Puerto Lopez Continued

(View from the Isla de la Plata) As mentioned previously, yesterday I checked out the Isla de a Plata. While I believe it is far from the experience of the Galapagos, I still had a great time there. It’s an hour and a half boat ride out to the island, after which you head out on a few hour walk around. That island is probably the hottest place I have experienced yet in Ecuador, and it involved a decent amount of uphill hiking, making it a fairly tiring day. On our walk we were able to see a wide assortment of birds, including the frigate, red-footed booby, blue-footed booby and some others which I cannot recall the names. Below is a picture of a frigate (I think). After walking for a few hours, we loaded back onto the boat and headed for the snorkeling spot. It was very nice snorkeling, allowing for close up views of some very interesting and colorful fish. On the boat ride home we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a tropical whale surfacing. Along the way I met a wonderful woman, Gail, with whom I spent the evening hanging out and conversing with. This morning I woke up early to register for my classes for school in the fall. That’s right, I’m going back to school! After a fairly frustrating hour of getting circled around in the system, I gave up and headed for the San Sebastian cloud forest, located in the national park. I think this is probably my favorite of all the jungles/forests I have seen here in Ecuador. It was very dense and very unpopulated, allowing for viewing lots of wildlife, more specifically birds. My guide was very knowledgeable and very good at hearing the birds then finding them in the trees. The most exciting find for the day was watching a large red-headed woodpecker. We probably followed this bird for about an hour, and seeing the excitement it aroused from my guide alone made the trip worthwhile. It was amazing how well my guide knew this jungle. All of the sudden he would just take off into the trees, off the trail. Right as I was about to question whether we were lost, we would intersect a path and continue walking along it. With the forest being as it was, a lot of times the trail would just disappear into the trees. Eventually, however, my guide proved he knew what he was doing and we made out it. After emerging from the jungle we had an hour long hike down to the main road where we would catch our bus. Along the walk down we had some great scenic views of Puerto Lopez and the coast, from high up in the hills above. Upon arriving back in Puerto Lopez, I was able to enjoy my last sunset over the little fishing town, as well as my last sunset on the Ecuadorian coast. Tomorrow morning I will visit the beach in the national park, then catch an overnight bus back to Banos, hopefully finding Keta somewhere along the way…