For people who would like to get a feel for places in Ecuador, you can drive the google car around using google street view.
It's pretty neat.
As far as I can tell all of the currently available google street view was done before the earthquake, so for that part of the coast it isn't current.
I drove around Salinas. It's amazing that once you get two blocks behind the beach Million Dollar Mile and the yacht club, it's a dusty two-bit town.