the chronicles of puerto lopez

Chapter 1 - We are dropped off in the early morning dark. Delirious, we double check our location. Puerto Lopez, yup. A swarm of taxi drivers surround us. They wear goggles and helmets because they drive these motorcyle/wagon hybrids. The directions to our hostal said, "we are on the Malecon, just walk around or ask somebody." With no other choice, we jumped into the "cab" and he sped down the dirt road. In 30 seconds, we were there but it didn't seem anyone else was. We sleep on the beach until the employees of the hostal come and find us to check in. We were assigned to Bunglow 8 and our bed had a mosquito net.

Chapter 2 - In daylight, PL is unbelievable. It's off-season, so we are bascially two of ten tourists in a tiny little untouched beach down. It's charmingly delapidated and makes no apologies. It's pretty much one street, with straw huts on the beach side advertising special hot dogs, chicken spaghetti and pina colodas. On the other side, is concrete houses interspersed with general stores. In the street, motorcylces and bicycles whiz, families of 4 piled on top.

Chapter 3 - We go surfing with our new 19-year-old friends. At night, a grandma makes us dinner and we sit around talking for hours in two different languages and somehow understand.

Chapter 4 - Having been there for two days now, we walk down the street and run into about ten different people we know - our favorite bartender, server from last night, the local jewelry maker who has a serious crush on Tori, the tour-boat guy, our baby friends, Carlos who asked us to go dancing and every surfer in town. We buy a bottle of water and the lady doesn't have change so she tells us to come back later when we have smaller bills. When we do, she gives us two bananas that she had grown.

Chapter 5 - By the time we are ready to leave on day 4, we are laden with gifts - necklaces made of sea glass from Remi the bartender and bracelets from Pablo. He offers me a bartending gig that I am seriously considering taking, which also includes a free language exchange.

We came to PL for Isla de la Plata (the poor man's Galapagos), but that isn't even worth writing about compared to the experience of becoming part of this town for a few short days. We literally cried when we left. Now we are in Guayaquil, which is boring in comparison. Tomorrow, we leave for Lima and I absolutely cannot wait to get there and eat.