Isla de la Poopa

AN OLDER POST FROM MY FACEBOOK NOTES


Isla de la Poopa

Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 4:25pm

On Tuesday of this last week I spent 12 hours in Puerto Lopez. It was a quick trip and I actually spent more time on the bus there and back then I did at the beach. 20 hours on bus, 12 hours on the beach. I had only a few days to see Ecuador and thats all the amount of time I had to see the beach.

The beach was cool but I can see beaches anytime in Florida, so I wasn't too excited about the beach. I was mainly there to see 2 things...

1. I got to see Isla de la Plata...

Isla de la Plata means "Island of Silver" in Spanish because of its white cliffs. You can see the white cliffs in this picture.

The tour guide says the cliffs are white because of the massive bird population. And what do birds like to do?
Poop.
The tour guide told us that the cliffs were white because of bird poop. At first, I wasn't sure if he had translated his English correctly. However, after a second and third questioning, he affirmed that the cliffs were white because of the birds' feces.

However, I am still not sure if this is true or not... so I may need to do some fact checking. You would think the poop would run away after a rain. Right?

Isla de la Plata is considered "The Poor Man's Galapogos" due to its population of exotic birds...
Like the Blue Footed Boobies. Seen below...

Also, there are another kid of Booby, seen here...

They are called the Nazca Booby. When nesting, they like to make a white ring around themselves (for some reason). You would think the ring is made of something natural like sand or chalk or White-Out. But its not. Its made of their own poo. They are a lot like my little sister Bethany when she was 12 years old... they have a common interest in playing with their poo.

Here is where the tour guide says the Sea Lions are...

Do you see them?
No?
Well, neither could I....
Its because they aren't there. I think the tour guide was lying to us when he said the island had Sea Lions...


2. The second thing I went to Puerto Lopez to see was...
THE WHALES!
Whales in Spanish is Ballenas.



Here is a picture of me and one of the whales...

Actually, this is the best picture I got of a whale.

Sorry the picture of the whales looks like one of those UFO sightings... the kind where the UFO actually looks like a spec of dust on the camera lens. The whales never got too close to the boat. They were always about 100 feet away or more. But, a few times they did poke their heads out of the water. However, I was never quick enough to get a good pic. I think the whales never got too close to the boat because of this kid...

This poor kid was blowing chunks off the side of the boat the whole trip. And if you were a whale, would you want to get close to vomit?
I wouldn't. Poor kid. Poor whales.

Here is a pic of my meal, while I was eating dinner by the beach & reminiscing.

Well, my trip to Puerto Lopez was quick, but fulfilling.


P.S. - The original title for this note was going to be "Boobies & Ballenas!!!" But after thinking about it... I thought it was too middle-school boyish... Now I am more mature than that.