We ended out spending a few more days in Puerto Lopez.

With beaches like this, why not?

Unlike some of the more touristy towns along the coast, Puerto Lopez is still a working fishing village. That meant each morning we’d walk to the fish market to buy dinner.

We reluctantly left Puerto Lopez to continue south. On the recommendation of other travelers we stopped at a cliff top hotel for lunch.

Best home-made playground equipment to date.

Walking on the beach in Montañitas

Despite the fact that it was a “hike” our walk out to the rocky point garnered two thumbs up.

Hi!

We stopped in Montañitas to visit Jen’s friend Lainie and her son Miro, who together organize and run Project World School.

On the way into Guayaquil, we drove through the beach town of Salinas just to get a feel for it. We also stopped at La Chocolatera (chocolate earth), a windy point on the coast with some stunning scenery.

We also stopped at a salt factory where they were drying seawater in giant reservoirs to extract the salt. They let us climb up one of the salt piles, a first for all of us!