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| Boats ready for launch. Birds read to poop on happy boat-goers. |
While the island itself was pretty neat, I have to admit that I loved the boat ride the best. There is something liberating for me about being on a boat, wind in my hair, sun shining, that lets me just relax into peaceful moving meditation. My peaceful reverie was interrupted when the boat started to slow down in the middle of nowhere. And then we were surrounded by dolphins, pelicans dive-bombing for fish, frigates, and boobies... oh, and a giant sting ray and turtles, too! Ani and I climbed up on top of the bow of the boat to enjoy the views and relish the moment.
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| Just a mega-pod of dolphins on the way to the island, no big deal. Even our fearless captain was getting into it, pretending to direct the dolphins to jump like a maestro... "salta! salta! salta!" |
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| Tortuga! |
After arriving on the island, we split up into two groups. One group would do a longer harder hike, the other would do a more moderate hike. Given the sun and heat, most folks opted for the moderate hike. We, of course, wanted to go big or go home. Our guide provided us some really interesting information about how the various birds mate and the history of the island (like, did you know that the silver look of the island comes from sea bird poo?), and also how to avoid the biting flies!
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| Views from the hiking trail. |
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| Tee hee, blue feet. |
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| Itty bitty blue footed titty in hiding from the sun under his mother! It takes 8 months for baby boobies to be able to fly and until then, have to be fed by the parents. |
After we finished our walks, we were provided a basic lunch which included a muffin, fresh watermelon, banana, pineapple, tuna sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, and Coke. We putted to another corner of the island to do some murky snorkeling. The visibility wasn't very good but it felt amazing to dive off the boat and swim.
We got back to Puerto Lopez and packed up all our gear to take a bus to Cuenca. It was time to return to the mountains and with just a week left of our trip, we didn't want to spend it climbing up the Andes! Ed sent word that he had made it to Quito at 3 am and camped out at the bus station. It also turns out that he left us the salmon candy and wasabi peas that he had brought from the U.S.
The sun had drained us of our energy and appetite, so we decided to go out to find something light to eat and maybe just split a meal. After exploring the side of town that we hadn't seen out past the boat launch, we found a tiny unpretentious restaurant run out of the front a family's house that had something ridiculously good smelling on the grill. So some stupid jerk (oh wait, me) got a little excited and ordered both the grilled fish and the shrimp which came with two ginormous plates of fries. Oops.
A few tips for cycle tourists:
- Puerto Lopez is touristy. Seriously touristy. Especially after spending time in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. The tour to Isla de la Plata is touristy and it was a bit of a culture shock to interact with other tourists, like the guy from the Netherlands who was bumming it to "find himself," the young Chilean party girls with the ginormous selfie stick and lipstick, and the two sweet gals from Turkey who had obviously never done anything physically active before. Also know that the hikes are about 2 and 3 miles long, nothing crazy. The island is highly regulated so you cannot explore on your own and must go on a tour. Finally bring extra water if you don't do well in the sun as they don't provide much, and bring extra snacks if you have a big appetite. We were starving when we got back to the boat.
- It is worth exploring the food stalls that are right at the boat launch in the morning, and then venture away from the beach on that end of town for more reasonably priced and authentic food. Anything right on the waterfront has a premium and the food isn't nearly as good.
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