There's a very long beach on the northern coast of Ecuador that is so hard to get to that it's basically abandoned. There's one big family living there, a few huts, half washed away - and a run down AirBnB up on a steep hill, almost a cliff.
2,5 years ago, we went there with my mother, Lily, Ellie and Ellis daughter. This year, Lily wanted to go back there, as a birthday present, so I organized it. The constellation for this trip was interesting as we went with Ellie's sister and her son as well. My mom couldn't make it this time.
It's a 5h drive from Cotacachi, and we left at 5am, with a nice amount of coffee. The early morning drive through the Andes towards the ocean is one of my favorites, but as I was driving, I couldn't take pictures. We first went to Paufi, a really dirty little town next to Montalvo, where we had to station one of the cars. We could only use my brother's truck, which had survived my Intag Adventures and was apt to get over the dirt road to the beach. But first, we took a little break to breath the ocean air.
The road to the beach was worse than the last time, and arriving, we noticed the reason - the shrimp farm that was there had gone away. So, no monetary reason to maintain the road. After 15min through the jungle, a lot of rocking and steep climbs and downs, we arrived at the beach. For our luck, the dune separating the road from the beach had been washed away, so we could drive directly onto the beach and since the tide was low, to the house.
Yes, when the tide is high, there's no way to get to the house.
What was luck for us, wasn't luck for the people living there. That house lost one room to the waves. Our house is not much to show for. Everything is quite worn down and rusty, there hasn't been much maintenance. There is no internet, just some cell service - only one spot on the stairs to the entrance has 2 bars of 4G. I loved it, the teenager hated it.
I took a dozen pictures of that, Lily in front of the ocean. Being as remote as it is, that beach is also very safe. There's a lot going on around the coasts of Ecuador, but generally, tourists are not affected. Still, tourism is hurt badly, just like in all of Ecuador.
One peculiar thing here in Ecuador is that this kind of beach is called "dirty". When I was first told that the northern beaches are ugly because they're dirty, I thought of rubbish, like what we saw in Paufi. But it's nature that's called dirty. White sand beaches are clean. Not my kind of definition, I find these way more interesting, and so did Lily.
Since there aren't many humans, the fauna is beautiful. The beaches are full of crabs of all kinds, including hermits, a nice variety of birds, and probably a big amount of night active animals, too.
This little bugger came up crawling next to me while I was having my morning coffee, reading a few posts through the keychain app.
This was a weird animal. I honestly haven't seen one before, and didn't quite know what it was. It has a shell on it's back, but the rest is a bloated soft tissue thing. As you can see, it wandered around a little, leaving tracks.
The relief formed by the retracting waves, untouched, have a mandala quality. They look like a sea on their own.
I love digging holes, so I got a big shovel and built a swimming pool. It was really big, and was easily visible from above, from the house, so probably from space, too.
The weather was mostly clouded, which I prefer, as I don't get sunburned that way. There were a few burny hours, but I stayed in the shadow throughout those.
The whole area is quite jungle-like and rudimentary. The houses have rust on their roofs, but at least there's electricity. I took the same shot in the evening, too, and it came out quite beautifully:
It's not perfectly the same positioning, but close enough. I love having the yellow bush sticking out of the plants in the shadow as I take the picture against the fading light.
I took a lot of pictures, but there aren't many of myself, unfortunately. Ellie and her sister took the dog, Yoyo, with them. That was a surprise for me, but he's well behaved, so it wasn't any problem. The only shot I have with me is also one of my favorites:
And that's a good ending I think. I enjoyed the peace and quiet, not silence, as the waves create a constant wall of sound. Just relaxing, not doing much, cooking a little here and there. I had a lot of time to think, which I always appreciate.
If you ever come to Ecuador, this might not be the location to go, but for us northern locals who like a breather, it's perfect.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the pictures!
Please feel free to engage in any original way, including dropping links to your posts on similar topics. I'm happy to read (and curate) any quality content that is not created by LLM/AI, as well as read your own experience and point of view, I love to learn!