Fuimos a la Playa! (We went to the Beach!)

The cold in Cuenca was starting to get to me.  It wasn't so bad when the sun was out, but on the days when it was gray and cloudy it was cold especially in the house!  The kids were fine in their t-shirts, but I wore tons of layers and piled on the blankets.  At night I couldn't wait to get into my warm bed with the electric mattress pad.  We could get a heater, but I'm not sure it would heat up the space the way the flat is designed.  Next year we will have to get one and experiment.  Now that it is Sept. the weather is starting to turn, although next week looks cold again.  Lows in the upper 30's/lower 40's and highs around 66.  Cloudy too.  :(  Yesterday and today have been gorgeous though.

Anyway, I was aching for some warm weather and since this is the last month to see the whales I decided to get the family to the beach and go whale watching.  Ever since I ran across Hosteria Mandala's website while searching all things Ecuador I have wanted to go there.  Someone said that it has gone downhill, but I'm glad I didn't listen to them because it was awesome. 

In order to get to Puerto Lopez you need to first take a van or bus ride from Cuenca to Guayaquil.  We opted for the van ride through Operazuaytur.  It is $12 per person.  The ride through the Caja Mountains and on to Guayaquil takes 3 hours.  Then we walked from the van service to the bus terminal.  It took about 10 min., but boy was it hot!  We were sweating bullets.  The Guayquil bus terminal, Terminal Terreste, is huge!  One section resembles a mall with food courts included.  We wandered our way around for awhile trying to find where to buy the tickets.  It is in the back aisle for anyone heading there.  We got our tickets for $5.50 each.  The kids were free.  We had a few minutes to kill so we got something to eat and then headed for our bus. 

The bus left promptly at 1:00p.m. It was another three hours to Olon, but the bus was air conditioned and they showed a movie so the time went really fast.  On the way there we watched Snow White and the Huntsman, which is a movie I have wanted to see.  Didn't really want to kids to see it, but there was nothing I could do about that.  On the way back they showed Social Justice with Nicholas Cage.  Again, another violent movie that I wouldn't want the kids to see, but short of blindfolding them, again there was nothing I could do.  We arrived in Olon at 4:00p.m. and our taxi driver was waiting for us to take us the last 45 min. to Puerto Lopez.  This was the farthest north we have been on the coast yet.  We drove through the Machilalla National Park, which is a rain forest, and it was a really pretty drive. 

We arrived at Hosteria Mandala around 5:00p.m., got ourselves settled in our cabina and then hit the beach per the kid's order.  The cabin was very nice with lots of really cute details.  The beach was just heavenly.  Mandala has a beautiful stretch of mature palm trees and very nice cabanas to hang your hammocks.  The weather that evening was cloudy, but the kids didn't care.  They had a great time playing in the water and sand.

Kid's room in the loft. 

They loved sleeping under the mosquito nets.

  

First floor.

Cute bathroom.

Nice touches throughout like this bathroom door.

Beautiful bamboo plants were all over the hostal.

View from the dining room looking towards the beach.

 

Reception area.

                

Indoor dining and game room.

Games for all to use.

4 of the 5 dogs who live at Mandala.  They've got a rough life.

Third floor terrarium.

Another game room.

Second floor library, tv. and music room.

The lush gardens of Mandala.

A great place to end the day.



It has taken me all day to write and load pictures for these three blog entries.  I can only load one picture at a time and I am so frustrated.  It has never been like this.  I wanted to get all of my Puerto Lopez blog entries done today, but the last three will have to wait until tomorrow.  I am done!