Which way to the boobies?

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Trip Start Sep 25, 2007 Previous
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  Puerto lopez, Ecuador
Saturday, April 12, 2008

It was slightly reluctantly that we left Vilcabamba - a tiny, beautiful dot on the map in the middle of a gorgeous valley with great weather, where nothing much happens.
But we turned our backs on the hummingbirds, waterfalls, the great Mexican restaurant, the beautifully tiled swimming pool at the hotel and the seven eleven that opens a bit after 8, closes at 9.30, and takes 2 or so hours off for lunch, and headed for the coast.
It turned out that the British advice for foreign nationals was correct - flooding and land slips had severely restricted travel in and out of Loja (which we had to pass through). But we eventually made it on to Guayaquil, Ecuador´s biggest city and with the biggest bus terminal we´d ever seen. Not only was it much, much bigger than Auckland airport, but it had more shops than most malls, and even included a casino.

Nicholas finds the Pacific

We took a smaller bus on to Jipijapa (the js are pronounced like the ch in ´loch´), and then an even smaller, dodgier one on to Puerto Lopez - so about 15 hours on buses that day.
Puerto Lopez is a touristy fishing village which is largely devoid of tourists now, as the humpback season isn´t until June. After finding a new, empty hotel to stay at, we took a day boat out to Isla de la Plata - Silver Island - (named either because Sir Frances Drake buried silver there or because of the wealth of guano to be found), where we saw dolphins, pelicans, frigate birds (the ones that blow up a huge red pouch under their chin when they´re mating), and BOOBIES. Masked boobies and blue-footed boobies, to be exact. Besides the sloths and capybara, boobies are just about the coolest things out there. Females judge which male to hook up with based on the blueness of their feet. The albatrosses (the ones that do that elaborate circling dance with clicking and beak jousting) were mating, so we didn´t get to see them. This is where the tropical heat has really hit us for the first time (and incidentally, it´s really only been since Ecuador that there´s fruit on the menu).
After a strenuous day on the beach tomorrow, we´re off to Quito, capital to the country which is the primary producer of the world´s favourite fruit (Ecuador and bananas, if you´ve just gotten out of bed).

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Crabs!	The noble black-headed vulture	Pelicans and frigate birds	The Masked Boobie
Isla de la Plata (Silver Island)	Blue-footed Boobies	Boobie: closeup	Don´t urinate here - God loves you.

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