Machalilla

Declared in 1979, it is Ecuador's only mainland coastal national park and combines tropical dry forest, beaches and Isla de la Plata, popularly nicknamed the poor man's Galápagos because it holds colonies of blue-footed booby and other seabirds much like those of the famous archipelago, reachable on a day trip from the mainland at a fraction of the cost. Between June and September its waters are also one of the best places on mainland Ecuador to watch humpback whales on their breeding migration.