#239. 15/12/04 La Isla De La Plata

Puerto Lopez is about as laid back as a beach town can get. As with most of the other towns we stay in or pass through, the people seem content. Houses are simple - sometimes no more than unrendered concrete breeze blocks and corrigated tin roofs - but are full of TVs and DVD players. There's not much poverty about and very little beggers - people seem to want to work for a living, even if it is selling lotto tickets on the side of the road.

The days start with buying and cooking a couple of eggs from the shop next door -- presumably plucked from the posterior of the hens clucking around said shop. After breakfast we mind wander down to the beach for a dip or to chase crabs. Day trips to the nearby national park are welcome and interesting diversions.

The park is Ecuador's only coastal national park and contains a string of secluded beaches and coves. "Los Frailes" must be the best of these. It's quiet thanks to the $20 weekly park entry free. It's also about an hour and a half up a hot dirt track, which we managed to avoid by scoring a lift in the back of the ranger's pick-up. After oohing at the perfect horse-shoe cove, we trekked for a hot couple of hours through the dry forest. Apparantly there's plenty of wildlife here, but we saw nothing but a couple of lizard and a yellow parrot. That night we played enjoyed a game of spoons with a pair of Swedish girls and a local chico; spoons being a local card game.

Not content with a mere beach, we hired a boat and a guide and set sail to "La Isla De La Plata", an off-shore island but within the park and dubbed "The Poor Man's Galápagos". That certainly describes us, but it has nowhere near the biodiversity of Darwin's islands. However, we had a very close look at some boobies: blue footed, red footed and masked. These very tame birds are incredibly cute and rival penguins for giggles. Also seen where a frigate bird colony and a pair of albatrosses - a lucky find as they rarely breed on the island.

It's a hot and dry island and very hard to trek around. After the slog we gorged ourselves on melon and pineapple and did a spot of snorkelling in a wee corel reef but with plenty of pretty tropical fishies.