Things to do in Machala

Landmark · Ten minutes west of the centre, on the channel

The working port and the waterfront beside it — cranes, banana reefers and container stacks on one side, ceviche stalls and launches on the other.

Local tip: Go late afternoon, eat at the seafront stalls rather than in the restaurants, and watch the boxes go on. Watching a banana ship load is more interesting than it sounds and it is the single clearest explanation of what this city is for. The launches to Jambelí leave from here.

Nature · Across the channel from Puerto Bolívar, by launch

A chain of low mangrove islands with a beach village on the seaward side — Machala's weekend, and a genuine estuary ecosystem rather than a resort coast.

Local tip: Take the public launch rather than a tour. Go on a weekday if you want it empty and at a weekend if you want it alive — those are two completely different places. The water is estuarine and brown rather than blue, and the point is the mangroves, the birds and the crab, not the swimming. Take repellent; you are going into their house.

Food · The centre; the fair in September

The city's produce and seafood market, and the annual world banana fair that takes over Machala at the end of September.

Local tip: The market is where you eat: bolón, encebollado, ceviche de concha and mangrove crab, all early and all cash. The banana fair in September turns the city into a trade show, a beauty pageant and a week-long street party at once, and hotel rooms vanish — either plan around it or plan for it, but do not book a quiet working week that month by accident.

Culture · Up in the hills, about two hours east of the city

A timber-built colonial gold-mining town clinging to a ridge at 1,200 metres, with wooden balconies, steep lanes and cool air.

Local tip: The single best day out from Machala, and a complete change of climate — you leave the humid delta and arrive somewhere with wooden houses and a breeze. The town has been mined under for centuries and subsidence is a real and publicly discussed problem, which is part of what makes it extraordinary. Try the tigrillo for breakfast and the local coffee, which is genuinely good.

Nature · North on the road to Guayaquil, about an hour and a half

One of Ecuador's largest protected mangrove systems, with dry forest hills rising behind it, howler monkeys and enormous birdlife.

Local tip: Take a boat through the channels rather than only walking the hill trail — the mangroves are the point, and from the water you see the crab gatherers working the roots the way they have for generations. Early morning, repellent, and a guide from the local community. It also explains, better than any museum, what the shrimp farms replaced.

Landmark · The city centre

The main square with its neo-gothic cathedral, the shaded heart of a city that otherwise has very little shade.

Local tip: Practical rather than romantic advice: this is where you sit out the worst of the afternoon heat, and it is where the city's civic life happens. The cathedral is a twentieth-century building in a city with almost no colonial fabric — Machala grew with the banana boom, so there simply is not an old town here. Knowing that saves you looking for one.