Whales and Mantas and Turtles, oh my!

3 buses and 15 hours later, we finally reached our hostel just outside of Puerto Lopez, a fishing village and the gateway to Isla de la Plata.

For our first full day in Puerto Lopez we took a tour to Isla de la Plata, "the Poor Man's Galapagos". The name Isla de la Plata translates to "Silver Island" because of the silver glow that would appear as the sun hit the island. For a long time it was thought that valuable minerals caused this, however it is actually dried bird poop.

The tour of the island took us up to a Blue Footed Boobies colony, where males were strutting their stuff to win over a female partner for the season.

After our hike we headed back to the boat for lunch. As we sat on the boat eating we were greeted by sea turtles swimming up to the boat.

After lunch we headed around the bay to go snorkeling, with the hope of seeing more turtles and giant mantas. From the boat we could see the mantas fins coming up and breaking the surface of the water, but unfortunately the water was so murky that we could not see anything while we were snorkeling.

It was so murky in fact that Tobias was a few meters away from a manta and everyone on the boat was shouting at him to turn to his right, but even when he did, he still couldn't see the manta.

On our boat ride back we came across a pod of humpback whales and a few dolphins that we followed and watched as they wave their fins and dove own around the boat!

For our second day in Puerto Lopez we decided to go diving to give ourselves an even better shot at seeing the giant mantas. We went with the company Exploramar Diving (we highly recommend them!) When we chose them we had no idea that they were part of a program that tracks, tags and documents the giant manta. That was our first sign that we were in for a great day of diving!

This dive was the first cold water ocean dive that either of us had done. As we started our descent the water was pretty murky but as we dove down deeper the clearer it got but also the colder it got (we later found out it was 14 C/57 F)! By far the coldest dive we have ever done! All of a sudden Pablo, our dive guide, pointed into the ocean. At first we couldn't see anything, but then appearing slowly out of the haze was as a manta! It ghosted past us and off into the distance.

We went down to around 18 meters and set up on a rock and waited. Eventually a couple of mantas started to make an appearance! Unfortunately, the current was strong and it was hard to get a proper grip on the rocks so we were only able to catch a few sightings of the mantas. The coolest thing about that dive was on the way up to the safety stop you could hear the sound of whales! It was such a crazy and unique sound to hear, that we both held our breath (a big no no in diving) for a few seconds so that our regulators weren't bubbling and we could hear the whales!

For our second dive we moved into a cove to try and get away from the current. This time we made our way down to a sandy bottom and set up there. Before we knew it a manta appeared out of nowhere and glided over us with effortless grace and delicacy. Soon after that there was another and then another! We didn't know what direction to look! At the end of the dive we think we saw between 8-15 giant mantas!

As we started the hour long boat ride back to Puerto Lopez we kept a watch out for more humpback whales. And about 15 minutes in we spotted a mother and calf! The mother seemed to be teaching her calf how to jump. We learned that male whales do this to attract a female. The bigger the splash the more impressed the female will be!

For our last day in Puerto Lopez we decided to do a short hike in Machalilla National Park. It was a 2km hike that took us to three beaches with stunning views. We spent a little time at each one and each provided increasingly warmer water temps. At one viewpoint we spotted another humpback whale (3 days in a row!) From the top of the lookout the giant looked so small compared to the vast pacific. The weather in Puerto Lopez had been chilly and we finally got our warm beach day.