Poor Man's Galapagos>swamp creatures

Obviously a big attraction here in Ecuador is the Galapogos Islands, but when you're fresh out of college and managed to save some money for this trip only after working a month or two at a rowdy South Milwaukee sports bar, you take the Poor Man's Galapogos route.
We headed to Puerto Lopez for this reason. The morning before our tour started we made our way bright and early to the shore to see the fishermen bring in their morning catch. Dozens of fragate birds circled the sky and swooped just above our heads- the ballsiest ones diving right down into the buckets. It was a scene right out of "birds" and it was terrifyingly fantastic.

The trip to Isla de Plata was about an hour boat ride with our capitan and about 10 other travelers. The hike around the island took about 4 hours and was beauitful. We saw 4 different types of bird species, including the fragates (my favorite) and the blue footed boobies. haha, boobies. We also got insanely close to the nesting grounds of the Nasca bird whom apparently only chooses one baby bird to feed and keep alive, letting the others die. Sad. Reeeally glad this wasn't the case with Kali and I...

After the hike we got back on the boat and did some near-by snorkeling. Although there weren't many fish, the experience was totally surreal. All other noises from the above sea world were lost and I felt part of this underwater world as I swam along side schools of fish.

After the tour we enjoyed some Pilseners in the beach hammocks and watched the sunset behind the fishing boats. Our friends Ramon y Alfraño from Bahia surprised us by showing up in their Canadian friend´s pick-up truck. This meant we had a posse of 35-55 year-old men to party with for the evening. Love me some old men.
Alfraño is such a character and probably one of the coolest people I've ever met. He's probably like 55 years old, totally bald, drives this classically cool old red car all around town and smokes about 18 joints a day. No joke. He tip-toes the lines of sanity at times, but I feel if he was only about 30 years younger, he'd be my soul mate.

We went to this cool outdoor beach-side restaurant for dinner where Laura and I split a delicious dish of enscado camarones (coconut shrimp) and Alfraño kept the vino flowing.
We joined some kiddos's soccer game quickly on the street before heading to the beach for the night. There, we finished off the box of wine as we realized Ecuadorian, Canadian or American, we were all thankful for the same things in our lives- namely, the people we love.

Sunday morning we headed early to Aqua Blacas. Here, we took a brief tour of their small museum where the guide told us about the concha shells that were once used for currency before gold was introduced; and the potent hallucinogenic drug ayahuaska from the San Pedro cactus. (another one of Alfraño's interests)

Then we made our way to the sulfer pool where we proceeded to cover every inch of our body in a thick mud before jumping into the smelliest pool of pure sulfer water.
"Why are we in this stupid rotten-egg smelly pool?", Laura asked immediately after entering.
Apparently it has healing properties and makes the skin silky smooth. I don't think the normally chatty Sarah spoke a word while bathing in it as she was dangerously close to vomiting.
The smell was repulsive, but turning into strange tribal/amphibian lochness creatures was pretty great.

On the way back to Bahia we made a quick stop at Playa de Frailes which honeslty looked like a bubble out of somebody's dream. This beach was breath-takingly beautiful. Our modern day technology of photography fails miserably in its efforts to capture it. The 7 of us stared silently in amazement. The waves were like nothing I've ever seen as the steepness of the beach caused a rip-tide clapping affect on the waves, making them double or triple in size.

The rest of our 3 hour ride back to Bahia, Andy, Sam and I were the lucky ones to ride in the back of the truck. I've gotten quite used to riding in the backs of trucks actually. I don't hate it.