| Olmedo |
| Esmeraldas | ||||||||
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As in Estero de Platano, join local families in digging in the soft sand for shell fish amongst the roots of the mangroves. At low tide you can explore the vast stretch of beach for hours. Walking to the south west you will find what can only be described as a mangrove graveyard where trees and their exposed roots, have slowly collapsed and decay on meeting the sea water. For $5 (2/3 hours) it is well worth taking a local guide to visit the mangroves and learn about this extraordinary ecosystem which supports 6 different types of brightly coloured crab and numerous types of orchids. Ask Seveida Valencia, your host at the hostel, for Armando Quinonez, a local guide whose passion for conservation is contagious. If going on a tour, cover up and dose yourself in bug spray to ensure you make it through the whole tour without being driven mad. Only Spanish is spoken.
Places to stay and eatDeciding where to stay and where to eat here is made very simple as there is only one place, Cabanas de los Manglares de Olmedo. This wooden hostel, run by the local women’s group, has comfortable beds, clean bathrooms and provides a fantastic view across the estuary, particularly at high tide, when the water comes up to the deck. Meals are prepared by a memeber of the women’s group and brought to you on the deck and cost around $2/3. Ensure you wake up for the sunrise to watch all the various fishing boats go out to sea.
How to get thereIf you are traveling up the northern part of the coast from Atacames you need to take a bus to Esmeraldas (1/2 hour, 70c) and change for a bus to Rio Verde. Here take a bus on to La Tola that will pass the beach town of Las Penas, an aspiring Atacames with a long beach lined with a thatched block of great comedors serving up fantastic seafood at all hours of the day. Just a couple of kms before La Tola you will pass a turning to the left to Olmedo. Ask the bus driver to give you a shout when you need to jump off. You need to then walk the 5 mins into Olmedo. Total journey is around 2 hours depending if you chose to stop at Las Penas for a dip.Events
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Olmedo seems to be a long way from the normal tourist route in Ecuador but is a very accessible and welcoming village of sandy streets, raised planked wonky walkways and stilted wooden huts. It also is a perfect place to visit the local mangroves which, like so many areas of natural beauty and importance, are being sacrificed for large scale industry, in this case shrimp farms. By visiting this area you can become part of the solution.