Choosing what beach town you want to visit in Ecuador can be overwhelming. It seems you could spend a full year going from the top of the country to the bottom, riding buses along the Pacific coast, never going inland, stopping at every little beach town, and still would not hit them all. So before choosing one, it is best to decide what exactly you want from your trip. There are small fishing villages, backpacker party spots, beaches for the locals, and everything in between. While many backpackers choose the party spot of Montañita, we decided to avoid this place altogether. Dread-locked juggling Argentinians begging for money and competing bars blasting music til 4 in the morning was not sounding very relaxing. 

After spending about a week in Ecuador at high elevations, we were ready to hit the towns on the smaller side, where we could just relax and do nothing. For this we chose the small town of Mompiche, located on the northern coast of Ecuador. To get there from the capital city of Quito, we took a 6 hour bus ride to Esmaraldas then another 1.5hr bus ride to Atacames. Atacames is the beach that most Ecuadorians go to (we were about the only gringos in the large coastal town) and was pretty deserted. We ended up with a nice hotel and took advantage of the pool before hitting the sack. 

 

 

The next morning we hopped on a bus for the short 2 1/2 hr ride into Mompiche. If you spend time here, make sure to bring plenty of cash because there are no ATM’s in Mompiche. We quickly checked into our hotel, the eco-friendly Mudhouse Hostel. This place was one of the first hostels on the dirt road into town, was only a 5 minute walk to the beach, and we had our own hut with a private bathroom for about $30 USD a night. There are plenty of other options in Mompiche for travelers on all types of budgets as well, from setting up your tent at a hostel to air conditioned rooms poolside. Mompiche was not as cool or breezy as we thought and although we were not miserable, we definitely were pretty hot at night with no air conditioning. There are also plenty of bugs so bug spray is a must.

So what did we do in Mompiche? Pretty much nothing. Put a towel down on the beach and read a book. There were people surfing but the waves were very small. There is a main beach in Mompiche plus two other options near by. One is a island that takes a little effort to get to (a quick taxi and boat ride) or there is Playa Negra, a black sand beach just a 15 minute walk from the main beach in town. Although many beaches in Ecuador feature cabanas you can rent for the day ($5.00), these beaches are void of those, so don’t expect to much luxury with your beach visits. The ocean was not too rough, and provided a calm swim to cool off from the hot sun.

 

 

One of the highlights of visiting the coast of Ecuador is all of the seafood. Although Mompiche is small, there are plenty of Ecuadorian restaurants along the main drag, plus some gringo options along the last road that runs perpendicular with the beach. We ate delicious ceviche and whole fried fish almost every night for about $10 USD a person. Lunches featured a soup followed by a main dish of rice, a salad, and usually some sort of seafood and a juice for about $3.00 a person. 

 

 

As far as nightlife there is very little. There are a few restaurants, bars, and hostels that offer 2x$5 drink specials and live music but they are few and far between. We did have one rainy day (Inauguration Day) but we just bought a bottle of rum, drank at our hostel, and cursed our new orange skinned, tiny handed, petulant, shithead of a president. 

 

 

We loved our time in Mompiche, but were ready for a little more comfort after 4 days and headed to Canoa. This was a little bit of an adventure with 3 bus changes plus a hour stop to use the one ATM between the cities, in Pedernales, that had a line about 20 deep. Canoa and the surrounding area was hit by a massive earthquake about a year ago but seemed to be quick on the recovery. The only real evidence of any damage were some empty lots and new construction projects. 

 

 

We found a great hotel with a balcony beach view and air conditioning for about $35 a night. It was welcome after sweating through our sheets the previous few nights. Canoa has a ton of beach cabanas available to rent for $5 USD and many restaurants along the beach to eat more delicious seafood. During the day there are vendors who walk by selling food, sunglasses, etc. None of them were pushy and it was not a distracting at all. On our last night, Michelle opted for this seafood spaghetti, which we are pretty sure is intended for a family of four.  

 

 

The coast of Ecuador was everything we wanted it to be. If you want relaxation and delicious seafood, Mompiche and Canoa are great spots to do nothing.