Yesterday, Day 30, I arrived in Puerto Lopez, a beach resort town popular with Ecuadorian tourists. The object was not to have passionfruit milkshakes and delicious $3 two-course fish-based lunches by the beach (although of course I did), but mainly to visit Isla de la Plata. This a kind of miniature-Galapagos island, uninhabited and full of similar wildlife, one hour's scarily fast and bumpy speedboat ride away.
En route we passed right by a pod of dolphins (pic). What's the most important thing about where they choose to live? Echolocation, echolocation, echolocation.
Once on Isla de la Plata itself, we hiked over the island to see the wildlife. As with the Galapagos, there is no evolved flight-reflex here: you can walk very close to the birds, such as these blue-footed boobies (pic), and they just look a bit peeved. Like Ecuadorian shop and restaurant owners do when you try to pay a $4.25 bill with a $5 note and they say they have no change.
We saw zillions of frigate birds, too – they have wingspans over seven feet (pic: imagine a seven-foot-tall man lying down in the picture to give you an idea of the scale)...
...and when the male tries to impress the ladies, he puffs up this red sac on his throat (pic). It didn't work on this occasion.
We also saw some whales just offshore, but I didn't have time to take a picture, so here's one of me instead (pic). What sort of whale would I be, I wonder. Not 'Right', of course. I'm rarely that. 'Gray', I suppose.
Finally we had the chance to do some snorkelling (pic). I saw some fish but they weren't neon-light-coloured or stripey or anything. They just looked like fish. Which reminds me, it's time for another $3 dinner...
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