Blue-footed boobies are a type of sea birds, and today I took a boat trip out of Puerto Lopez to find an island where I am assured I will see them up close in the wild.

To begin the tour, I had to catch a taxi to the oceanside town of Puerto Lopez, about a 30 minute trip from the hostel where I am staying .

The island the boat takes us to is called Isla de la Plata. There are a lot of animal species on this island, and, like in the Galápagos Islands, they are not afraid of people. This gives you a chance to get up close to them for photos and observation.

As we walk up the mountain, all the shrub and trees appear to be dead. Later I found out, through my interpreter friends, that the shrubbery was not dead at all. When it does not rain for a few days, they turn brown and look dead, but with the first rain the island is alive with greenery!

Our guide only spoke Spanish (a problem I have had while in Ecuador), but a young couple on the boat spoke English and were good to interpret for me what the guide said, when he finished talking to the group in Spanish. Most of the tourist here are from Ecuador or other Spanish speaking countries and so there does not seem to be a need to speak English much!

There are red-footed boobies on the island, also . But, they were on the opposite side of the island, the guide said, and I didn't get to see any of them.

I did see the fragate bird, though. The bird has a large red pouch under it's throat that it blows up during mating season to attract a mate. I was able to get some close up photos of them sitting in the trees as we walked around the island.

I mainly came to see the blue-footed boobies, though. I had seen videos of their mating dance as they prance around, lifting their blue feet in the mating dance. They are hilarious, I think!

The blue-footed boobies lay one to three eggs at a time. The eggs are laid at different times, usually a day or two apart. The first egg laid is hatched before the other eggs. This means each baby bird is a different age and size by just a day or two.

When the second egg hatches, the first bird that hatched a day or two before, will kill the second one that hatches, assuring enough food for itself. The parent bird watches but does not interfere with the killing of the smaller baby bird. This is sibling rivalry at it's worst!

It was a good day trip and a bonus was seeing whales on the way to the island. It was difficult to get a photo quick enough to capture the whale breaching the water, but I got at least one photo of one of the whales, as it came out of the water, that turned out pretty good.

NEXT: Standing in the exact "MIddle of the World"!