Puerto López: Thursday, January 29
Puerto López is this little fishing town, located 10-11 hours by bus from Quito. The buses leave at 8AM and 8PM. Since no one in my group has classes Friday, we left on the Thursday night bus...however, when we arrived at the bus terminal the tickets were all sold out for that particular bus, which was the safest to take. So, as everyone was freaking out about it I called the other group of USFQ students who were going to Puerto Lopez and they were able to find another bus and buy tickets for us, so that we could still leave that night.
This bus was Carlos A Aray, which was heading to Portoviejo, where the bus driver's assistant told us he'd take us in his car and drive us to Puerto López. The only thing about this bus though, was that it wasn't direct, so we had to make a ton of stops on the way, which makes the ride a longer. We were lucky and happy to have found another bus line, but it was a little shisty, they did however give us snack boxes with juice! But back to the shady parts, we sat right in the front and the whole ride the bus door to the outside was open (There's another door between the driver and us, the passengers) and the porter guy was yelling for more people to get one. It was interesting and kind of scary that the door was open the whole time, people were going in and out, from 9PM until 5AM. It was definitely an interesting experience! And this time I tried not to look out the windows, or the open door for that matter, because the roads are so poorly constructed for the most part and I didn't want to freak myself out as we went within inches of cliffs. I was surprised that I did sleep a little bit though, with the door open and everything, haha, but I suppose that the NyQuill I took did help!
Anyways, around 5AM we arrived in Portoviejo, and had to get onto another bus to Puerto López, I don't know what happened to the dude that was going to drive us, but whatever. So this bus, was not fun. It was about a two hour bus ride, and once again we stopped all the time and people got on, except this time they stuffed people onto the bus, so we were in there like sardines. And the guy next to me was sitting on me, it was ridiculous! I don't know who he thought he was, but he was definitely irritating me! And on top of that, it's 5AM, we're weaving in and out of the hills, I'm super tired because I didn't sleep that well, so I'm drifting in and out of sleep and then waking up freaking out about where my bags and valuables were (they were all fine). We just kept going and going, driving through hill after hill, through mountains and the jungle and we still weren't there yet! Then finally I saw the ocean and got really excited, but then we just drove through some more mountains and what not and didn't get back to the beach in forever!
Finally around 7:40 we arrived in Puerto Lopez. I was so happy/tired! But there was no time to rest, we had to go find our hostel and then go to our tour of Isla de la Plata.
Isla de la Plata, Parque Nacional Machalilla: January 30
After a quick breakfast at the hostel and being hunted down by our tour guide, we walked down past the fish market (which was really cool) and got onto a boat for about an hour long ride, to Isla de la Plata. Isla de la Plata is also known as the "Poor Man's Galapagos" because there are a variety of mammals that both places have in common.
Isla de la Plata, translates to Silver Island, there are two stories behind the naming of this island. The first is that Sir Francis Drake buried treasure here, however it has yet to be found. The other story is that it earned its name because of all the shiny blue footed boobie guano (poop) covering the rocks around the island.
So after about an hour we got to the island, and prepared for our hike, which I was not prepared for in my flip flops! We did a hike, either the 3.5km or 5km hike around the island, it was so tiring, we climbed like 100 steps in the first 5 minutes, but in the end there were some pretty fantastic views! I saw a bunch of geckos and HUGE bugs, before e ran into some boobies. We saw so many blue footed boobies, it was ridiculous! A lot we nesting or caring for their young, and some were pretty mean! I almost got attacked a couple of times. One girl in our group was deathly afraid of the boobies, because they can peck you, which would hurt, but I mean you can just kick them and they will probably leave you alone. But still, we did get trapped on the path a couple of times by them, but they were still really cool to see.
The walk was sweet, but sooo tiring! It was all uphill and then the trail would tease you with a flat walk for five minutes and then you'd be climbing uphill again for 15 minutes! And it was crazy too, because there were blue footed boobies everywhere! There was also a blue footed boobie perched up on this tree, which only happens on Isla de la Plata and not on the Galapagos, so ha! Oh and there were also these seed like things that fell from this one tree that contained lufas! We weren't supposed to take anything, but I did steal a lufa, haha, they were just chilling on the group and there were so many of them!
