Puerto Lopez

We made our way to Puerto Lopez which is on the Pacific coast of Ecuador, for a couple of reasons. The first being that you can take whale watching tours from here, the second was that there is meant to be some good diving around Machalilla National Park with the possibility of seeing Manta Rays (giant rays that grow up to a 6m wing span). With giant animals on our minds it took us a day of bus journeys to get from Cuenca to Guayaquil.

We spent two days diving and another walking the long beech that fronts the town. The diving was great, fully suited up in thick wetsuits, balaclavas, booties etc I could hardly move but I managed to stay warm in the cooler Pacific! It´s not that cold really, I reckon the Ecuadorians have gone a bit soft under the hot sun! We dived in four different locations but we unfortunately didn´t get to see Mantas! While we were eating our sandwiches on our dive boat the second day, we chatted to a couple of marine biologists who had seen the rays just beneath the boat not 20 minutes previous. I put on a mask and fins and jumped in for a snorkel, but alas none to be found!

We did get to see lots of hump back whales though on the boat trip out to Isla del Plata, I have posted a short video below. Isla del Plata so called because Francis Drake used to stow his silver there, treasure that he nicked off the Spanish who had in turned nicked it off the Bolivians. Legend has it there are chests of treasure still to be found on the island!