Whale watching, island walking (not Galapàgos)
Trip Start
Jul 27, 2008
1
19
78
Trip End
Mar 05, 2009
Porto Lopez,
Ecuador
Thursday, September 25, 2008
The day started by taking a fast boat for about and hour and arriving at an island which was visited by Francis Drake - the Americans in the party referred to him as some Englishman! This island Isla de la Plata had the same animals as the Galapagos , which is a bout a 1000 kms away but over time it got inhabited and the animals became extinct. For example a former president built a house here but when there was no fresh water he gave the palce to the nation. Its now a reserve and is inhabited by colonies of bird and some reptiles.In the bay they threw in pieces of watermelon and very soon there were a number of lager turtles swimming around. Amongst them were a number of very colourful fish.
Our guide took us to see colonies of blue footed boobies. They lay their eggs on the ground even pathways aisnd did not mind too much as we walked past them only a foot or so away. The female is much larger than the male and the both too turns to sit on the one or two eggs.
There were colonies of red footed boobies in an another part of the island but they seemed to be nesting in trees, or at least thatīs where they seemed to be.
The frigate birds which were numerous in the port, and quite fearsome, were nesting here . The male has a red bladder in front that he inlates during courtship. Quite a sight and perhaps a little uncomfortable for his but worth the trouble in the end if he gets a mate.. There were other birds such as gulls in different parts of the island and above all of them were kites wheeling about looking for unguarded eggs and chicks.
The second part of the trip was to find whales and after about half an hour of high speed skimming over the waves a whale was spotted and a while later several more. The females come here to give birth and the groups were families i suppose. We followed these groups for a while and suddenly the boat took off in another direction. We came upon a lone whale that was coming up straight out of the sea and suddenly turning on its back and causing an almighty splash. It did this for a little while.
So this was Galapagos on the cheap!
Comments
nice report ...
But how many sea sickness tablets did you have to take for that rapid skimming over the waves ?