Puerto Lopez- Chicken is a Vegetable

Jean Claude welcomes you to the Puerto Lopez video library

Another little blip set inside a broad bay on the coast of Ecuador, Puerto Lopez is a fishing village that also deals in whale-watching and selling juice against along the dilapidated beachfront boardwalk. We avoided seeing the whales, and spent a couple of days lounging around this chilled out, homely cousin of Monañita's. Being less of a tourist resort town, the place had fewer in-your-face money grabbing opportunists, but also less in the way of food and lodging. We went to a restaurant that advertised a variety of vegetarian dishes on its sign, but when we began to order, the waiter quickly interrupted me to say that none of the vegetarian dishes, or dishes containing vegetables, were actually served here. We told him that we didn´t eat meat, and without skipping a beat, he triumphantly exclaimed 'chicken!'. Angie went flexitarian and ate some fish, while I contented myself with chips and more beer than usual.

The next night was more of a success, we found a place that served wonderful vegie stir-fries with real Chinese flavour, and it even came with chopsticks- a first on this continent. Also interesting were some lax hygiene standards in place at the local bakery. While the bread sat safely in the open air, the glass cabinet housing the sweeter treats also housed a colony of bees and wasps, living it up amongst the oodles of sugar people here love. It didn't faze anyone, not the woman who thrust her hands inside the buzzing throng to retrieve the goodies, nor the customers who enthusiastically wolfed down the sweetsweet merchandise.

This is how the fishermen teach the dogs to swim