Travel Guide San Lorenzo

165 km from Esmeraldas, 285 km from Quito and 583 km from Guayaquil. The road is long until San Lorenzo! From Ibarra, it is a track in bad condition which leads us there (5h of 4x4), another option consists in taking the boat to the Tola, on the coast in the north of Esmeraldas (to count one day of voyage until Esmeraldas). The small port of San Lorenzo lives from the transport of wood and the manufacture of dugout canoes. Isolated from the rest of the country because of the poorly developed means of communication, one suddenly has the feeling of having changed continent as soon as one arrives. San Lorenzo does not live in the time of globalization and everything contributes to this impression of an express trip in space and time: the architecture of the wooden shacks on stilts, often rickety, overhanging a river with brackish waters; the dirt streets, transformed into a quagmire at the first rains; the sometimes suffocating heat, and a certain ambient sloppiness. However, San Lorenzo offers an interesting and singular atmosphere and reveals another facet of the country. For these reasons, San Lorenzo really deserves a visit. Those who are on their way to Colombia will definitely pass through!Note that the region is infested with mosquitoes and that malaria is present, take your precautions accordingly...