I would like to share our experience on a recent visit to Ecuador. This was our first visit, we were on a bus from Guayaquil to Montanita and I was searching through my purse and my wallet fell out and fell between our seats. I thought I heard something fall but was distracted by my husband.Then I felt someone tapping my shoulder from behind, the young men who looked to be around 18 or so pointed to my wallet on the floor. After reading about all the pickpocking and stealing on buses in Ecuador I wanted people we had this experience.
Recent trip to salinas
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@120bjo - pls note that your post is now on the Ecuador Forum 
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Very nice :-)
Thank you for posting.
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There is many very nice people in Ecuador!! We are in Puerto Lopez, and we stop by a nice green house /garden where the owner were working on it and we ask if we can buy some. The owner show us his plants, explaint to us how take care of them and he offer us the plants for free!!
He said:
You dont have to pay. I can give them away to you, as many you want.
Is not wonderfull?
This people is amazing.
Im editing this because I want to say something that happen to us.
We bougth some palms in a greenhouse, the gardener already place them, and now he is creating a freaking masterpiece garden in our land!!
He went to the beach and have been picking up little rocks. But not any rock, he choose certain size, certain colors, everything very carefully.
Im so glad that we found this person and I will like to recomend him. His greenhouse is located at Puerto Rico, a town 15min sout Puerto Lopez.
BTW, the price for the palms, includes all the landscaping!!
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That was nice to hear. We visited Ecuador one year ago for one month and have just arrived again last week with the intention of living in Loja. Our experiences with local people in all cities so far have been nothing but excellent. We have found everyone to be extremely kind and helpful in all matters. We feel quite comfortably walking the streets and not worrying about being robbed.
Although we did go to the coast, we spent most of our time in Puerto Lopez and Montanita areas. We never did make it to Salinas as we had hoped. I would be very interested in hearing your evaluation of the area of Salinas.
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That is more the norm than anything else in Ecuador. Sensationalism sells newspapers, books and, now, apparently forum space. Thank you for this tale. It is always a breath of fresh air to hear reality rear its head.
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Our experience in Salinas was good. We never felt unsafe. We went to eat everyday at the area called the mercado. It is on the second street off from the Malecon. It is basically small food stalls selling local food mainly fish. We never saw any expats eating there. The food was good and cheap compare to the prices on the malecon for the same dishes. We never got sick. We also walk further back on the third street in areas which were poorer and felt safe. One thing that bought us great joy was the reaction from the servers when we gave them a tip. Apparently tipping is not the norm. They really appreciated the small gesture. The locals also should benefit from the visitors.
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