Speed Bumps, Ballenas, and Blue Footed Boobies

What a weekend!  Thursday after class and watching the Ecuadorian athlete the other six ChACErs all came over to Rosa's house to join her family for pizza and some Cuarenta.  Freddy and Karen, two of the teachers at Vida Verde, joined us as well.  Our driver Hugo and his son Daniel came with our van, we packed it up with our gear, and we hit the road.  Pictured here are Hugo, Daniel, and Freddy from left to right.

 The trip was intense.  We were all packed in pretty tight.  Not pictured here are Dan and me who rode backwards for the 10 hour ride.  It was fun to see Quito at night (we left around 9:30 p.m.) from the high mountain road we took out of town.  Sleep was tough to come by though.  I'm pretty sure there were speed bumps the entire way to Puerto Lopez.  The return trip revealed that the freeway runs right through these tiny towns where many of the roads weren't paved.  We had to stop

to ask for directions a few times but we rolled in at 6:30 a.m.  Here's a picture of our van.  It's built for 15 but it was even a little tight with 12.  Hostal Monte Libano was our home for the weekend.  It's on the edge of Puerto Lopez but easily within walking distance of everything.  Upon arrival we had a few hours to sleep but the rooms were still occupied so we turned to hammocks that were stationed all around the outside of the hostel.  I lay down just outside the door, took this picture of the

 tree house, and was about to doze off when a dog jumped on me and started licking my face.  So much for rest.  I decided to check out the town with my new dog friend (Cubala, I later learned--pictures to come) and watched the fishermen bringing their nets to shore.  It was quite the sight.  The locals come to buy fish right out of the nets and the rest are loaded onto trucks.  I returned to the hostel and we had the typical Ecuadorian breakfast of fruit, yogurt, granola, and bread.

At 10:00 we headed to town for our excursion to Isla de la Plata.  Machalilla is the name of the national park surrounding Puerto Lopez and in charge of maintaining the island.  This time of year they specialize in whale watching (Spanish for whale=ballena) since the humpbacks are all along the coast.  We all took off our shoes and waded out to our boat bound for Isla de la Plata.

 Elaine found an Irish friend in our group!  He's been traveling all over South America and had some good travel tips we're hoping to employ later.

 Things I learned while whale watching: 1) I need to get better at taking pictures 2) Humpback Whales are ginormous 3) The males jump to show strength, to separate from other groups, and to bring back lost whales.  This is actually a still frame from a video I took.  There were much more impressive jumps that I failed to capture.  It resembled a Pacific Life commercial and it was awesome.

 A little tough to pick out here but there was a giant tortoise in the water when we were pulling into shore.  It was just swimming around our boat.  The natural wildlife here is awesome; they call Isla de la Plata "The Poor Man's Glapagos" because many of the same species are here.

This photo was requested by fellow ChACEr Sarah Davis.  Also, my mother requested pictures that have me in them.  You're welcome, mom :)

 There were so many awesome types of plants we learned about on our hike up the island but this was my favorite.  The English common term is "glueberries" because when you squeeze apart these grape-like white berries they have a natural paste inside.  Apparently the indigenous people use it for hair gel as well.  The leaves are also a natural abrasive that works well for sandpaper.

 And the main tourist attraction at Isla de la Plata: the Blue Footed Boobies.  I was hoping to get a picture of one.  I got about a hundred.  These birds hang out all over the place, including on the foot path.  It's nesting season so most of the birds were in pairs.  The males make a whistling noise and the females sort of grunt.  They also are slightly larger and have larger pupils.  The bluer the feet, the younger the bird.

 Many people think that the boobies came here from the Galapagos but it's most likely the other way around.  The Galapagos were formed volcanically while Isla de la Plata is sedimentary and therefore older.

 Here the boobies are doing their mating dance.  They dance for 15 days before mating.  The male kind of waddles around to impress the female.  The white dust is the birds' byproduct and is actually one of the reasons for the name of the island.  The cliffs gleam silver in the moonlight because of the white dust--therefore, Island of Silver.

 We returned to the boat and they had sandwiches and fruit for us for lunch.  Afterward we had the opportunity to go swimming and snorkeling.  Some were worried about the temperature of the water but we could see tropical fish ("they're like from an aquarium") over the side so I went for it.  Jumping off the roof of the boat seemed like a good way to test the water.

 These guys were swimming right next to our boat.  There was some amazing coral closer to shore and lots of fish that you'd see in the movie Finding Nemo.  The Dory-looking ones were definitely my favorite.

Many of us fell asleep on the boat ride back (the girls have pictures) despite the 8 foot waves rocking the boat.  We'd been up for a long time with lots of activity.  We returned, showered, and ate dinner at the hostel.  I took this picture because I wanted to remember how fresh the shrimp was.  They bring in the boats twice a day, in the morning and the afternoon.  These shrimp had come in maybe 2 hours before they were cooked.  Absolutely incredible.  After dinner we went out for a beer and crashed after a game or two of Cuarenta.

So after I took that picture my camera battery died.  Note to self: pack charger in the future.  I'll run through our Saturday activities and hopefully I'll be able to steal some of the pictures the others took for a future post.

Saturday started with breakfast and a drive to Playa Los Frailes just a little north of Puerto Lopez.  This beach was awesome.  Fine-grain sand, waves plenty big enough to body surf, huge sedimentary rock formations, and a couple caves carved in the rocks.  We swam and explored for a few hours then hiked up to the cliffs surrounding the beach.  We had incredible views of Los Frailes and the other coves to the north.  We walked along the much more rocky beaches beyond the cliffs for a while then turned back and returned to Puerto Lopez.  Back in the city we did some tourist shopping.  I bought a very Ecuadorian-looking zip-up sweater that's super warm.  After dinner at the hostel we went to mass in a beautiful church up the hill.  My favorite parts were the sign of peace, during which everyone had to acknowledge everyone else in the church, and the dog that entered the church and trotted around during the homily.  There are dogs everywhere in Puerto Lopez.  After church we had a fire on the beach, enjoyed each others' company, and hit the sack.

Sunday was entirely consumed by the drive back to Quito.  The traffic was terrible.  We did get some great views of the mountains which were covered in lush green vegetation the whole way back.  We got home around 10:30 p.m.

New teacher for classes today!  Her name is Marta and I think we're going to have a great time together.  Ryan and I are hoping to have some classes in the city at a cafe or a market or something.  I'll be back with more soon!