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Published: August 25th 2006
blue footed booby
seagulls with blue feet.....And so we arrive back in Quito after a great week on the Pacific coast surfing, whale watching and (as usual) eating. I'm not sure what lies ahead on our travels but seeing the whales must go down as one of the highlights - they are absolutely amazing.
To be honest, the trip to the coast didn’t start out well. We got the bus to Guayaquil, which is the 2nd largest city in Ecuador, but by reputation the most dangerous. The bus station there is the most manic place I have ever been in my life. There were literally hundreds maybe thousands of buses and taxis and seemingly no signs to give you any clues about how to get where. The place was rammed with people or as I was seeing them 'potential muggers'. With planes taking off directly overhead the noise was deafening which just added to the sense of chaos. Luckily the security guards, as well as the local murderers, were able to spot two lost, confused tourists and helped us through to the correct terminal of the bus station. Our heightened state of panic was not helped when we had to have a full body and bag
Puerto Lopez
The fishing side of the beach at Puerto Lopez search just to get onto a bus...By the time we got to the third change of bus it was dark and there were all kinds of crazies about. I was beginning to wish we had gone somewhere nice and Westernized for 6 months.
Fortunately arriving at Puerto Lopez dispelled all our fears with its relaxed, chilled out street bars washing away the anxiety that had built up on the journey there. Puerto Lopez was a sleeping fishing village but the fact that hump backed whales come there every year to mate has turned it into a tourist attraction. In fact its nice because the hoirrific journey there means it´s not too developed yet and still has a sleepy lacsidaisical feel to it.
Our hotel room was stunning, weird but stunning. It was a large room built like a hut on top of a hotel, it had a thatched roof and had windows looking over the bay on one side and the hills on the other. There was a hammock outside from which you could lazily watch the goings on in the bay and we had the rest of the roof to ourselves as well.
We organized a
HumpBack Whale
David Attenborough beware !!! trip out on a boat to go whale watching and to take in the island of Isla de Plata that is known as a "poor man´s Galapagos". Our boat was a big powerboat that held about 16 people and we got the seats at the front so got the thrill off all the bumps on the 1 1/2 hour journey out to the island. Supposedly we were unlucky not to see whales on the way out and our guides kept telling us it was 'guaranteed´.
The island itself had turned into full on scrubland during the dry season and there was barely any foliage on it. We did an exhausting 2 hour walk around it in the full heat of the day and were 'blown away´ by 3 types of birds on the island which were basically stupid oversized seagulls with slight differences and which had never developed any fear of man..
The trip back was something else though. After about 20 minutes we came across 2 adult humpback whales with a baby. I know the things are big and have seen it on TV but they were huge and yet moved with real grace. It was weird
Election Procession
Go sexy Cynthia !!! but just seeming them creates a real sense of serenity. Nos decided to take over the camera work after my enthusiasm lead to hundreds of grey dot poking out of the water photographs. Now we have thousands of grey dot photographs...
The next day we hired 2 bikes to cycle up to a thermal pool in the forest. I think we hired the 2 worst bikes in Puerto Lopez and I now think I know what it feels like to drop the soap in prison. 4 days later and my backside is still sore. Stumbled upon one of the nicest Italian restaurants I´ve ever been to as well.
We then decided to move on to the surfing town of Montanita, which apparently is famous. Its much more commercialized that Puerto Lopez but again not being too big in size. It’s full of surfers and hippies with Bob Marley being banged out from the bars. We donned the surfing gear and headed out for a lesson in which, I’m ashamed to say, Nos surpassed me by a large distance. By the end not only was she standing up but also nearly doing somersaults. I spent 2 hours looking like
Surfer Dudes
Obviously you can´t take the camera with you but this kinda reflects our levels. a beached whale on a bit of driftwood. To be fair Nos was being taught by an adult whereas my 5-year-old tutor spent 2 hours on the verge of drowning.
There were 2 veggie restaurants there so again we ate well and then after another trip out into the waves the next morning we started the trip back to Quito. We took a plane from Manta, on the world’s ropiest jet, which nearly caused me heart failure, but we did get to see one of the candidates for the upcoming presidential elections at the airport .'Cynthia' (they are all advertised by their 1st names) was quite a foxy late 20's girl who would certainly get my vote if I had one.
Back in Quito we managed to book into a 3rd floor roof space that had death by fire written all over it. To add to its appeal it turned out to be on hooker alley so it was lucky we were tired and had an early night. Have now moved into a luxury place with humming birds whizzing around. Start Spanish school on Monday for what should be (hopefully) a more sedate few weeks.
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Jonny L
non-member comment
are you repeating my route
Outers, cannot believe you are following a well-trodden route. Guess who got stuck in banos (toilet in english). Damn volcano! Puerto Lopez and Cuenca are gorgeous aren't they! Isla de Plata - poor mans Galapagos! Just full of those blue billed idiot birds. So shiv they would not even put a shanty town there. Good to see you are having a good time. look after yourselves.