It doesn’t seem like the kind of place I’d visit on my own, and of course that’s a great deal of the charm- I feel like I’ve slipped in when no one was paying attention, a lone gringa glimpsing something typically reserved just for the locals. On this cloudy Tuesday morning, there appear to be only a dozen people in the entire town, all of whom greet Cristian like a long-lost son. I’ve travelled here with Cristian, an experienced dive instructor from the Galápagos who has dived here on several occasions, so we are on the beach tucking into a big plate of ceviche and trying on wetsuits before I even have time to wonder where to go. Scuba diving with Manta Ray in Bajo Cope, AyangueĪfter catching a night bus from Baños and hopping immediately on another bus in Guayaquil, we arrive in Ayangue around 8am- or rather we are dropped with our luggage onto the side of the road seemingly in the middle of nowhere, left to make our own way into the tiny town. Top tips: Ayangue is known for having some of the best seafood in mainland Ecuador, so make sure to stop in at one of the local beachfront restaurants for fresh ceviche after your dive! Iguana Surfer’s Lodge($6USD/night) has simple, clean dorm rooms and a seriously festive vibe, located very central to all the popular bars and restaurants in Montañita. Where to stay: I’d recommend staying 30min away in Montañita rather than in Ayangue, just because there are a lot more accomodation and food options here. It’s also possible to reach Ayangue from the nearby backpacker hotspot Montañita (40min)- there are buses running each day or you can even take a taxi the whole way for around $15USD. Getting there: Buses run quite regularly from Guayaquil to Ayangue (2.5hrs, $5USD), just be warned that you will probably hop off the bus on the side of the road and need to hail a taxi into town (or walk about 4km). It’s a pretty bare-bones operator compared to those you’ll find in the Galápagos, but the price is great and the experience is unforgettable. All the details: scuba diving with Manta Ray in AyangueĬost: Ray Aguila Dive Company runs boats out to Bajo Cope most days for $100 per person (dependent on the number of people), including 2 dives and good equipment. I had just one wish for my last day in Ecuador, but I ended up enjoying the two best dives of my life in this off-the-tourist-track beach town, and left convinced that Ayangue may be Ecuador’s best-kept secret. This tiny, under-the-radar town near Montañita is the launching point for dives out to Bajo Cope, said to be one of the best places in the entire world to dive with giant Manta Ray. Diving through enormous schools of hammerhead sharks and flocks of eagle rays made me fall in love with scuba all over again- it had been a long 4 year hiatus since my last dives in the Great Barrier Reef and around Thailand, and I’d almost forgotten just how incredible it feels to be under the water, swimming alongside animals most people will only ever see on the Internet.Īnd so, after a series of spectacular dives in the Galápagos, I just wasn’t ready to be done exploring Ecuador’s underwater world- I shuffled my mainland travel plans around to accommodate a single day of diving in Ayangue on the Pacific Coast. The Galápagos Islands are widely regarded as one of Latin America’s top scuba diving destinations, but I still wasn’t prepared for the incredible diversity of marine life I would discover there.
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