Porto Lopez

 On Monday Claire, Amy and I got the bus (8 hours, 2 buses and crowds of people!) to Porto Lopez. It's called the "poor mans Galapagos". It's a teeny tiny town,seriously, they only have 2 main streets but it's really nice. We stayed in a good quality hostel. Hostel manager promised us internet and hot water (big luxury) of course there was no internet and the shower was tepid at best but...that's just the way it is over here.

         Tuesday was spent pottering around the beach and going out for meals. Eating out is a LONG business there. Quite often they don't have the food you ordered but they won't tell you straight away or a few times they didn't have in the drinks we ordered and they went out to the next door bar to buy you your drinks! Very laid back Ecuadorian lifestyle. We went for a lovely long walk along the beach. On the way back the fishing boats came in and were offloading their catch (foul fish smell!) They just throw out what they don't want so the beach was covered in dead mini jellyfish and octopuses. This meant "feeding time" so there were loads of tiny, bright red crabs scuttling around our feet and mahussive birds flying around. Looked like a scene from a horror film of Hitchcocks "Birds". 

     

   On Wednesday we decided to go whale watching. It was amazing!!!!! I know this sounds really stupid but humpback whales are HUGE! Their flippers are the size of me! When they first came for a freaky second it looked like a giant shark fin like out of "Jaws" or something.  They came extremely close; one even swam under the boat! One was so close that when it sprayed out water from its' blow-hole it soaked us.

Wednesday afternoon I went paragliding. Paragliding-me who gets scared standing on a chair! 

 Two very chilled out Ecuadorians came and squashed us into the back of their jeep. We went up to a cliff and faffed around and then the guy said we weren't high enough! We went back into the jeep and went higher up. Safety here is not exactly important so nobody gave us instructions etc. Our protection was a skateboarding helmet and the instructor wore a cycling helmet. My friend had a terrible take off-the wind blew her backwards and she nearly crashed into a tree and then the dogs got all excited and tried to bite her. I was almost more dignified. The instructor took us out in weight order so I was last to go and he had to weigh me down because I'm so small! They needed 2 big bags of water to stop me flying away. They weighed so much I couldn't actually stand and had to be helped along. Our only instructions were "run with force!" Huh?! They put me part way down the cliff and is still needed two people to hold me down. So weird-one moment you're on the ground and the next you're up in the sky!

 It's an amazing experience. Really quiet and peaceful and you're on a level with the birds. Could have done without the moment the instructor pointed out a whopping big shark in the sea below me but otherwise it was a fabulous time. Nothing quite like hurling yourself off a cliff!

  Since it was my birthday I got an extra long "fly" and we landed on a far off beach where my friends had written happy birthday to me in the sand. We went and posed for silly pictures in the sea and.... a huge wave sneaked up from behind and knocked me over. Fully dressed and in the sea! Splodged my way up back up the beach much to the amusement of the other people and had to sit on a back pack in the car-shame!

me VERY wet!

Naturally the evening was spent having cocktails on the beach.

  We were meant to travel back on Thursday but it was really sunny so Claire went and Amy and I stayed an extra night. In the afternoon we went back out on a trip and this time time we saw whales jumping out of the water! After the whales we went snorkelling-The snorkelling was an experience. The boat pulled up by some cliffs (not a sunny beach) and the crew just told us to jump off the boat. We jumped off and the sea was very deep and cold. After a minute or two the crew threw masks into the sea and we had to swim for it! No explanations, just work it out. I kinda pictured snorkelling happening in shallowish, clear water not cold dark water right next to rocks but who am I to criticise? My one complaint was there were no fish!!!!We dived, splashed and swam under water and nobody saw anything. This highly amused the people who had sensibly stayed on the boat and were watching us.

  I am sunburnt and half my clothes have fallen apart from water damage but it was an AMAZING trip and the most memorable birthday ever!!!!!!