On Saturday
morning at 7AM our friend Eddie, his wife Paola and daughter Maria picked Uwe
and I up at our condo for our over night trip to Puerto Lopez in order to take
the boat ride to Isla de La Plata. This island which has been compared to the
Galapagos is 23 miles off the coast from Puerto Lopez
The name for
the island involves pirate lore- read link below
After a
pleasant 2 hour drive we arrived at our destination and went to pay for our
boat trip to the island. The cost was $40/person and included our 1 ½ hour boat
ride, and 3 hour hike, lunch and then an hours snorkeling including the
equipment plus the boat ride back- and no discount for my tecera edad status-
damm!
http://visitpuertolopez.com/explore/IslaDeLaPlata/
Next we
drove to the new pier in town to wait for our boat. The pier was very nice,
well made and large.
The only
problem was that the tiles that had been used on the long surface became quite slippery during our rainy
arrival.
Our rather
small boat- sitting 11 persons comfortably.
We boarded
on time at 10AM and off we went. I must mention that both Uwe and Paola do not
like boat rides. Uwe was OK as we never went out of sight of land but Paola
held on the Eddie’s hand for dear life- not her favorite trip. The other
problem was that Uwe and I got absolutely splashed on the side of the boat
where we were sitting. At first it was refreshing but after an hour we were
totally soaked!
Approaching
Isla de La Plata
The boat came
as close as possible to the beach and we had to jump off into the shallow
water.
After
bathroom breaks and wringing out my soaked clothes, we started our hike with
our bilingual guide. The first 15 minutes were nice and flat but not very
scenic. ( yes, that is Eddie you see hiking! LOL)
And then
came the stairs
And more
stairs
Our climb to
the top of the island ( the whole island is a plateau hundreds of feet above
the sea) was tough- luckily we are in reasonable shape- so be fore warned!
Once at the
top, we took a break in one of the many resting areas to wait for those in our
party still climbing. And there we saw our first pair of Blue Footed Boobies!
Much like in
the Galapagos they had no fear of us at all and allowed us to get quite close.
We hiked
around a trail at the top for a couple of hours. Some of the scenery was
awesome even if our day was cloudy.
We saw many
more boobies including a 3 month old male that the guide called Jonny who came
right up to us and even tried to bite Eddie’s back pack LOL( their feet turn blue with maturity)
As well as
the boobies, we saw a large colony of Frigate birds including the colorful
males and some juveniles.
After
negotiating those same stairs back down, we arrived back at our boat for lunch.
Our guides gave us some fruit first- watermelon & pineapple- and then 2
buns one with tuna and the other with cheese. A drink of pop or water completed
our meal. While we were eating, huge sea turtles swam around our boat attracted
by the pieces of fruit our guides threw into the water. These turtles were
awesome!
The best
part of the trip was the snorkeling we did after lunch. We went around another
part of the island, put on our bathing suits (yes, there was a bathroom
aboard), picked out a mask & snorkel and let ourselves into the water from
the boat. And what a surprise!
There were
schools & schools of colorful fish that swam right up to us- WOW! The water
was crystal clear and maybe 20’ deep. Our snorkeling lasted 1 hour and we loved
it!
The trip
back to shore was definitely not part of our most enjoyable part. The ocean had
become much more wavy and our captain drove the boat like we were in a race-
way too fast for me considering the conditions. We went up on the waves and
crashed down on the other side over and over again as this trip took slightly
longer than our ride out.
Even I
wanted to kiss the ground when we arrived safely on shore.
We next
drove to our hotel- Victor Hugo- right on the beach at the other end of the
malecon.
We got very
nice large rooms overlooking the beach.
After a rest and a warm shower we met
in the bar for some needed alcohol- LOL
A nice meal
with friends at a Colombian restaurant in town completed a very busy day.
View of Puerto Lopez beach
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