Isla de Plata

Today was the day, a full day tour of Isla de Plata with the boobies, more whale watching and snorkeling in bio diverse waters. I arrived at the agency and met a few people from earlier bus rides. As we waited they called different names and boats were formed. I thought it was a little weird as I was put on what appeared to be the boat for Spanish young family instead of the gringo boat. I booked the tour in english so as far as they knew i didn't speak a word of spanish. We got onto a boat again and again we had to take our shoes off, as bot to damage the boat. I think i want a boat that they are not worried about my scuffing rubber thongs destroying it. We set off and moved as fast as the two engines would take us.

After about an hour we slowed down a couple of times for whales, but this was just to watch them go by. We arrived very close to the island where one whale really wanted attention. I have never been all that fussed by spotting a whales tail but when we could see the whole whale out of the water about 50m away, that's different. The humpback whales where actually trying to fly, and I guess they succeeded at times. There were a couple of times I still can't believe what I saw. Yesterday they were just playing, a wave here from a flipper, a tail there. Today these massive creatures were over 2 meters above the waters surface. Ive never been much of a whale person but what could beat that?

We left after a good half an hour and made the rest of the distance to the island. As we came in, four or five turtles circled the boat. They wouldn't let us jump in so we had to appreciate them from the dry boat.

We backed slowly into the island and jumped out. We waited for an information session and in this time checked out a turtle on the beach and hermit crabs.

We separated into two groups and did a 3km or a 4km walk to see wildlife. We saw a very thin, long snake, lizards, little birds and the two main attractions, the blue footed boobie and the Frigate bird.

These birds are not afraid of you, they actually don't move off the path as you approach. The boobies were on the track and I took a few photos of them there. The next ones were nesting, some only 2m from the track. They are funny birds, they dance while watching you to warn you of their presence. They make two sounds, a bark and a whistle and also have an interesting dance to each other. When it's time to swap who is on the nest they stomp around barking, then turn around and wave their wings about in the face of the other. Then they stomp around more and poke at each other with their beaks, and repeat. It was really funny and interesting to watch.

The frigate bird was large in size and black, with a white chest. After a year they develop a big red empty balloon on their throat. They then inflate this to show superiority over the younger ones. Weird b*****s.

We got back on the boat for a five minute ride around the corner to go snorkeling. In this gap I found out that a father and daughter on the boat spoke English. He went to an American school in Quito where each day they started the day with the nation anthem... of USA and they celebrated US holidays, with all the classes in english and a spanish language class! His daughter now goes to a similar one without the anthem or celebrations, but everything in English. We talked about that and other things now and on the way back home.

I know it was almost 3pm but serving lunch just before snorkeling is not the best idea. I just put it aside and to the surprise and laughing of the fellow passengers, jumped in. It gave me a full 30-45 minutes there.

It was great fun, great water. I saw all sorts of things including puffer fish, trumpet fish, rays and a turtle. This was among the huge amount of fish that engulfed you. All the Ecuadoreans other than one stayed on a rope between the boat and a life saver.

After a while we had to come in, back on the boat for a little whale watching on the way back to the mainland.

We arrived back to the mainland where the the guy and his daughter offered me a lift up the coast to Manta. It was very nice but it was too late for me to leave. I arrived back home, had a shower and headed for a beer followed by the beach and to eat at the same restaurant as yesterday. It had to be an early night as I had an early bus tomorrow.