Larger in size than Montañita, Puerto Lopez is also cleaner – marginally. It’s a fishing village, though, and the pungent aroma of sea creatures fills the air.
Given we don’t eat fish and prefer to self-cater, the food market – lacking in variety, quality average, no coconuts or avocados, both of which have been abundant elsewhere – was somewhat disappointing.
For eating out, the choices seemed fewer than in Montañita.
However, there is a real jewel in this village: Hosteria Mandála. The accommodation, which has been there about a decade and was started from scratch by its Italian (a real character from Milan) and Swiss (Basel) co-owners who met in the Galapagos Islands, is extensive and tastefully decorated.
There is a library, music room, games room (every board game you can think of) and even a whale museum of sorts. It is child-friendly with many great wooden toys, puzzles, games and even beach playthings, there’s a restaurant, cactus garden, herb garden, hammock areas everywhere and wonderful plants attracting butterflies and humming birds. Also, there’s wifi, but it didn’t extend to the rooms, but Mandála has a wonderfully comfortable lounge where you can relax with your computer if necessary.
The beach, though, was not up to scratch. It extends right in front of and beyond the hotel, but is not as clean as in Montañita (watch out for the small, but stinging jelly fish that sometimes get washed ashore). A short walk along the beach in each direction from Mandala is lots of litter, food, dead birds and even washed-up turtles.
Sadly, it seems as if no one has made it their job to keep the beach anywhere near immaculate. Mandála was beautiful - and the staff very helpful - but the surroundings a let-down.
By the time our four-day stay was over we were happy to move on. We set off north towards Bahia and then Canoa. It’s an ordeal. We started by bus, then changed buses after 2.5 hours, took a bicycle tuc-tuc ($1) from the bus stop in Bahia to the harbour, a boat across the water to San Vicente and then a taxi (for $5) to Canoa. On the map it didn’t seem like it would take long, but door-to-door the journey required around six hours by public transport.
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