Salinas is where the Ecuadorian coast runs out of land. The town sits on the tip of the Santa Elena peninsula, on a dry, scrubby headland that sticks out into the Pacific west of Guayaquil, and it is the most polished beach resort in the country, with a curving seafront boulevard, a row of tall apartment blocks, a yacht club and a busy fishing harbour. It lies side by side with La Libertad and Santa Elena, which are bigger and much rougher, and the three towns blur into one built-up strip. For a rider this is the start of the Ruta del Spondylus, and the town makes a good place to prepare for the miles ahead.
The name of the route refers to the spiny oyster, Spondylus, a bright red-orange shell that was valued by the peoples of the Andean coast long before the Spanish arrived, and traded great distances as a sacred offering. The road runs north through fishing villages, past beaches popular with surfers, through dry tropical forest and along cliffs, and in places it is a very good motorcycle road, with long curves, ocean views and little traffic outside holiday weekends. Montañita and Puerto López are along the way, and the Machalilla National Park, with its frigatebirds and dry forest, is a short ride inland from the coast road.
Salinas is also one of the places in Ecuador where you can see humpback whales between roughly June and September, when the animals come up from the south to breed. The sea here is cooled by the Humboldt Current, which explains why the coast is dry and often grey with a light mist in the middle of the year, and then hot and humid from about January to April. For riding, the dry season is more pleasant, with cool mornings and a lot of sunshine in the afternoon.
Fuel is no problem in the peninsula towns, and La Libertad, the largest of them, has stations on every main road. Fill up here, because the stretches further north between the villages are thinner, and take water and cash. Sea air is hard on chains and on electronics, so rinse the bike down when you can. If you arrive early, the malecón is the place to walk before the heat sets in, and the seafood restaurants around the harbour serve ceviche made with the day's catch.