The travelled route.
Red: on the way to the coast Blue: boat to Isla de la Plata Green: the way back to Ambato with a stop in Quito
This weekend we went to the coast and more specifically to the village of Puerto Lopez and the Island of Isla de la Plata.
We left from Ambato at 22:15 for Guayaguil and arrived at 04:00 and had to wait till 06:00 before the bus left for Puerto Lopez, where we arrived 11:00 in the morning - a quite exhausting trip. Puerto Lopez looked as worn and torn as the rest of Ecuador, with half made houses and dirty concrete pavements and roads. The difference from Ambato was the heat and humidity (around 28degrees) and the amount of backpackers and (retarded) hippies which flooded the dusty ocean strip. The backpackers came for the same reason as we did, to spot whales, dive and visit the “poor mans Galapagos-island” of Isla de la Plata - the hippies comes to sell shitty handmade jewelry and to feel bohemian and be “one with the natives”.
The first day we didn’t do very much. We checked in at a scabby hostel, ate some really good newly caught fish and had $3 Mojitos at the beach. Oscar and me also booked two dive sessions for the next day at 08:30 at Isla de la Plata. Sleeping was an ordeal. After 15 minutes everyone of us started scratching our skin from some sort of bites. We took all kinds of measures, me and Ralf even moved down to the floor thinking that the bugs originated from our beds. After half the night we figured out the the room was haunted by mosquitos, armed with stealth capabilities. Sleep time: around 1,5h.
The next morning we headed of to diving. It should be noted that it was 11 (eleven) years since i dived last, which makes me, to say the least, rusty. I was lucky they didn’t ask when I got in the water last, however it didn’t take the nervousness away. On the way out to the island we spotted humpback whales, and they made quite an performance just a few meters from us. We also spotted blue and red footed boobies: birds unique for the galapagos and its surroundings.
A humpback whale breaching the surface with a splash
Ok, I didn't take this picture, but this is how they look...
The boat ride to Isla de la Plata took about an hour and when arriving I was pretty sea sick. We got in to the water and the dive master gave me a 30 second recap of basic diving theory and then the descent started. I was a bit shaky in the beginning but it loosened after a while and it didn’t take long before I could start enjoying the dive and curious creatures that lurked at the reef. We saw all kinds of fish: sharks (1.5m), moray, lobster, manta ray (“extremely large pelagic tropical ray that feeds on plankton and small fishes”), and lots and lots of other reef fishes in all kinds of shapes and colors. Truly awesome. When coming up I felt really bad by some combination of sea sickness and nauseas from diving. However I was fit an hour later when we got into the water again. The second dive was even better and I can say that it won’t take another eleven years until I dive again - probably less than two weeks when we arrive in Honduras, the world Mecka for divers!
When we got back to the shore we both felt that we had done and seen what we wanted on the coast and decided to head back to Ambato that same evening even though we had planned a second visit to the island the day after. The notion, of wanting to go home, was emphasized when we met up who both suffered by nasty symptoms from the night before: Anders had nasty bite rashes on his arms and legs (which looked suspiciously much like bed-bugs bites) and Ralf’s hand was swollen from some other sort of bite. We got on a 9- hour night bus to Quito (see the green route above) where Oscar and me hung out for a while; visited the old town, had some proper western food among other things (honestly, the local food in the Ecuadorian highlands suck) before we went home to Ambato towards the evening.
In summary, a really good weekend! Fingers crossed that our room in Ambato won’t be haunted by bed bugs...
Some more pics of whales jumping here
