Some people call it "a little Miami", but it's really nothing like Miami, except for the sun, sand and surf. Then, I was here during the off season.
During the high season, I am told, Salinas' beaches are so jammed with people that nearly every inch of sand is covered by a towel, umbrella, or oiled body. The streets are overcrowded with cars bringing even more sand fans, and the mistress is wall-to-wall, with vendors getting everything from ice cream to eyeshadows and shark-tooth earrings, heated by the grill The rod shrinks.
If you are the least agoraphobic, then, the low season, mid-May to December, is the time to visit Salinas, Ecuador's most popular Pacific coast beach resort.
About 90 miles from Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil, Salinas has long been a holiday home for Ecuador. The high-rise condos line along the seashore. Fashionable seafood restaurants and trendy clubs survive the night. (Even in slow-motion weather, young people are thrilled to see and be seen on the streets of night.)
Unlike Miami, however, Salinas is a relatively small city. The beach is almost completely divided by a jetty in half, where you will find the dock of the Salinas Yacht Club. The sandy half-moon bay towards the north, where there is abundance of action, is Salinas Beach. Chippe Beach to the south, is quieter and more family oriented.
As you would expect, most of the activities here are around watersports: sport fishing, whale watching, wake-boarding, water skiing, sailing, sky diving, parasailing, and surfing-quicksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship held here last spring Was done. .
Despite Salina's flurry of activity, it may be one of the least expensive beach resorts in the world. A nice private room in a sweet boutique hotel, which is only a block away from Malcon, can be had for $ 30 / night for a single. A steak or seafood dinner at one of those trendy restaurants will set you back $ 5 or $ 6. Or chew on fish or shrimp, cooked either way, like at a local mercado - you can eat for $ 2.50.
And those condos I mentioned? I found a new one on the eighth floor with a floor-to-ceiling view of that grand half-moon bay. With three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a maid's quarters, it costs just $ 130,000.
