The Ecuadorian Coast, Puerto Lopez
Trip Start
Jun 15, 2008
1
12
25
Trip End
Aug 15, 2008
Puerto Lopez,
Ecuador
Friday, July 11, 2008
Its pretty chilled here, though the stay maybe didnīt start off as we might have hoped. We arrived early Wednesday morning from Quito, exhausted from a long bus ride and wanting nothing more than to fnd our hostel, have a shower and get some breakfast. There are very few cas here but motorised rickshaws are in abundance and seeing as I have always thought these looked fun in London, we jmped on one and asked to go to a hostel we had been recommended. What we had not reckoned on was that the man driving our rickshaw was obviously being paid comision by certain hotels and tour companies to take tourists there instead of others. He therefore went to ours and popped inside leaving us to wait with the luggage, only to appear 30 seconds later telling us it was full. He then proceeded to drive us between various hostels (generally nasty) despite us frequently telling him we could manage on our own and to a tour company to try and pressure us into booking a tour before we eventually pretended to accept a room to get rid of him. We then went back to first hostel (not full at all).
I have become somewhat angry just writing this, and you are probs wondering why as maybe it doesnīt sound that bad? It was more the fact that this fat little man kept saying things like "Iīm recommending this as a friend" (he was NOT our friend) and that we would surely get too tired walking on our own (we had climbed a volcano the day before, I think we might have been up to it).
Anyhoo enough about what Imo and I now refer to as "THAT man" (who we keep looking out for so we can shove a stick through the spokes of his rickshaw). After the unfortunate start, Imo and I spent yesterday on a beach in the national park called "los frailes", reading, napping, swimming and walking though the park. In the evening, we went out for dinner to try some local sea food and ate some delicious peanut-plantain-tropical fruit and squid soup (yummy) then "ceviche", very tender fish in lemon juice with raw vegetables (cold) and squid rice. All amazing and very fresh. We then went for cocktails on the sea front where we were kept entertained by a cocktail waiter with the most hilarious laugh. At one point, my incorrect conjugation of the irregular very "mentar" (to lie - we were refering to THAT man) made him laugh so much he came out from behind his stall to stamp up and down the road laughing. good. So the day that started badly turned out well
This is turning out not to be such a short entry (got a bit carried away with complaints about THAT man. I dont often get angry, but this makes me angry). I havenīt even talked about today which was fantastic, but the internet here is so slow and I dont want to have to pay for another 15 mins, so you will just have to wait in suspense!
Lots and lots of love and BBBB
Penny xxxx
