30th October- 5th November
Both the school and compassion project are shut this week for vacation which meant that we had a free week. We decided to spend it wisely at the beach in Puerto Lopez!
Puerto Lopez renowned in Ecuador for its proximity to the island 'Isla de la Plata' (also known as the poor man's galapagos). We had a great week we saw many blue footed boobies, swam with turtles, went snorkelling in a coral reef, saw some humpbacked whales, stumbled across a tarantula, walked in the dry forest, hung out on hammocks at the beach, got burned by the sun, lost a wedding ring, saved a washed up seahorse, spotted many exotic birds and finally bought a new wedding ring for $1.
For the birds lovers we saw many of these blue footed boobies:
Frigate birds, red headed vultures, pelicans, a harpy eagle, ornate hawk eagle, Ecuadorian Trogan, Western white-tailed trogan, collared trogan, a burrowing owl, numerous gauyaquil woodpeckers, lemon- rumped tanager, rufous tailed tyrant, southern beardless tyramulet, a white whiskered puffbird and a black headed toby flycatcher. The most beautiful birds were the red headed woodpeckers:
The area surrounding Puerto Lopez is part of the National Parque Machailla and encorporates 3 different types of enviroment, dry forest, dry cloud forest and dry jungle. Which meant we got to see a lot of wild life!
We arrived on Saturday 29th in the evening after a long 8 hour bus journey but it was worth it when we got up the next day and had breakfast in a rickety bamboo cafe on stilts over looking the pacific ocean. The beach had lots of frigate birds and pelicans looking for their breakfast too. Our first day there was spent on a boat trip to the Isla de la plata, where to our delight we spotted the infamous blue footed booby with it's babies and were priviledged to watch one male do his mating dance to try and woe the lady. Watch these videos LINK 1 and LINK 2. It was the beginning of November but the sun was incredibly strong at 30-35 degrees! After walking round part of the Island we headed back to the boat to eat our lunch and found to our delight 3 green turtles also having their lunch of some lettuce! Watch this video LINK 3 We then donned our swim suites and went snorkeling in the coral reef where Robin spotted one of the turtles and we got to swim along with him before he disappeared into the ocean. The coral reef was stunning and we got to see lots of beautiful fish such as angel fishes, globo fishes, pirate fish, trumpet fish and trigger fish. Like these:
Unfortunatly my camera which we had paid $65 to fix only worked for ten minutes before disallowing us to take anymore pictures but we did take a few films and a kind Ecuadorian couple took some pictures for us and have posted them on facebook. Check out the photos by clicking on this LINK.
After such an amazing start to the week we were even more delighted on monday when we went on a boat tour to Isla Salango to go fishing and snorkelling and I spotted a whale in the distance. The usual season for humpbacked whales in Puerto Lopez is June- September so we where amazingly blessed to spot two pods of humpbacked whales swimming along in the ocean. We managed to get so close that we could see there white bellies and their backs as they came up to release water and breath. Check out the videos LINK 4 and LINK 5!! After spotting the whales we had an unsuccesful fishing trip as both Robin and I got a bite but both of our strings broke as we tried to wheel the fish in! The snorkeling was good although it was a lot more murky and I had a sudden realisation that this was tiger shark territory and if there where whales about then the sharks could be lurking about waiting for a nibble to! Unfortunatly Robin lost his wedding ring when we went snorkelling and there was absoloutly no chance of finding it again. But he did also find a big bright blue starfish and pick it up and place it on my hand!
After so much adventure we decided to have a day of rest at Los Frailles beach. A beautiful place with clean white sands and aqua coloured water. Check out the video LINK 7 and LINK 8. We caught the bus there and went for a hike through the dry forest (see video). It was incredibly hot, none of the plants looked alive and we kept hearing wierd rustling noises as lizards ran about the place (there are also snakes there but thankfully they remained hidden). Check out the video LINK 6. On the beach there were lots of little orange crabs who timidly would poke their heads out of the sand and make a run for it into the sea but if anyone was going near them they would run as quickly as possible and dive back into their holes in the sand. Watch the VIDEO. We had a great time but I got completely roasted by the sun and turned a lovely shade of luminous pink even with sun cream on (applied several hours later in the day).
Another adventure filled day into the dry jungle of Parque Machailla to a place called Borro de Oro. We got up at 6am to be at the parque by 7 to begin our mamoth 6 hour walk in to the Jungle in search of monkeys and birds. The tour guide who had described the walk as easy and not very long had clearly never been on the tour or was slightly insane as we sweated and climbed up mountains, crossed streams, muddy bogs and tried to climb down hills that were completely parched. Even though I would not recommend going on a 6 hour tek in the jungle with both of your legs covered in sunburn the expereince was rewarding as we got to see lots of plants used for medicinal purposes such as bad stomachs, circulation, fertility, swelling and randomly gonorrhea! We also spotted lots of brightly coloured birds and even some squids and crabs. Unfortunatly we did not get to see the monkeys, we did hear the howler monkeys and had the joy of smelling and seeing their poo but alas no monkeys! Ou guide tried his best to find us some as he machetied his way through the jungle off the beaten track as Robin and I followed. As we where hacking are way through the jungle our guide spotted a giant tarantula which crossed our path! I was terrified but Robin was fascinated and took this video LINK 9! Apparently it was a jumping tarantula and could be potentially very dangerous. This brought me no comfort as we carried on walking in tarantula infested jungle.
After the high energy adrenaline filled jungle tour the final day of our stay was spent chilling out on hammocks at the beach in puerto lopez drinking delicious fruit milkshakes and reading our books before heading back to Santo Domingo. See video LINK 10.
We had a truly fantastic week! Please pray as we settle back in to school life that we will find ways to be of use to the school in a productive manner.
Mucho amor de Ecuador! xxx
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