Well...the much anticipated family holiday started off with a long bus ride to Bahia de Caraquez. We were dropped off at the end of this new 2km bridge and made use of the bike lane to get to our hotel on the other side. 330km in 9 cycling days for a 37km average. We had two weeks in total and spent 2 days in a few places. The longest day was 60km, only because there was no hotel in town and we had to carry on another 12km or so. But otherwise anywhere between 2.5 to 4 hours of riding time, with stops in school parks and beaches. Carla would usually sleep about an hour of that riding time.
Bahia de Caraquez. Great little peninsula town with open beach to the west and calm river/ocean beach to the north, which is great for kids.
View of Bahia from a hike up to the cross.
Calm beach and the new bridge over the Rio Chone.
The 1st 21k we rode on the beach at low tide.
If we get tired of cycling holidays, we can always check in here for something different.
Carla's little house on wheels.
Beachcombing
San Clemente
Carla loves coconut water....she's got a big pile to work on!
Ecuador even has proper bike lanes....well...in the city of Manta anyways. Manta is where the prez refused to renew the American's airbase lease, because they wouldn't let him open and Ecuadorian airbase in Florida.
Found this little doggie hanging around his dead mom, who's leg was sticking out of the gunny sack that someone had thrown over the edge of the road. Maybe he was in it too. Gave him some food and water and told the people at the hotel about him. Not sure if they took him in.
Good thing he's not steering.
Nice shoulder!
Too much attention for Carlita.
The only rain on the trip...a 6km downhill into San Lorenzo. Thanx for the light Studley!
A cloud of Frigates.
A bit like the Oregon coast!
...and a bit of the Italian med....
Puerto Cayo.
only 60 bucks a night for one of these cabins on the beach. Kitchenette too. We stayed in a smaller unit in the back for $20. The place is American owned and for sale.
Baby Bagre
Thanx to our Swiss friends, Puis and Margret for the Swiss knife! It sure slices pineapple nicely!
Don't throw garbage on the beach....courtesy of Bart Simpson.
Fishing town before Puerto Lopez...can't remember the name and too lazy to dig out the map.
Gorgeous 5km section of road before Puerto Lopez.
Aw shucks...ain't he cute. Here they call it a Cosumbo...google tells me it's a Coati.
More wildlife
Rule number 2 sounds like fun.
Ramon taking in a little early morning surf action in Montanita.
Carla poking around in the tide pools. I used to love doing that when I was a kid....on the west coast out of Vancouver.
Montanita is a stop on the gringo trail...which means banana pancakes....this one came with chocolate inside.
All on his own....Ramon, papa, mama, Carla.....I think he's ready for kindergarten.
Just a beach cruising holiday....had a slight headwind most of the way, but it wasn't too big of an issue.
One very skinny fish.
Guitar fish.
3km of soon to be paved road into Ayangue. Carla had a bit of a bumpy ride.
Ayangue
Fresh Calamari?
This place has just been purchased by a retired couple from Calgary! We were the first Calgarians to rock up. Denise is a retired med library tech from the U of C and Paul is a retired HD mechanic. Their pensions were not enuf to live on in Calgary, so they sold their Bowness condo and paid 80 grand for this house one block back from the beach and converted it into a B and B. The locals direct the gringo traffic to them. We had a great dinner and came back for breaky (the rooms weren't quite ready yet, so we stayed elsewhere). Give them a try if you're down this way. They don't yet speak Spanish and had never been to Latin America. I admire the courage they have to just sell everything, pack up and take on such a challenge in their golden years.
The posh hotel in Ayangue....Las Cumbres. It was off season and we had the pool and resturant to ourselves. Temps in the low to mid 20's this time of the year, which is great for the kids and cycling. Too hot and sunny in Feb.
Pedestal for a glass top table.
Humpback whale watching at Las Cumbres. Saw them blow and surface about 10 times!
Dr. Ramon!
Ok...guess we won't go swimming at this beach kiddies!
Salinas is where we finished. No direct day bus, so we left at 8:30pm and got home at 6am. Kids slept well...Maria did OK....I read.
Salinas is a soul-less place...no character...just a strip of big hotels/condos on an average beach....one that we couldn't even enjoy, as the authorities were telling people to get off the beach as they were expecting some kind of super high tide....which never materialized. It's also Ecuador's biggest resort...and only 2 hours from the biggest city of Guayaquil.
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