Isla de la Plata

Today a few of the students from my spanish school went to Isla de la Plata, aka The Poor Man´s Galapagos. It cost $60 instead of $2000, which is the cheapest I´d seen for the Galapagos because it´s like a cruise to get there and you really have to stay at least a week to see it all. I´d love to go someday, but for now this suits me just fine!

We met at the school at 8am and loaded into a van, and drove north about an hour. The tours leave from a small town that had a fish market happening on the shore, so we walked around with our guide while we waited for a family from Holland that was joining us. We literally saw the fish being hauled off the boats and carried ashore. Some were in tubs or crates but the larger catches were just tossed onto the sand at our feet. The fish were HUGE!! I´d never seen anything like it. Here´s a funny looking fish called a "rabbit fish"...can you guess why?

I was admiring an easily 5-6 foot swordfish when suddenly a machete appeared and within seconds the fins, tail, and head had been hacked off. The head took a few good whacks, and blood was spilling onto the sand. I´m sure my jaw was hanging open as I stood a mere 3 feet from this masacre. But the fisherman wasn´t done yet! One quick slice down the belly and all the guts spilled out. That was enough for me...I scrambled away after that!

We boarded a small boat for the hour ride to Isla de la Plata...Island of Silver. Legend has it some silver was buried off the island long ago, although none has ever been found. But, it´s a cool name for an island! I was grateful the guide was bilingual, because we definitely learned a lot more on the trip than if we´d only been able to use our eyes and not our ears. She gave us the run down of our day and we set off. It is mating season for humback whales, so she sounded pretty sure we´d get to see some, and boy did we ever! Within a mile of shower one came up for air, but we continued on. Later we spotted some breaching whales so we stopped and were allowed to sit on the front of the boat for a better view. This was awesome for watching, except there wasn´t much to hold on to, so I apologize my pics aren´t better. I didn´t want to miss any of the action with my own eyes, so I just held the camera at the ready and clicked whenever the whales came up. When I packed my purse I intentionally didn´t bring the videocamera because I worried it´d get splashed and ruined, but as I look over my pictures of sky and waves (without whales) I realize it would´ve been worth buying Julie a new one! Oh well...I did get a few good shots, especially when I get home and can crop and zoom and such. The guide said there were at least three whales playing and breaching, which they do to wash off the parasites that get on their skin when they come to the warmer waters to mate and give birth. She could tell by the different markings on their tails-pretty cool!

Eventually the whales moved on, and so did we. We arrived at Isla de la Plata about noon and cheered when the sun came out for the first time all week! We were told the story of the island; that a family had owned it and build a hourse that was now the "office" building. They brought goats and deer to the island and people would pay big money to come hunt the island "surfari style". Eventually the government bought back the island and cleared out the goats and deer, so the only non-indigenous thing left are the rats that came in on ships long ago. I´m not at all bummed that we didn´t see any of those. The only mammal on the island (besides the rats) is one solitary sea lion. His friends are living over on the Galapagos Islands, and apparently Isla de la Plata sometimes has as many as 20 but recently he´s been the only one hanging around.

We climbed a ton of stairs, all the way to the top of the island. As you look at the pictures, keep in mind that we started at sea level and climbed all the way up here!!

While we walked around the island we saw lots of unique animals: colorful lizards, like skinks maybe, and some butterflies. As we got to the top the real action started. We had to be very quiet so as not to disturb the mating and nesting blue footed boobies (I know you´re smirking) and we were able to get very close to them as they nest right on the ground, often within a foot or two of the path.

We could tell male and female apart by their calls- one was a whistle that reminded me of a nurf football whistler from when I was little, the other was more of a gruff caw. I THINK the male was the whistle, but I could have that switched. We also saw some other birds that were mating, but I can´t remember their name. The males poof up a large red sack on their throat to attract the ladies, but can´t fly or eat too easily with it inflated so they will often stay put for two weeks without eating, hoping to attract a mate. We were all pretty impressed by that dedication!

It took us about two hours to hike the path around the island-they don´t allow you to do both paths. They gave us lunch on the boat and then we got to snorkel a bit beside the island. I thought the water felt warm compared to my recent trips to the Florida beaches, but a few girls were shivering and grumbling at those of us who "tricked" them into getting in the water. I saw lots of different fish-parrot fish, angel fish, an other black and white striped ones. One girl saw an eel and got a great shot with her underwater camera. After that we headed back towards the mainland but got quite a treat as we spotted more whales and stopped to watch. There are strict rules about keeping your distance, but on this trip we stopped and the whales came to us! They were "playing with the boat" as the guide put it. They weren´t breaching this time but just coming up for air so close it seemed we could touch them. I wasn´t afraid to use up my mymore since the trip was ending, so I took a video of them-you can really tell how close to us they are!! They circles us for about 10 minutes and then suddenly were gone. It was SO cool. You really got an idea of how huge they are because we were seeing several feet of them but really only the upper part near their blow holes. (Well, it doesn´t look like I can get the video to work. Sorry guys. You´ll have to wait until I get back!)

On the ride back the driver picked up another couple and I realized that out of 12 people we had someone in the van from Ecuador, Panama, U.S.A, Poland, Austria, England, and Venezuela! And the family on the boat with us was from Holland! It was a great day, and while I hope to make it to the REAL Galapogos Islands someday, this "poor man´s" version will definitely tie me over for now!