After about 3 hours of walking and seeing more blue footed boobies, we saw some pelicans, and red footed boobies as well. Then we finally arrived back where we started. We then got back on the boat and drove to this other part of the island to go snorkeling and eat lunch! We had a tuna sanduch, which was surprisingly good, a cheese sanduch, which was fabulous as well, some crackers and some Coke. Then we finally began the snorkeling, it was cool, I just wish that I could've done it right! Everytime I would stick my face underwater and have the breathing tube above the water, but I'd still swallow seawater! I didn't understand, I could do it when I was in Australia on the Great Barrier Reef, but here no. :'(
I still swam around for quite awhile, and saw an eel, this cute little rainbow tetra fish, and a whole school of fish that looked like Dori from Finding Nemo. It was real cool, because when I got close enough to the shore, the tide would pull me and all the fish towards it and then push us back. I had a good time.
After snorkeling we made our way back to town in the boat. It was, cool, but unfortunately we didn't see any dolphins. Puerto López is a prime place to albatrosses, go scuba diving as well as go whale watching.
Once we got back to the mainland, we returned to our hostel, Hostel Itapoa, which was totally amazing! It has this cute little garden with these beautiful flowers, a hot tub, hammocks, was right on the beach, of course some mosquito nets and also had some cabanas that looked like miniature frat houses. Oh and I can't forget Scooby, their Great Dane!
When we were all cleaned up we walked down the street and ran into a crab. This was the biggest live one that I've seen here, we tried to pick it up, but it tried to attack with it's pinchers, so we decided to leave it alone. We continued down the street to this restaurant, Picantería, which isn't in my guidebook, but totally should be! It was so good and so cheap! For 5 dollars I got pescado apanado with rice, some salad and these banana chip things, water and a huge bottle of Pilschener! It was awesome! Oh and this stuff ahí, OMG, it's amazing! It's this hot sauce type stuff that is really hot and I totally love it! It gives you that tingly, your mouth is on fire feeling, awesome!
After that we did a little bit of shopping, went and bought our bus tickets, and hen went out to a little bar on the beach for some drinks and just were hanging out at the hostel until going to bed, we had to leave at 8:30AM to go on our next tour, which was horseback riding and then hiking through the Parque Nacional Machalilla.
El Pital: Saturday, January 31
We rolled out of bed and got some breakfast at the hostel, it was a continental breakfast and was pretty good, then we had about a 20 minute drive to this little town for our excursion. It was a little town, and we had native guides, each of us had our own horse leader man. They ranged in age from probably 15 to 30. It was an eco-tour and all the proceeds went to help improving the town. The horses seemed pretty healthy as well, except they were all tiny!
My horse was pretty awesome, she had a need for speed and passed everyone! It was great! The rainforest we rode through was really cool. There were just so many different sounds and smells, it was so interesting. We tried this fruit that you eat like a sucker, what kind of leaf to put on your stomach if you don't feel well and things like that. We also saw monkeys! When we saw them we jumped off the horses, climbed through the forest, over the river and up the hill, to get a better view of them. After getting back on, we were going up this hill, which was rocks on one side and then the river 10 feet below and my horse attacked the one ahead of me! Well, it didn't really attack, it was just all up in the lead horses space, so the lead horse freaked out and the girl on it kind of fell off, I felt bad, a little bit, okay, not really, it was a little funny because that girl really irritates me, so she had it coming.
We probably rode the horse for about another hour or so, crossing these rivers and climbing up and down, before stopping to eat and start our hike, which was a lot steeper and more of an uphill battle then at Isla de la Plata. We just kept going and going, but it was sweet because we found these frogs that are about the size of the nail on your pinky! We also saw these plants that had these huge leaves, they were the size of a picnic table umbrella, they were sweet! Also we walked through this like bamboo forest, which was real cool. Then we reached this lookout point and asked if we were going swimming, because we thought we were and our guides were like, umm we can take you to the river. So, two of them took the machetes and started to cut a path through the forest down to the river for us. Right when we got to the river there was this big rock we were standing on, right next to the river and I was just standing there and then I fell! It was a great wipeout, right onto my bum. It was crazy, all the guide dudes ran over to see if I was okay, but I was fine and of course just started laughing about it! Right by the rock there was this little bat cave and one of the guides through a rock into it and all these bats started flying out! It was real cool, until they started flying really close to my head!
