Leaving Baeza, the rainy season kicked into gear. Maybe early this year? In Mindo we stayed at the Yellow House. Breakfast on the balcony of the main house is a delight. Every morning hummingbirds and other birds entertain guests. The family that owns it are Euro-pioneers in the area. At one time their ranch covered almost all of this valley. The remaining acreage is still extensive and there is an impressive network of trails for hardy hikers.

The rain discouraged hiking so we set out to see the San Tadeo Birding sanctuary at the turn-off to Mindo from the main highway. Even in the rain the hummingbirds and others we there in full force. The low light made photography difficult and some of the birds look soggy, but I did my best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving Mindo we stopped in at the Milpe Bird Sanctuary run by the Mindo Cloudforest Foundation. We took a rather uneventful hike, although a group of peccaries ran across the trail right in front of us. Back at the entrance were, surprise, surprise…more hummingbirds. I’ve attached a short video at the end of this post.

Because we got a late start, we stopped for the night at Flavio Alfaro, an obviously un-touristy town. We arrived in pouring rain and didn’t see any hotels, so we paid a tuk-tuk driver to lead us to one.  After checking in to the quite adequate Mi Angel hotel for the night ($20), we slogged into town for dinner and an umbrella. The sales ladies at the shop just had to have a photo of themselves with Craig and then me. What is it about us? George thinks it’s because we are tall, white, old gringos…an unusual commodity in small, out-of-the-way towns. While we waited for our pizza, we entertained the owner’s son by playing with a balloon until it popped and the tears started.

On the road to the coast, we stopped for several interesting roadside attractions before arriving at Jipijapa (pronounced hippy hoppa) and turning toward the Pacific Ocean.

It strikes us as odd that vendors all seem to sell the same product on a particular stretch of road.  We saw this phenomenon many times with different products for sale. Here is a strip of wood carvers with lovely wares and on-site demonstrations.

We passed a pita hija farm and I had to get out in the mud to see how they grew. (Native to S America, it now grows in SE Asia also. In our local grocery stores they call it “dragon fruit”.) I thought I was busted when the owners came running out thinking I was stealing their produce. In my fractured Spanish I explained that I was fascinated by the flowers and the way it grows. They were charmed and gave me a couple of ripe ones to take with us.

Reaching the coast, we were famished, so veered into Los Ciriales for fresh fish in garlic sauce. Yum!  It’s not much of a town but does have a lovely beach. Very quiet during the week.

We stopped at Puerto Lopez to get cash at an ATM. This is where boats leave for the Isla de la Plata (Silver Island) billed as the poor man’s Galapagos. The marine iguanas and giant tortoises aren’t there, but lots of blue-footed boobies, sea turtles and magnificent frigatebird colonies are. The hiking trails on the island are very scenic. This park is only open during daylight hours. Whale watching tours also leave from Puerto Lopez.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arriving in Ayampe, we set up at La Tortuga Hostal near the beach. The Beach Boys would have loved this place, as their wish that “they all could be California girls” would be granted. Ayampe is a trendy little slice of southern California. Fortunately, the clouds, but not much rain followed us. Surfers and swimmers play in the ocean, the food available is continental, prices are reasonable, sunsets are lovely, and you can forget you’re in a foreign country.

The reason we came here instead of any number of beach communities along the Pacific, was to visit the huge Machalilla national park. It was too hot to take a planned inland hike, so we spent an afternoon at the park’s Frailes beach... billed as the premiere beach in this area. Our later hiking attempt was curtailed by a ranger who followed us to up a trail by motorbike to say the park closed at 4PM, a fact we were unaware of.

Just north of Ayampe is Salango, a definitely-not tourist town. We stopped here on the way to Frailes beach. The next day we part ways with George as we head inland and he goes to the Galapagos.

 

 

 

 

Until the next post:

See the many hummingbird species that come to the feeders around Mindo by clicking this link.

https://youtu.be/gQ1BiFe222s