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marcopolo111
This is a proud small community of Monteno, a very ancien civilization of South America, that try to survive and maintain a cultural heritage in spite of many adversities, including long periods of lack of rain and lack of government support. It is located a few miles away north from Puerto Lopez. There is a sign, a gate where you pay 5 $ per person, which includes everything and it goes to the community,, and you follow a paved road to the church and the museum. You will be assigned a guide, a member of the community serving on rotation. He/she will take to the museum, which is located in a primitive and modest setting but it is fascinating: you can follow thousand years of civilization ending with the Montenos being annihilated after the arrival of the conquistadores in the 16th century. From there the guide (mine was enthusiastic, knowledgeable of history, and any plant and bird) take you to a easy walking tour: you can select a short one or a few hours climbing to the mountains. You will see impressive flora and fauna, especially birds, ruins, remains of temples, burial sites and local farms. At the end you can dip on a sulphur natural pond and even spread yourself with mud to allegedly improve your skin. You can also have a simple but wonderful lunch and purchase some inexpensive but well made crafts out of local pearl, coral and spondylus. Overall a terrific experience, highly recommended.
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Buffy_B
For $5 you get a guided tour of the grounds and museum (there are also local products being sold quite reasonably); but the best part is the mud bath, so bring your bathing suit and leave your self-image hang-ups at home. We are 67 and had never done anything like this. You rub the cool, smooth mud all over your body, sit about 10 minutes to let it dry, and then go down a ladder into a large, natural pool of sulfur water. After you get most of the mud off, you can go to their shower and wash the rest off. There are also changing rooms. Definitely worth a 1/2 day. The drive down from Manta is scenic, especially if you go into the small fishing villages on the way. There are also inexpensive and good restaurants in nearby Puerto Lopez.
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KSmith53
We had our own guide, and a national guide who gave us lots of history. There is an archaeological dig on site. I especially enjoyed the birds and animals we saw. I did not do the mud bath, but it sounded like it would be very relaxing. A nice 2-3 hour walking tour.
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MonkeyMelissa
My husband and I found the tour here to be pretty interesting. If you're curious what modern day life is like for an indigenous community, it's worth it. If you're not a particularly curious person, you mind find it boring.We paid $5 each for entrance, which goes to the small community's fund to support them. I wouldn't recommend it for non-Spanish speakers (unless you have a translator). After exploring some of the grounds, you can bathe in the spring (reeks of sulfur! Haha!). It only takes about 1-2 hours - consider going after a day at Los Frailes (which closes at 4pm, and this place is open until 6pm or so). Not worth going too far out of your way, but if you're already there, try it out! Don't wear your favorite swimsuit - mine got stained from the clay.
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LadytravelerAnnArbor
Taximoto from Puerto Lopez and to the community of Agua blanca - we agreed on the time when the taxi would wait for us, approx. 4 hours later. The $ 5 ticket gets a private guide who takes people around the place. They do not like people roaming around unaccompanied as the community actually live there. In fact, while walking with our guide we saw a very private moment of a family doing their laundry and bathing in a sulphur stream. The guide took us around the dry forest, a currently dry river bed (in winter it is 2 m deep) to the archeological site, the sulphur laguna, the mirador for a wonderful view of the area, and back to the village for the museum exhibit. Unfortunately there are no funds for the dig, so what they have in the museum is what people find in their fields and dutifully bring to the museum, as well as a collection of funerary urns in situ, accidentally uncovered by El Nino some time ago. The collection is very interesting, however, and they proudly emphasize their continuous existence in this space. The rest of the archeological site is the foundations of over 600 structures waiting for someone to fund the research.The water in the laguna has the color that is not particularly inviting, but I jumped in because I knew it would be good for me. I expected it to be hot, but it is barely lukewarm, not cold. There is also mud for a skin cleansing mask.There are showers but the smell did not bother me at all so I did not hurry to wash it off. There is a small bar next to the laguna, for a beer while the mud is drying. The village has a restaurant and an artisanal shop where the community members sell jewellery and copies of museum artifacts. We also purchased a small supply of palo santo oil to ward off mosquitoes in our hostal.This beautiful visit was topped by the many sightings of the amazing motmot bird, a sleepy owl, as well as the scarlet rojito. Time well spent, learned something new, and enjoyed the varied activities. Totally recommended!
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sharissaj
We had a fun day trip to Agua Blanca, although the tour of the grounds was frustrating because it was only in Spanish and my boyfriend and I aren't fluent. Still, there is quite a bit of wildlife around which was great to see, and the museum is small but had information in English which was nice. The main attraction is definitely the sulphur pool, which creates this mud that is great for your skin, you see locals slathering this mud all over themselves, it feels great as a face mask! The pool itself looks really muddy and smells like sulphur but is super nice to float in for a while. There are also showers and bathrooms onsite so you can clean up after.Be prepared to do a lot of walking, the tour itself is around 2km, and the walk back to the main area from the pool is about 2km as well. Also bring money for entrance into the park which is about $5, and the taxi ride is $3-5 one way. Make sure you set up a taxi ride for the way back! We didn't and had trouble finding a ride back into Puerto Lopez, and there's no phone service there for you to call a cab.
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ErichKamprath
Well, first thing is to make sure you take a swim suit, and some sort of little soap dispenser with you, as the sulfer pools/mud is excellent for your skin, but smells a touch like rotten eggs. The little tour they do is interesting, the old ruins they are excavating is nice to look at but I wish we could have walked in among them. None of the tour guides spoke any English at all, I understand that it's a Spanish country, but maybe a few words would be nice to explain what various things are. The museum is small, but full of many artifacts, including a rather freaky set of human bones. Take a Tuk Tuk out for the full experience
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WellspringSteveM
We hired a motor taxi to take us from Puerto Lopez to Agua Blanca. We toured the museum which was very interesting and we learned about the Manta people's culture then we went to the sulfur laguna and swam and enjoyed the wonderful feeling water and mineral mud. The facilities were nice for being in such a remote place. This is an experience to remember!
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M0renaMia
The museum is the highlight to this place, very interesting and nice museum... we did not like the park, we want to make the trials by our selves since the entrance they suggest a guide, and later when we ask where is the "laguna sulfurosa" (sulfur pool).. they told us ask a guide, when i insist we didn't want a guide they wait a few minutes just to point us the road to that place... if you dont want a guide they are no to helpful.
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Dwily311
Very nice, small museum with bi-lingual guides explaining the history and culture of Ecuador over various periods of time. Take a nice walk/hike through the Park seeing various plants and wildlife, then cover yourself in mud and bathe in the relaxing sulfuric waters in the park. Cool and different, the Park offers a little of everything.
