ECUADOR 



five-foot yacht named the Isabel Victoria, from which it is 

 possible to fish and which has excellent living quarters. 

 Estrada charters his yacht from time to time to responsible 

 anglers and is Ecuador's most ardent nimrod. He is in business 

 in Guayaquil and is Ecuadorian representative to the Interna- 

 tional Game Fish Association. Unfortunately none of the 

 other members of the Estrada family fish but they all live and 

 have interests in Playas, which is about an hour-and-a-half run 

 by motorcar from Guayaquil. There they built a hotel which 

 is one of the finest on the west coast of South America. There 

 is good swimming from a lovely beach but unfortunately 

 most of the fishing, including that for the roosterfish, is about 

 a three-hour run down to Santa Elena Point, and not many 

 of them are found before passing Ancon. 



Here is the home of the Anglo-Ecuadorian Oil Company 

 at La Libertad, owned by the Milne interests, the same fine 

 company which controls the Lobitos Oil Company in Peru. 

 L. W. Berry of London, one of the nicest EngUshmen I have 

 ever known, is the general manager. He is a fine all-around 

 sportsman and in 1939 offered me all their facilities and ac- 

 commodations if I would attempt to get the fishing under 

 way off Salinas. 



When the war broke out in 1941 we were advocating that 

 the Grace Line move their boats from Talara to Salinas, 

 which is the Atlantic City of Ecuador. Here there is a fine 

 beach and two very good hotels, the Tivoli and the Atlantic, 

 where most people stay. Most of the fishing is done about 

 seventy miles north, at Salango, and there is also a reef just 

 inside the hundred-fathom curve on the way up opposite 

 Porto Montanida which Wendell Anderson and his Yale Ex- 



109 



