistoric looking. After the tortoise we walked up to the mirador before heading back to the hostel to meet Kate and Adam - two Canadians volunteering for a reforestation project in Bahia, who joined us for a trip out to Isla Corazón. After a taxi journey we arrived at a little community by the side of the river Chone where we met our guide. We climbed into a canoe and he paddled us out to the mangrove island where we rowed alongside the mangroves watching thousands of birds, including one of the biggest frigate colonies in the world – amazing birds, the males puff out their red chests to the size of basketballs to attract mates and when they find one, they mate for life. After spending some time watching the birds we entered the mangrove tunnels, at one point our guide got us all to climb out of the canoe and hang on to the mangroves so he could paddle back to answer a call of nature. Out of the tunnels we landed on the island at a little wooden walkway where we took some mangrove sprouts to plant to help the mangrove to restore itself. When we were back on dry land we took a bus to San Vicente and then a river taxi back to Bahia. That night was quiz night at the hostel, we were awful and the expat Americans took it extremely seriously but happily shared their winnings, a bottle of rum.

We woke the next day and caught a taxi with Kate to Canoa, a beach town about 20 minutes north and a bit of a backpacker hub (taxis are so cheap here, the 20 minute journey only cost £4.70 between the three of us). When we arrived we walked along the beach road to find a decent priced hostel and ended up in Canoamar. Our room was on the third floor overlooking the beach and was the perfect place to relax for a while. We arrived on a Saturday and at the weekend the town gets quite busy. We spent a couple of hours on the beach enjoying the sun and swimming in the sea before heading back to our room to get ready for dinner. That night we met Kate, Adam and a few others from Bahia to chase happy hour along the beach bars before grabbing cheap pizza slices and heading to a bar shaped like a boat on the beach. A beach bar later and me and Rhys were ready for bed.

We spent most of Sunday in our room recovering from Saturday night only venturing out for dinner.

Monday we headed to the beach and rented a little beach tent thing for shade. Rhys rented a surf board for the day and headed out while the waves still seemed small (at high tide they’re massive and great fun for swimming!). Turned out though just because the waves looked small getting out beyond the break was pretty on impossible and after 40 minutes of non-stop paddling he was exhausted. An hour or so later he tried again with but it was just as hard so he gave up and took the board back and headed to sit on the hostel balcony to play computer games. I stayed on the beach until the tide was up and under our beach tent and decided it was time to head in when a local kid had to rescue my flip flop from being swept away. Back at the hostel Monique from Cuenca appeared having checked in that day. That night we headed to the Surf Shack for dinner then on to the beach to collect drift wood (and there is a ridiculous amount of drift wood in Canoa as the mouth of the river opens right onto the beach and brings all the debris with it). With a helping of DEET we got a bonfire started and the light attracted a few randoms who came to sit with us.

Tuesday we decided that one more night in Canoa wouldn’t hurt especially since Monique had only just caught us up and the trip to Mindo sounded pretty long winded and we wanted to put it off as long as possible. After drizzly weather in the morning the sun came out – Canoa gets pretty hot, it must have been about 35C. Rhys stayed on the hostel balcony most of the day while I sat on the beach and swam with Rhys running down to join me in the sea when he spotted me in the waves. After a couple of games of cards on the balcony and a few boxes of wine we headed out for cheap pizza for dinner again and a cocktail at Surf Shack.