Boobies!

As all the boys say when they see the birds for the first time... hehe I´m sure the tour guide is only laughing out of politeness. So guess what... CLAY WON A HUGE SCHOLARSHIP! WHOO! It´s very exciting, he had just written it off as the results we expected mid september, but we just found out like half an hour ago! Yay clay, you rock.

So we travelled from Bahia south to here, Puerto Lopez, on monday. It was actually a decent bus ride, a great way to see the countryside. We came in late and got the first place the lonely planet guide book recommended... yeah, they had a retarded rooster over our room that felt the need to crow all the through the night. It´s was totally hilarious, a sleep-deprived clayton went upstairs at like 4am to try to kill the rooster, I´m not kidding, he broke a chair and everything, it was really really funny because it was rather out of character... the boy likes his sleep damn it. So we played a very early morning round of card games and walked down the street. A man on a bike asked us if we were looking for a room and if so he owned a hotel... normally we say thank you, what´s the name, maybe we´ll check it out later. But my only question was ´¿Tiene pollos?´which means ´do you have chickens?´. He was very confused and was like, ´for food?´and I said no no, not for food, live chickens and started some wing flapping movements. As soon as we determined that there were no chickens we were in and have had a great time there since. It´s not social like a hostel but the owner set up a trip to Isla de la Plata (aka the poor man´s Galapagos) and took us out to another part of the national park here, so it´s worked out quite well.

So our Isla de la Plata trip was awesome, though we didn´t see any whales as we´re just at the tail end of the humpback mating season. Some people are still catching them, but it´s spotty. For $30 we got a boat trip out to the island (about 20 miles one way), a 4-hour guided tour in english on the island, lunch, and snorkelling. Decent value, really. The main features of the island were frigate birds, blue-footed boobies, and nasca boobies. And the snorkelling was everything you expect tropical snorkelling to be... there were some really funky fishies down there, shaped all different and of course in very vibrant colours. We had a really great time and found some AWESOME food when we got back... I don´t care how set against veggies Ecuadorians are, they´re cheap, they´re good for you, and they´re especially delicious when fresh. We had a fantastic stir fry which I wouldn´t doubt most Ecuadorians go their whole lives without trying. So we´re not really getting accustomed to the food in that we don´t like eating rice and fried food for 3 meals a day, but it´s nice in that the veggy dish is always the cheapest.

We have a 5 day pass (2 days down) to the national park that puerto lopez is surrounded by. Today we went out to a place called Frailles Los Playas which is a beautiful, pristine beach. Our taxi driver (and hotel owner) drove us out around noon and dropped us off at the top of an optional trail you could take to a few different beaches. He also picked us up from the end of the trail at 4 (all for $8! Probably 20K one way). The trail was great, we went to a few gorgeous beaches which we all very different (I´ll add some pics). It was nice just to go for a bit of a hike without being in a big group, and to see the landscape which was somewhat desert-like. We saw a huge iguana! It was probably a meter long... very cool.

Tomorrow we´ve decided to rent bikes and take smalled packs out to another part of the park called Agua Blanca where you´re allowed to camp. It should be good times, we´re both itching to get on bikes (yes yes, I´m a convert, I know, he´s very proud of that fact). The road is pretty bare car-wise and relatively flat, which will be good for our very well-rested muscles!
So that´s the scoop my dear friends, lots and lots of love from afar and all the best in whatever endeavor is currently on your plate. We miss you and every day I think about how nice it will be to visit in the winter, even though I´m enjoying my time here. Hugs!