Thursday, January 5, at the beach – Los Frailes
Javier, Isla de le Plata tour operator, recommended Los Frailes, a long, deep crescent of beautiful beach within the bounds of Machalilla Park. This park is made up of what they call dry forest. It looks like a bunch of dead scrub. I think of George Bush and Texas every time I see it. Los Frailes has the reputation of being the most beautiful beach in Ecuador and aerial photos of it are common on postcards and advertising. It was cloudy most of the day. Even so, it was nice to be on the beach, swim in the ocean, and watch the birds dive bomb into the water for their lunch.
I hiked up to the top of the hill to the observation tower and the view is indeed muy bonito. The observation tower is a rickety thing and three or four workers were repairing it. Even so, they welcomed us up (there were four other girls also making the trek up). So, up the rickety stairs, over boards not yet nailed down, and stepping over construction supplies we went. The view is stunning, even though it wasnt very sunny. One of the workers was barefoot, another in flip flops. Theres a huge lack of safety protocol throughout the country. Its so, so different than the US.
Johnny drove me to and from the park today. Its about five kilometers out of town and theres a 2 mile dirt road from the main road to the beach. We went in his moto-taxi, which seems to be the main mode of transportation. There must be some sort of governor on the moto-taxis because even going at what seemed to be its top speed, buses, trucks and cars easily sped past us. Coming back into town, there were many, many other moto-taxis, all sort of jockeying for position. I wonder at what point I will get used to the order in this culture of chaos.