We arrived in San Lorenzo five hours and a beautiful ride later. We found a decent hotel, and we went to go eat. We had fish complete with eyes (ewww) and fried plantains (which i was shocked that i liked, since i hate bananas.) Two entire fishes plus fried plantains totalled 4.50.
We then went on to look for a tour of the mangroves, the reason that we had come to san lorenzo in the first place.
A guy standing inside the bureau turistica set up a two hour tour for us that he said would start in 5-10 minutes. An hour and a half, and many walks around town later, we got on the boat with two nice guys--a driver and a guide. The guide was super friendly, and probably would have been able to inform us all about mangroves if we knew spanish better. However, we did chat about his life and the town. He was a member of the columbian military, but came to ecuador for a more peaceful environment.
The mangroves were cool, although 2 hours was a little much, and we actually asked to come back early. We looked around for dinner, but all we could find were disgusting rolls and warm yogurt. We dined on chocolate (thanks emmy) and then tried. . . and tried. . . and tried to fall asleep, but to no avail. San Lorenzo is a very loud town, and people seemed to be up and partying throughout the night. The room was hot (we had decided to get a room without a/c) and it was altogether miserable. The next morning we were more than happy to leave san lorenzo.
-R
