Admiring Majestic Humpbacks off the Pacific Coast

Sunday, August 11, 2013
Puerto Lopez, Ecuador
Our 2-hour flight from Isla San Cristobal back to Guayaquil on the mainland was changed from 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM causing us to arrive in Guayaquil just in time for Friday night traffic to the Pacific coast. We missed the good bus in the process and settled for a negotiated charter of a minibus with 10 others for the 2 1/2 hour ride to Montanita, where we then negotiated an additional sum for the driver to take us 45 minutes further up the coast to Puerto Lopez as it appeared that we might otherwise be waiting on the side of the road for a while in the dark for a bus that might never come.

Puerto Lopez is really just a small fishing village that comes to life during the summer months of July and August as loads of vacationing Ecuadorians and other South Americans fill hotel rooms, even as the cloudy and misty weather known as the garua sets in, because this is when scores of humpback whales congregate off of these shores to mate . We wandered off onto these waters on Sunday morning to admire the majestic mammals. We were fortunate to see many couples as well as a mother accompanied by her baby. The humpbacks generally measured approximately 17 meters in length. The baby however ONLY measured 3 meters, but it was the most playful! We have included a few pictures which unfortunately do not do the experience justice as the boat was rocking and rolling with the waves and the whales appear for only a moment as they come up for air.

We set off from Puerto Lopez on Monday to visit a small indigenous village that goes by the name of Agua Blanca. The Manta civilization still counts some 300 living descendents who live in this village. We hiked around the site through the forest and along the bone dry riverbed, which is located inland in the coastal hills, for a couple of hours, ending with a soak in the very beautiful and natural sulfur water filled pool, surrounded by colourful natural vegetation, where we also pasted our bodies with therapeutic mud from the pool's floor. Since I forgot to reinsert my card in the camera, we do not have any pictures of this.

Comments

Mimi
2013-08-24

vraiment superbe

Mimi
2013-08-24

pls more pictires, un régal

2025-02-11

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