Western Slopes to the Pacific Coast - Adventure Guide to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands - page 255

peaceful beachside cabaña-style resort. About all there is to do here is
relax or take a break en route to or from somewhere else.
Borbón
Heading north along the coast from Esmeraldas, the “highway”
winds along the coast for a pleasant drive, although road conditions
can be quite rough. Borbón is a small port town on the way to the
coastal rainforest from Esmeraldas and into the Cotopachi-Cayapas
region. With fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, most of whom are Afro-
Ecuadorian, Borbón is basically a disheveled Colombian immigrant
and logging town thrown together with lumber industry leftovers and
scrap metal. It's also a common meeting place and jumping-off point
for organized tours into the lowland rainforest communities farther
inland. You probably won't want to spend much time here. Farther
northwest is the town of San Lorenzo (below).
Depending on road conditions, it takes up to four hours to reach
Borbón from Esmeraldas. If you're arriving at the Esmeraldas air-
port, you can hire a taxi there and go all the way to Borbón for well un-
der $50.
San Lorenzo
The northernmost town along the Ecuadorian coast is San Lorenzo,
near the Colombian border and therefore home to a mix of nationali-
ties. It lies in a marshy area near the lowland coastal tropical forests,
though it also connects with a roadway to Ibarra in the highlands.
Though quaint, it is also very hot and humid and is primarily a point
of disembarkation into local lowland rainforest reserves and commu-
nities, noted in the Eco-Travel section, page 240, as well as the nearby
coastal estuaries within the Cayapas Mataje Ecological Reserve .
From San Lorenzo, it is possible to cross over to Colombia by boat
launch.
South of Esmeraldas:
Vamos a la Playa
To head southwest from Esmeraldas is to go to the beach, relax, and
play. Fortunately - or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it
- tourism's peak season and Ecuadorian/Colombian vacation times
do not coincide. During the hot, wet season from December to April,
beachside resorts and hotels often fill up, particularly around holi-
days and weekends. The beaches are loaded with sunbathing vaca-
tioners fromQuito and Colombia, and the clubs are hopping at night.
Western vacation time, which centers between the months of May