Wahoo with Wilmar!

Our first excursion from Puerto Lopez was to the Isla de la Plata, or poor man's Galapagos, (as it is often referred to in the Lonely Planet). The island lies a little over an hour by boat off the coast, and shares some characteristics and wildlife with the Galapagos Islands, including the Blue-footed Booby! The only way to visit the island is with an organized tour, so our day began with a walk down the beach to meet our guide and get to our boat (named Wahoo!). We were greeted by someone giving us life jackets and holding a bag filled with shoes.

We reluctantly gave ours up (not really knowing what was going on), but soon figured out that we got to wade out to our boat. Once everyone had boarded the boat, we headed out to sea while receiving instructions that the bathroom on board was just for the ¨pee pee¨ and not the ¨poo poo,¨ and that if we were to vomit, we should do so off the back of the boat. Apparently the stretch of ocean we were crossing can get pretty rough, but we were lucky to get a nice calm day.

Isla de la Plata

When we arrived at the island we were split up into two tour groups: English-speaking and Spanish-speaking. Kyra and I have learned from taking various tours that having an English speaking guide does not mean you will actually be able to understand what he/she is talking about. Very often we take the Spanish tours because we understand the same, if not more, of what's going on. Luke really doesn't speak much Spanish, however, so we opted for the English group when we got to the island. It just so happened that the only English speakers were the three of us and a family of dedicated bird watchers from Boston. So we headed off with our tour guide, Wilmar, and the birders to explore. It was clear from the start that we weren't going to cover much ground with our group. There are many kinds of birds on the Isla de la Plata, and the family we were with was VERY excited about ALL of them. Wilmar really knew his stuff though, and was great at spotting different birds and wildlife from far away. He could also tell us which page of his bird book (and which number of bird on that page) any given species was located. Very impressive!

This guy looked a little crazed!

So many butterflies!

These lizards were everywhere

Although we didn't cover much of the island, we did see Blue-footed Boobies, Nazca Boobies, the illusive Tropic Bird, Frigate Birds, various other birds, as well as butterflies, lizards, and more.

Tropic bird

While the other group came huffing and puffing up the hill at the end of their tour, we still had plenty of energy for snorkeling. The water was unfortunately too rough to see anything, but it was still fun to swim around and jump off the boat. Eventually we all piled back in and headed back to Puerto Lopez. With complimentary pineapple, bananas, watermelon, sandwiches, gaseosas (pop/soda), and some weird chocolate(esque) sweet bread, we were set to go.

Nothin to see here...

Puerto Lopez from the Wahoo

Low tide back at Puerto Lopez