Isla de la Plata

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Today I went on a boat trip to Isla de la Plata. The 'silver island' got its name from Sir Francis Drake and his suppossedly buried silver treasure there. About 1.5 hours on speed boat from Puerto Lopez, it is known as the 'Galapagos of the poor man', since it is home to some of the wildlife seen on the Galapagos islands, such as the blue footed booby, the waved albatros, frigate birds, sea lions etc. The place is also famous for the whales that visit it between mid-June and August to mate. The island was for a long time in private hands but was bought by the state in 1979 and turned into a national park. It supports a dry tropical scrub vegetation and is an important nesting site for sea birds.

We were a group of 16 and went for a three hour hike around the northern half of the island. It was very hot and dry, but after the seven months of rain (well, ok, not continous rain, but too much if it...) it couldn´t have been drier and hotter for me. We saw quite a few birds - blue footed boobies, masked boobies, loads of frigate birds and a nesting waved albatros!

After the hike we went for a swim, but the sea was too rough to do any snorkelling. Anyway, we saw hoards of nicely colored fish, that the crew were feeding from the boat.

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