The Ecuadorian coast heading towards Esmeraldas is so beautiful.
The beatiful Mompiche beach at low tide.
Houses and hotels are positioned right at the water’s edge are ideal places to stop and stay for a few days. However what looks ideal at first, a hotel or house located right at the water’s edge I’ve come to realise, for most places, was not intentional.
The sea is slowly swallowing the coast here. Cabins that were once set hundreds of metres from the beach are now at it’s very edge. The tide here goes in and out by a hundred metres or so, the most I have ever seen. And this tide is slowly eating away at the sold ground it comes in to greet everyday.
In the mornings we can walk the beach 3km back to Mompiche from where we are staying. Motor taxis and cars race past as we walk, everyone takes advantage of the low tide to travel up and down the beach. But we need to ensure we’re back by the afternoon otherwise we’re trapped with no way of returning until the tide falls again.
Motor taxis drive along the beach when the tide is out.
This is the first time I’ve really seen the impact of global warning and sea levels rising up close and personal. Hotels sit abandoned along the beach front having been destroyed over time by the rising water. Palm trees lay uprooted along the beach, the sand their roots were once solidly embedded in completely washed away.
At the moment we’re staying in a huge house right on the beach. Due to low season we were able to stay in the largest house on the property for the price of a smaller cabin. Two of these smaller cabins that were once set back from the beach are now held up by a makeshift wall, built by the owner to try to prevent them from being washed away. It seems that he’s failing and the sea is winning.
Cabins at low-tide
High-tide is threatening to wash the whole cabin away.
Yesterday morning the main property sign fell. It’s been moved inwards away from the beach multiple times, but once again the sea took it.
The worst part of watching the sea slowly claim the properties and buildings here is that El Nino is coming. Months of extreme storms will wreak havoc on these small coastal towns, wiping out much of what is currently here. It saddens me immensely that in two years time, much of the environment here will be different. More palm trees will disappear, more cabins will be destroyed, and more livelihoods taken.
It’s such a shame, because it’s truly a tropical paradise here.
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