Voyage of S/V Sea Biscuit: Favorite Hotels in Ecuador

First - for an update on our progress selling Sea Biscuit - see the Sea Biscuit For Sale page.

A few more posts on Ecuador - This one on hotels.
Of the different hotels we stayed in, we had two favorites that deserve mention in a blog post. The first was Cantaelmar(A) near Puerto Lopez along the coast and the second hotel was the Canoa Beach Hotel (B), just outside of Canoa, north of Bahia de Caraquez, also on the coast.

Cantaelmar - used to be the called the Andaluz and recently changed its name under new owners. It is an eco-hotel with excellent food prepared from their farm at Cantalepiedra, which is located inland near the National Park Machalilla.

View from the balcony

The gardens surrounding the hotel buildings

The garden area near the pool

Canoa Beach Hotel

We visited the Canoa Beach Hotel three different times for short stays.The owner, Greg, treated us and all the other hotel guests like old friends. He is from Tennessee and has that classic southern hospitality. Greg lives and works as an architect in Quito. His hotel manager, Maureen, also made us feel very welcome and provided advice on places to eat and things to do. We hope she hasn't had any more surfing accidents. She had cut her head surfing before we came and had been forbidden by her doctor to get back in the water until the stitches had healed.

No, we didn't take any surfing lessons. It looked a bit rough, not like the best place for beginners.

Kyle leaping from the rum pot.

Kyle and some new friends - Greg's kids

Garden, pool, and beach

Another view of the pool

View looking south along the beach

Honorable Mention goes to the Hosteria Farallon Dillon near Ballenita (about 9 km north of Salinas, due east of Guayaquil on the coast). The museum with the relics of the sunken Spanish Galleon "Capitan" and other antiquities collected over 30 yrs was worth a visit. Captain Dillon was at the hotel when we visited, he had been doing his morning Tai Chi. He is of Irish descent, but seems to be full Ecuadorian and had served in the Ecuadorian navy.