A whale of a time on Ecuador’s coast

The next part of our journey was the best so far. After Mindo we had to somehow find our way to Puerto Lopez – our base for visiting Isla de la Plata. It proved to be quite difficult to get to from Mindo; we were told we had to get a bus to Los Blancos, then a bus to Santo Domingo, followed by a bus to Portoviejo, then a bus to Jipijapa and then finally a bus to Puerto Lopez. Luckily the journey actually involved fewer buses than this (3 in total). 

We got to Puerto Lopez at around 9pm and checked into our hostel (which incidentally had great reviews on booking.com). I have no idea how it had anything but awful reviews as it was the worst hostel we had stepped foot in – the tiny kitchen was in someone’s bedroom, there was a shop at the entrance of the hostel, the bedding was filthy, the bathroom was disgusting and the mattresses were wafer-thin. The killer for us though was that there were bed bugs all over some of the beds. It was this that made us leave the hostel without staying a night. So the two of us and another girl left to find a new place to stay for the night. We found one very quickly with 3 single beds and a hot shower for the same price! Safe to say we had a much more comfortable night than we would have done in the previous hostel.

The next day was amazing. We’d booked a tour to visit Isla de la Plata and go whale-watching. We set off with our group at around 10am on a boat to the island. On the way we saw some whales in the distance doing all sorts of somersaults. Unfortunately, something happened to our boat and we had to climb onto another. On the second boat we saw more whales, closer this time, but found it hard to see due to all the people. When we reached Isla de la Plata we saw sea turtles all around the boat which was incredible. We then set off on a 2 hour hike around the island and saw blue-footed boobies, lizards and other cool birds. 

Whales in the distance

Blue-footed boobies

After the trek we were able to go snorkelling, This was the first time that I’d ever been snorkelling and I loved it. The fish were the brightest I’ve ever seen and I loved swimming amongst them. It took some convincing for Kat to get it but she eventually did and loved it too! Then we got back on the boat and headed back to Puerto Lopez. The best part of the day was on this journey. We saw a baby whale and its mother swimming along with us. The captain of the boat got so close to the whales that we could see their sheer size. It was literally breath-taking and one of the best experiences of my life. When we reached Puerto Lopez again we were absolutely buzzing.

Dory?

Snorkelling

Whale hello there!

 

We decided to head to Montanita next and spent 2 nights there. We spent our only full day exploring the streets lined with market stalls, enjoying delicious food from the restaurants and drinking all day. I was a little tipsy by the time we got back to our hostel and opted for an early night. Next would be our journey to Vilcabamba, including a quick stop-over in Cuenca.