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Quevedo, Ecuador
December 26, 2022
Quevedo, Ecuador: Quevedo has a population of around 150,000. This small city has a bustling city center that is walking-friendly—very wide sidewalks with lots of benches and many statues of animals make it fun for children. The main industries in this area are agriculture and livestock. The name "Quevedo" comes from a surveyor named Timoteo Quevedo. He was the first to measure the lands of what would become the city. After that, they started rubber production in 1857 and the city took off from there.
Quevedo dates back to around 500 BC and those people lasted until the Spanish conquistadors wiped them out in 1526.
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Milagro, Ecuador
December 24, 2022
Milagro, Ecuador: Around 135,000 live in the city of San Francisco de Milagro. The city is known as the "sweetest land in Ecuador" because of its sugar cane and pineapple farming. Milagro sits about 45 kilometers (28 miles) east of Guayaquil and is considered a bedroom city of Guayaquil.
Milagro dates back to 1786. The story is that a couple, María de Salcedo and her husband Don Miguel de Salcedo, had moved from the mountains down into the plains of the river, and María got sick. An indigenous neighbor gave Don Miguel some roots and told him how to make a potion with them, which he did, and he gave the potion to María. She was healed of the deathly illness. The people living in the area began calling their home "the house of the miracle." In 1786, Don Miguel asked the governor of Guayaquil if they could name the area of their home and neighbors "Milagro" (miracle). And so started the town of Milagro.
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Playas, Ecuador
December 23, 2022
Playas, Ecuador: Less than 40,000 live in the city of Playas, but in the entire metropolitan area there are around 70,000. The major industry here is tourism, followed by fishing. The area is known for it's seafood restaurants. There is a large shrimp farming industry, and many farms are growing the pitaya fruit (dragon fruit). As for any historical info, there isn't a lot. The city dates back to the colonial era (there's nothing more specific than that). From the pre-Columbian era there are traces of indigenous communities along the coast in this area, which survived until the Spanish conquistadors conquered the area. In 1901 the powers-that-were in Guayaquil decided to turn the area of Playas into an actual town. Then in the mid-20th century, it started to grow exponentially.
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Puerto Lopez, Ecuador
December 21, 2022
Puerto Lopez, Ecuador: The Spaniards settled this area in the early 1800s although there has been evidence found that shows the area has been populated as far back as 3500BC. It has only been since the 1840s that the town has experienced much growth. Fishing is the primary industry, as well as tourism. There are many hotels, hostels, and restaurants, especially along the very nice malecon (boardwalk). Whalewatching is popular here and there are several tour outfits that will take you out to see the whales. Not far offshore, about 40 kilometers, is Isla de la Plata (Island of Silver). There are stories that pirates hid their treasures on the island. Now it is a wildlife refuge and only a small number of tour operators are allowed to take visitors to the island. It is also known as the 'poor mans Galapagos'.
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San Lorenzo, Ecuador
December 18, 2022
San Lorenzo, Manabí, Ecuador: I've been searching for any kind of historic info about San Lorenzo and cannot find anything, the few websites that have any info simply talk about the beaches, the lighthouse, the waterfall, the caves, cliffs, etc. I did find that the population is/was (in 2010) about 2600. San Lorenzo is a tiny coastal village, it has no stoplights, no gas station, no supermarket, and no ATM. Here at the Lookout Beach Hotel where I'm staying, the owners are Canadien and very friendly and helpful. They've been here in San Lorenzo for 8 years. They bought this piece of land and built their home on it. Then they added two more floors to open the hotel. Then they added a second building of 3 floors as well as a pool. Now they're in the process of building a restaurant. I highly recommend Lookout Beach Hotel to any travelers visiting San Lorenzo, Manabí.
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