We walked and walked and walked, and then they gave me a walking stick so that I didn't fall anymore.(It didn't work). As we walked we encountered some new plants, including this one called ortigas, which have these palm sized leaves with stingers, that when you touch them, sting like hell for at like five minutes. Luckily for me, I only got stung in the hand a couple of times, but another girl slipped on a rock and landed on a whole bunch of them! She said it was like being stung all over her bum, hands and back by bees...OUCH! So in the two hours we climbed over the rocks, I wiped out about 3 times, got a huge thorn stuck in my hand and then I fell into the river and got completely soaked, not once, but twice! Also, I had this huge stick bug chilling on my head for awhile! Finally though, we arrived back at the horses and headed back to town. It was so much fun to be horseback riding, it had been awhile and made me miss my horse! I had such a good time though, I got to cantor, which was awesome!
Once we made it back into town, they fed us chicken, rice, jugo de sandilla and some banana chips. There were chickens running around the house, so we realized just how fresh the chicken was we were eating! It was delicious!
After we were all finished we headed back to Puerto López, there were a few cows chilling in the street, but we managed to get around them, at very high speeds I might add! Once we got back we went to Picantaria yet again, and it was still fabulous! We ran into some other people who go to USFQ as well, and then the power went out! Luckily our restaurant had a generator, so we had light, but the rest of the town was in darkness. Since it was the only place that had light we stayed and drank for quite awhile, it was a lot of fun though! When we finally headed out, we were just chilling at the hostel and some people were heading to the beach to have a bonfire and invited us. We went to get some wood for the fire, and on our walk to the fire, we ran into one of the Eco-taxi drivers, who drove us down the beach and then came with us. It was funny, because it was basically a bunch of other Americans and Canadians at the fire. They were some pretty cool people though, who told me some places in Ecuador that I need to visit. It was also funny, because there are signs along the beach that clearly say no fires on the beach. Haha, so this was yet another illegal beach activity that I participated in (the other was soccer in Atacames). It was a really great way to end a fabulous day!
Surfing Lessons, Los Frailles and peacing out: Sunday, February 1
So Sunday morning we went with Andres, the son of Raul, who owns our hostel, to go learn how to surf! I was so excited! Learning to surf has always been something I wanted to do, but unfortunately, today was not the day. After being at this part of the beach for about 5 minutes Andres was stung by a stingray! It wasn't too bad of a cut, but it hurt him a lot, so we rushed back to the hostel to get it cleaned out. After chilling there for awhile, we went to Los Frailles, which is this white sand beach about a 30 minute ride from Puerto López. Five of use packed into the back of the Eco-taxi and rode over, the dirt road, superfast to the beach. Riding in an eco-taxi is always interesting and crowded I feel, but it was worth it! The beach was beautiful, it was secluded in between these two giant rock formations, there were sand dollars everywhere and the water was crystal clear! And it was the perfect, sunny day so I got a pretty nice tan! It's much different than the weather in Ohio in January and February!
Oh yeah, so today was the SuperBowl, it was the first one that I've ever missed! All day long the NFL sport tune was playing in my head!
Around 5PM we got back from the beach and went out to dinner, of course, to Picantería! It used so much ají and hot sauce, it was awesome! After that we went to the bus station, and got frisked...yes, we were frisked before we got on the bus. This one was a direct bus, Reina del Camino and is a very safe bus company, that frisks everyone and searches their bags before allowing you to get on the bus. I slept most of the bus ride and didn't look out the window very much, but I did get woken up a few times, because the bus was swaying from side to side. And I don't mean like the wind was blowing it, I mean that I think there were times that the bus was literally on two wheels, I thought we were going to tip over on side! But we eventually made it back to Quito, but we did get there about two hours earlier than we were supposed too! I got back to my apartment around 5:45AM, and slept until class. It seems like it was a completely different day, than today, but it still is today.
All in all, this was a fabulous weekend! I had sooo much fun! I only wish that I could've spent more time on the beach and gotten a better tan! But no worries, I am going to hit up quite a few more beaches and hopefully get back to Puerto López sometime so that I can learn how to surf!!!
One thing that I really love about Puerto López is that it is such a relaxed, seaside town. It hasn't lost it's authentic seaside, fishing town feeling, although it is being infiltrated by tourists. It gives off that small town vibe, and you feel safe walking in the dark at night and just relaxing on the beach, which is different from Atacames, which is basically Quito on the beach. I like it so much and can't wait to go back!
