The working beach on the eastern side of Manta, where the artisanal fishermen bring their catch ashore at dawn. From around 5am the sand fills with hundreds of pangas being hauled up by tractor, sorted, and gutted. Pelicans, frigatebirds, and vultures wheel overhead, picking at the leavings. By eight o'clock the open-air market is in full swing — tuna, dorado, marlin, octopus, snapper — sold by weight straight from the boats.
It is not a swimming beach: the water here is murky from the gut and the boats, and the sand is more functional than picturesque. But for a single early morning it is one of the best free spectacles on the Pacific coast.