Puerto López

The wide bay has drawn people for thousands of years. The coast that is now the canton of Puerto López — Salango, Agua Blanca, Machalilla and the neighbouring shore — was home to the Valdivia, Machalilla, Chorrera, Engoroy, Bahía and Manteño cultures, and remains found here span the period from the pre-ceramic era to the Manteño. Agua Blanca, now a community inside the national park, lives on one of their sites, and Salango's museum keeps an archaeological collection covering more than 4,500 years before the Spanish conquest.

The modern town is young. Around 1810 a Spaniard, José González, and a Chilean, Juan Carpite, settled on the cove. From about 1820 fishermen from Palmar in what is now Santa Elena province came for the plentiful catch, living for short seasons in rough houses on the sand, because the land behind was dense forest. From 1840 some of them settled for good at a place called La Ensenada, and by 1900 the names of resident families appear in the record.

Puerto López later became the seat of its own canton, and in 1979 Machalilla National Park was created around it, taking in its beaches, dry forest and islands. The park made the town its headquarters, and whale watching and island trips turned a fishing village into one of the main tourist stops on the coast, though fishing remains central to its life.

The town's identity is tied to the sea. Its flag and coat of arms show the beaches and islands, a fishing boat, the dry and humid forests of Machalilla and the stone seat that was the Manteño culture's seat of power, together with the words "tourism, fishing and agriculture". The pre-Hispanic past is part of local pride, and communities such as Agua Blanca and Salango run their own museums and guided visits on their land.

Daily rhythm follows the boats. Each morning the catch comes onto the beach near the pier, and it is sold off quickly, with frigatebirds and pelicans circling overhead. In the evenings the cabañas on the sand play salsa and reggae, and residents and visitors stroll along the bay.

Football is the most popular sport. With no well-known club of its own, the town follows the two Guayaquil giants, Barcelona and Emelec, and the cantonal stadium, which holds about 800 people, also hosts concerts and cultural events. Ecotourism has brought guides, tour agencies and language schools, but fishing still sets the town's pace.

At the 2022 census Puerto López had about 12,600 people, the eleventh-largest town in Manabí. Fishing, trade and tourism are the main sources of work: the boats land amberjack, dolphinfish, wahoo, marlin and several kinds of tuna, while tour operators, guides, restaurants and small hotels depend on the whale season and the national park.

The town is one urban parish, with two rural parishes making up the rest of the canton. Schools follow the coastal calendar, starting in April and finishing in February, and the rains of the wet season damage some school buildings each year. Most people live in the low streets behind the seafront, and the bus terminal stands on the coast road north of town.

Life begins early with the fish landing and slows in the midday heat; evenings are spent outdoors along the bay. Like the rest of the coast, the town lives with Ecuador's security crisis, and states of emergency and curfews have been imposed at times in the coastal provinces.

Seafood is what Puerto López eats. The restaurants along the shore cook the local catch, and the coast's standards are everywhere: ceviche of shrimp or fish served with popcorn and chifles, thin plantain chips; encebollado, the fish, cassava and pickled-onion soup eaten as a hangover cure; and encocado, seafood cooked in coconut. Beach cabañas sell ceviche straight from the sand.

This is Manabí, whose kitchen is built on peanuts and green plantain. Look for viche, a fish and seafood soup thickened with peanut; corviche, fried green-plantain and peanut dough filled with fish; and salprieta, a condiment of toasted maize and peanut. A bolón de verde, a ball of mashed green plantain with cheese or pork crackling, is a common breakfast.

Cheap snacks such as empanadas come from food carts a few blocks back from the shore. Fruit juices, batidos and coconut water are sold everywhere, and the usual beer is Pilsener, served in large bottles.