Puerto Lopez & Montanita

We've just spent the last few nights in Puerto Lopez and Montanita and it was nice being back in the heat!

Puerto Lopez is on the west coast of Ecuador and as it's July it's the middle of whale season!!! This was are reason for coming here so we spent one full day out on a boat whale spotting. We saw hump back whales breaching and splashing their fins right beside the boat and it was absolutely amazing!!! The size of them is crazy and being so close to them was an unforgettable experience. We also ate some great seafood there.

Two hours down the coast is Montanita which is a party town and reminded us a lot of some places in Thailand (not sure if that's a good thing or not)!! We happened to bump into Mandy here as well and our hostel had a good vibe each night with everyone sitting around drinking before heading into the madness of town and 'cocktail alley'.

Unfortunately apart from this evening when the sun came out before sunset and we got to walk the lovely beach here, the weather has been really bad and it's pretty much rained consistently since we got to Montanita. So we've booked a bus for tonight and are heading south, into Peru to Mancora! Mancora is another beach town but fingers crossed the we get better weather there.