Porto Lopez, Ecuador 🇪🇨
It has been raining all night, so I hoped that maybe I would wake to blue skies. No such luck, the grey cloud cover remains which is a little depressing. I am off to Puerto Lopez today to venture off the coast whale watching. As part of their migration to the Caribbean to calf they pass close to the shore of Ecuador. So I am excited as I eat breakfast in the hostel. I have arranged it through the hostel, essentially I need to catch the public bus to Puerto Lopez where a guy called Don will meet me. It sounds slightly vague as I hop on the back of one of the hostel boys motorbikes to go down the road where we flag down the bus. It all goes smoothly and Don is waiting for me, taking a tuk tuk to the shore. The boat is not leaving right away and I get the chance to wander Puerto Lopez. It doesn’t take long, but watching the fisherman bring in the morning catch and prepare it for onward travel is entertaining, particularly with the Pelicans and Frigate birds wanting their share.
We set off in our boat, about 2 hours after I thought we would but this South American time. There are Pelicans lining the cliffs as we leave the bay and head out about 30minutes. We start looking around for whales and I climb upstairs for a higher vantage point. We spot some tails in the distance and then they come closer. The next hour is spent with me marvelling at these creatures, coupled with trying to get a decent shot. We see about 10 humpback whales and very close to the boat, they dived under and came up, seemed to be putting on a show for us.
We motored back to a bay where we could snorkel and as I didn’t bring my swimmers, I just dozed on the front of the boat. Once back at shore I discovered Don wasn’t around. I was impressed with my understanding when I asked for directions and managed to follow them back to the road. The bus was just pulling up and I hopped on. We wove our way back down the coast and I signalled my stop to successfully make it back to the Hostal. Yoga is at 5pm today, so I had plenty of time to unwind and then do the session. Treated myself to Sushi on the beach tonight with a tropical cider from the microbrewery next door. Shelly, a girl from Reading was behind the bar so we spent the evening talking about travelling and what British foods we missed.
