We headed out for our vacation to the coast Saturday morning about 9:00 am. We were not sure how much traffic we would encounter being this is a holiday weekend, therefore we were pleased that the traffic was not heavy.
The road to Machala is real good normally. Right now there is a long 17km detour around a landslide. However, other than that our trip was a piece of cake.
Let me explain the next two pictures. You are well aware of how Chuck likes to take alternate routes. Well he saw a sign that said the road was the old road to Giron. Of course we had to take it. Actually, other than not being paved it was a great road. The scenery was beautiful.
Of course when we take the back roads we never know what type of traffic we may get behind.
Near Machala there are miles of banana plantations.
Which means there are banana stands along the side of the highway.
They also grow cocoa near Machala. And, they dry the cocoa beans along the side of the highway. You could be looking at your future Hershey bar below.
When we got to Machala we stopped at their shopping mall to have a snack in their food court. We found two stores very interesting. One was a food vendor....see their name is the Broken Bridge...Puente Roto. They specialize in Cuencana style food.
The other store of interest was this furniture store advertising Cuenca in their name. We, of course, know the most beautiful furniture is made in Cuenca.
After checking into our hotel we went to Puerto Bolivar for a wonderful seafood dinner. Chuck had fish and I had calamari. It was as good as we had hoped it would be. After dinner we drove back into Machala and Chuck and I went to turn my gambling tokens into dollars. It only cost me about $30 to get my $9 back.
Tomorrow Salinas
Have a good night.
Nancy (and Chuck)
The old road to Giron is a FANTASTIC drive! Have fun!
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