Nautilus Lodge - Puerto López | Ecuador

An important fishing town is your starting point before you start exploring other areas in the Ecuadorian coast.
In this quiet and save town, you can move around by bus, taxi, mototaxi or on foot!

For lunch or dine, you will find a variety of restaurants with Ecuadorian, Italian, Spanish cuisine …

For a unique meal, Nautilus has at your disposal a full functional kitchen in your lodging so you can cook a fresh caught fish that you can buy at the local market on the beach!

Around Puerto López and with its 55000 hectares, the national park has one of the largests dry tropical forest in Latin America.

At the national park, you will find Isla de la Plata (well known for the whale watching tours) and a beautiful beach "Los Frailes". We can dive all year long in the pacific ocean

Isla de la Plata is an island in front of Puerto López, often called ´little Galapagos¨, only 1h/1h30 boat ride away from Puerto López.
It takes about 1h / 1h30 boat riding to reach the island.

You can watch colonies of blue footed boobies, red footed boobies, Nazca boobies, albatross, and frigattes. Snorkeling is included in the tour, where you can sight marine turtles, corals and colourful fish.

From June till September, you can go on whale watching tours to enjoy this wonderful mamals and their babies that visit Puerto López coast!

Los Frailes is known as the most beautiful beach in Ecuador. You can dive in the sea, snorkel or you can walk on the 2h trail to visit all three white and black sands beaches, passing through some view points with wonderful view!

At the heart of the Nacional Machalilla Park, the small community will charm you with its museum and trail with a nice viewpoint.
Highlight of the visit: Sulphur lagoon with curatilf mud!

Another option: an excursion into the tropical forest in San Sebastian (on foot or with horses).

National Machalilla Park is well known for its diving opportunities where you can enjoy from all sorts of marine life and corals.
From June till September, manta rays offer a wonderful spectacle, alongside the humpwhale songs.

Diving tours are available all year long in waters between 23°C and 29°C.

From Puerto Lopez, you will take a path that will take you to the Cordillera de los Colonche, the first mountain range that creates a particular climate a few kilometers from the coast.
You will then enter a completely different world, as you climb the forest will change, tropical forest transition, then rainforest, here you are now in the world of coastal howler monkeys.

You can do this tour walking or horse riding, on one or two days.

20 minutes south of Puerto Lopez, discover the ornithological reserve of the Jocotoco Foundation. This foundation is the most active in the conservation of our feathered friends in Ecuador with a total of 14 reserves on the country.
Your ornithological guide will take you on the trails of the reserve to discover the coastal biodiversity, between litoral, riverside and transition forest.

So put your alarm clock a little earlier this morning and take out your binoculars!