Basically, the reason we came to this town is not here. The one place that we decided we would go well out of our way to visit no longer has that reason to be here. Unfortunately, the lady that ran the place became ill 2 years ago and the restaurant closed.
La Calderada, the restaurant Anthony bourdain said was fantastic here, is closed. What is here is a lovely, superquiet hostel and a town without a restaurant. Maybe if we hadn't spent the last few days chilling out, it would be cool. But what we really want is a reason to be somewhere, like whales and Puerto Lopez.
Our hostel, the manglaralto sunset hostel, is excellent, the owner is a great host, but the combination of off season isolation and our own interest in being closer to the natural attractions nearby will have us moving 15 miles up the road to Puerto Lopez tomorrow, which will be that much closer to Machalilla national park, where wildlife and some of the coast's only remaining raw forest exists.
The Pacific waves breaking on the beach a block away is yhe defining sound of the area and the temperature is a perfect 70 degrees, but it's maybe just a bit too quiet for us at the moment. We had a nice ceviche and an overall very average meal at Caeda del Sol in Libertador Bolivar, where we were the only people there, closing the restaurant before 7pm. It was a 15 minute, $2 cab ride away, right on the beach, but still not doing it. I felt sure it would be better in season, but with the 2 of us, it wasn't good. We then went onto a beachside bar with just us and the bartender.
That day, the bartender told us that whales were sighted right off the coast, some 15 meters out and the whole town came to a stop to get a good look. We then shut that place before 8pm. If we had a bit more time or if there were just one decent place in town, we would spend more time. This seems like an excellent place to just slow down.
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