Playa Chabela is one of our favorite beaches in General Villamil Playas, located behind the breakwater where Playa Humboldt ends.
This surf beach adopted its name due to Isabela Estrada De Jurado, a guayaquileña lady who lived right at the foot of the beach and who was involved in the development of Playas. She was affectionately called “Chabela”.
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Despite being just a few meters from the most popular beach resort in Playas de Villamil (Playa Humboldt), Chabela is hardly crowded and it has a slightly different environment than its neighboring beach.
In this post we will tell you more about Playa Chabela, one of the Ecuador beaches where surfing was born in the country.
Information about Playa Chabela
In this beach there are no nearby food stalls nor many street vendors which allows it to be a more quite and relaxed beach – not as Playa Humboldt Beach.
But it does tend to get crowded on beach season weekends and on Carnival holiday.
Usually you don’t need to bring a parasol because there are tents available for rent. However, you must arrive early because they always run out.
Besides from the few street vendors that can offer sodas, beers, ice cream, ceviches, buns, corviches, among other typical dishes from the Coast, you can also walk to the food stalls that are next to the breakwater.
And if you are in explorer mode, you can go to the area of rocks located at the right end of the beach and when the tide goes out, you can climb the rocks to take photos.
However, its main feature is definitely its waves. In fact, it was in Chabela where I started surfing four years ago.
Surf in Playa Chabela
This beach has the best conditions for novice surfers. It is very common to find intermediate level surfers and, more than anything, beginners and first-timers taking surf lessons.
If you want to learn to surf, I recommend taking classes with Gabriel Rolando (Gabucho). I took my first surf lessons with him, and apart from teaching you the necessary techniques for the sport, he also guides you on which beaches you can surf, how you should get into the waves, what you should avoid, etc. We recommend it 100%.
Swell: S / SW
Category: reef break
Wave direction: Right. Right break, sandy-rocky bottom, size 2 to 4 feet.
Best months: July to December with South – South West swells
Observations: Surfable all tides. For a high, medium, low level of surfing. Submerged rocks are a hazard. Watch out for bathers.
On the other hand, if you are a slightly more experienced surfer, at certain times of the year the waves can measure more than one and a half meters, although it is not common. But you can still catch good waves.
Chabela is the first of a circuit of beaches in General Villamil Playas that are suitable for surfing. All these surf spots in Playas de Villamil are one after another, where the waves progressively increase in size and difficulty as you go on.
It is very common that people who start surfing in Chabela then go to the next beach and so on, until they reach Olas Verdes or Shark Bay (1 kilometer away from Chabela), where the waves can reach more than two and a half meters in good conditions.
How to get to Chabela in Playas?
To get to this beach, you must park your vehicle as close as possible to the breakwater at Playa Humboldt, then you must walk about 150 meters.
For reference, Chabela is the beach at the foot of the Carabelas de Colón Building.
Chabela is undoubtedly one of our favorite spots of the beaches in the province of Guayas. Much more now that we surf, as it is one of the places we visit most frequently, especially in the beach season when the waves get good.
