Puerto Lopez
After a couple of months of living around 3000m, we finally get down to sea level and air thick with oxygen! Puerto Lopez is a pretty little fishing village, in a horseshoe bay, near Parque National Machalilla, which in turn is famous for humpback whales, which visit the waters in June to September to mate and give birth and Isla da la Plata, labelled as the “poor man’s Galapagos” in guidebooks, do we really need to go now?!
A relaxing day in town sees us wander down the beach and watch the fishermen unload their catch of the day. The only reason we realise what is going on is by a million and one birds (generally frigates and pelicans) flying around a patch or sand. The sight is very impressive. Boats unloading their catch of the day into plastic bins which men run through the surf with, with the birds swooping down and trying to take the fish from the boxes. The boxes are then unloaded into trucks and the whole process is repeated throughout the day.
With the seeming chaos in the skyes with the birds it is amazing that they don’t bash into one another, the men don’t seem too worried about them taking the odd fish from the box either, but they seem to know not to go near the trucks or other boxes of fish which are on the beach.
Parque National Machalilla consists of islands and some coastly regions north of Puerto Lopez. We enjoy a day on the beach of Los Frailes, forgetting how evil the equatorial sun is and getting rather burnt despite the clouds, and then a day on Isla de la Plata and whale spotting.
On Isla de la Plata we meet blue footed and masked boobies and frigate birds, this time with their red chests inflated. The boobies are very inquisative birds who just let you walk past and give you strange looks, like “what are you doing here?”. But the highlight of the afternoon has to be the humpback whales. We are luck enough to see them slap their fins and then jump out of the water, which is part of the mating/courting process. They are so big, they make me feel so small on our boat, the sight is amazing, words can’t describe it, and it is impossible to capture on camera (although I think Nick did a good job!).
Tags: Ecuador, Travel
Jenni
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