Los Frailes

Los Frailes is a beach in the national park of Machalilla. It's so gorgeous! The first day we were with Anna, Jenny, Stefania, and Courtz. Carlos was nice enough to give us a ride in. Otherwise we would have had quite a bit of a hike back there. It's about a mile or mile and a half to get back to the beach from the main road. But thankfully Carlos had time to drive us.

So all of us girls hung out on the beach for about an hour. We had been a bit slack and had taken our time getting there. It only stays open 'til about 4pm. There was an exchange of stories. Animal attacks and nasty things you've accidentally eaten... Good times!

Then we headed back to Jenny and Carlos house that they have been working on. After a berry battle in the front yard, Carlos drove us home. And we had a big dinner of alfredo, chicken, and spaghetti. Then later on we watched one of my favorite movies, Despicable Me. "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" The favorite quote that has been used to describe a countless number of things :) Including the pancakes that we ate this morning. Thanks Kel!

The next day we went back. This time we went early enough to go hiking around and see the other beaches. You're not allowed to swim at the other ones. But they were still pretty to hike all around. There was one specially preserved for sea turtles! Didn't get to see any. But it was still neat. We hiked up the top of one hill and there was this beautiful overlook of Machalilla. We could see our house from there! lol. We found quite a few interesting little sea creatures as we were climbing all over the rocks. Some sort of hat/octopus looking thing. I wanted to touch it, but I refrained. And we also saw a sea slug. I took video of it. It looked so cool. Like it had coral growing from its eyeballs.

Then we hiked up to the highest point where there's a little lookout hut. I thought at that point that my lungs were going to shrivel up into nothing and that my legs were going to split in half. I had been in bed sick for a couple of weeks before we did this. So muscle mass was seriously lessened at this point. But I made it to the top and got my picture taken.

Then we had lunch. What did it consist of you ask? Snickers, a couple Ecuador specialty candy bars (kind of gross), Doritos, and animal crackers. The perfect combo to get yourself moving again! After that we hiked all the way back down and spent the rest of the time swimming. Cartwheeling through the water, front hand springs, hugging the waves... yes we did, lol! Don't be jealous. Ended the day with a picnic on the floor of our kitchen. A lantern covered with a red scarf as our fake fire. It's great that we can be so silly and just have fun here.