More Boobies Than You Can Shake a Stick At

I was super excited to see my sister Asma again, she was bringing me an iPod loaded with music and a new camera. Our 3 weeks together started out by exploring a little bit of Quito, but we were both looking forward to heading out towards the coast. The hump-back whales started showing up in Ecuador about a week ago and we were going to head to Puerto Lopez to get a closer peak and enjoy the beaches while we were at it.

My Spanish teacher Zulema wanted to go too. She’s lived in Quito all her life and for some reason had never managed to get out to the coast to see them in person. So we made plans to catch a night bus from Quito to Puerto Lopez and spend the weekend there.

As normal things didn’t go quite so easily as we had planned. Turned out the bus we were planning on taking was completely sold out. We decided to head to the main bus terminal in Quito and see if we could find another way to get there that night. No such luck, but we decided to hop a bus to Manta which was two hours north instead and figure out how to get to Puerto Lopez after that.

The ride on the bus was nice. I got to listen to my new tunes on my iPod for the first time, since sleep was not to be found on the bumpy roads heading down the western slope of the Andes. As I scrolled through the list of artists that my sister shoved on there I couldn’t hide my excitement. Bob Dylan, Yes! Jurassic 5, Yes! Neko Case, Yes! Warren Zevon, Yes!

I don’t know how, but my sister Asma and I must share the same gene that leads great taste in music. Sure she didn’t have any Miles Davis and didn’t know who Townes van Zandt was, but she’s young yet. We’re alike in a lot of ways, I think it’s all about her being the second daughter and me being the second son. But that’s just a theory.

I stared out the window as the hours on the bus rolled by. And at some point while I was drifting in and out of sleep Zulema yelled down the corridor of the bus at us “chicos…vamos aca” We hadn’t quite reached Manta but it turned out we could catch a bus in this random terminal on the side of the road towards Jipijapa and one from there to Puerto Lopez. Good enough for me. We showed up in town only two hours later than anticipated and Maxima and her husband were happy to see the three lost travelers as they had taken to calling us.

Within a few short hours we had arranged a tour to head out and chase down some of the whales and explore La Isla De La Plata, also known as “the poor man’s Galapagos.” I managed to take several pictures of empty open see but almost caught a couple good shots of a whale showing off. I also kind of got to play tour guide in Puerto Lopez seeing as I knew the city somewhat well after being there for 3 days a couple weeks ago. Strange seeing as I had a native Ecuadorian by my side.

The Blue-footed boobies were spotted in alarming numbers. Also a bunch of other crazy types of birds whose names I can’t remember which only seem to exist on the Galapagos and this island. But it most certainly was not the tropical island paradise I had come to except, a poor man’s Galapagos indeed. The snorkeling was good, but not great.

All in all, after this trip Asma and I found ourselves really motivated to get to the Galapagos Islands, if only it weren’t so damn expensive. We still had 2 and a half-weeks and no real plans, and I guess we both assumed we’d figure it all out in due time. I liked the fact that neither one of us was stressing about it, moreso just pondering the possibilities.