Do you speak whale?

The thing about Ecuador is that is has stolen all of my pens. While I know that's not a reasonable excuse for being three days late on this post, it's probably a contributing factor. Another contributing factor is that I had to be sneaky and steal photos from my friends, because I didn't carry my camera around on the trip.

Last weekend we visited la Isla de la Plata. Basically, it's this island about a two-hour boat ride off the coast of Ecuador. It's a great alternative to visiting the Galapagos Islands because it contains some similar wildlife but is much closer to Ecuador and less expensive to visit.

At about 9 p.m., Thursday night the seven ChACErs, Karen (an Austrian woman who works at our language school), Anna (a student from New Zealand who is taking classes at our school), Freddy (a man who works at our language school), Hugo (our driver), and Daniel (Hugo's son) all piled into our 15-passenger van and headed West. However, when I say we "headed West," what I mean is that we careened through the Andes Mountains on a winding highway that I was certain would only end in death. Fortunately, about 10 hours and as many wrong turns later, we arrived at our hostel in Puerto Lopez, Ecuador.

Our van

Our tree-house hostel

With little sleep, we wandered around Hostel Monte Libano, which is on the beach about 70 feet from the Pacific Ocean.

Elaine and I

Laura, Elaine and I

We ate a quick breakfast and headed out on our adventure. We joined five or six others and sped across the Pacific Ocean. On the way to the island, we did some awesome humpback whale watching. The whales were all like, "Check us out, bro!" And we totes did.

Whale.... obvi

When we reached the island, our guides told us a bunch of stuff in Spanish about the whales. I knew they were talking about whales... so that's something. Afterward, we split up to walk around the island and saw a bunch of these guys.

Blue-footed boobies

They were cool and pretty cavalier about their space on the path. We finally returned to our boat, ate lunch, and went snorkeling. The water was fairly murky, but I loved it and wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Then we started on our ride back to shore. Aside from a lot of laughter about my sleepy companions and some really choppy seas, the ride went quickly, and we spent the rest of the evening relaxing in Puerto Lopez. For my first day ever seeing the ocean, I'd say I nailed it.

Elaine, Laura, Sophie and I on Isla de la Plata

The next morning we headed to the beach and spent a fair amount of time getting pummeled by waves as we swam about 40 feet out from shore. Later we hiked around the area near the beach, exploring a cave and seeing some breathtaking views.

All the ChACErs on a rock outside the cave

The ChACErs with Hugo (front left) and Freddy (front right)

View from where the previous picture was taken

That evening we explored the streets of Puerto Lopez, attended a local mass where we stuck out like thumbs that are sore, and ended the night with a bonfire on the beach.

Apparently, at some point during the trip, we saw a couple of sea turtles. But when I say "we," I mean everyone but me. I must have been distracted by something silly like a fish. I'm really sad about that. To make up for it, I bought some sea turtle earrings to replace my wolf ones that got eaten by the mighty Pacific. Sunday morning, exhausted, we headed back to Quito. Somehow, the 8-hour drive that took us 10 hours on the way there, jumped to 12 hours on the way back. But I'll be the last one to complain about stopping to buy fresh coconuts with straws in them from a roadside stand. Thankfully, on the way back, I sat in the seat facing backward, where I could only tell we were in imminent danger by the horrified faces of my friends.