It was sad leaving the Amazon with so much more to see still there but we started out for our long journey from Sacha-Coca-Quito airport-Manta-Puerto Lopez. It took a full day of travel to get from one side of the country to the other going east-west.
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| Unknown Ground Lizard displaying (c.f Stenocercus sp.) |
Hosteria Mandala is quite large and is very nice with a view of the beach from the dining area and nice shady walkways that keep the place nice and cool. But I would describe the decore as quite eclectic. The food is very good (not included) but you should never expect much of beer in Central America other than something cold and refreshing that lacks good flavor of beer.
Puerto Lopez is your stereotypical sunny beach town that started as a fishing village but at this time it is actually mostly locals visiting for Carnival. It is incredibly hot, dry and sunny which is very different from the Amazon which was hot, humid and raining pretty much constantly. The beach side of the main road isn't very developed which is nice because it allows a nice view all along the beach. The outskirts of town are mostly dry scrub with cacti. Lizards are everywhere!
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| Scrub in Puerto Lopez |
I definitely have seen at least three different species of lizard here and one Iguana but unfortunately I do not have a good field guide for this area in Ecuador and these will remain unidentified until I can find one.
The scrub was great for birding and included seeing many mockingbirds, doves, flycatchers and nightjars.
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| Anthonys Nightjar |
The harbor in town is very busy in the morning with all of the fishing ships bringing in their early morning catch and flocks of frigates and pelicans following them.
We booked a tour on Cercapez to visit Isla de la Plata. On the way we saw spotted dolphins from the boat.
Isla de la Plata is a protected area and they would not let us walk around without a guide. The guide didn't speak any English but still managed to point out a few interesting things. Although I don't have a good picture of it he did keep finding Short-tailed Woodstars which is a very very small hummingbird that my camera would never focus on properly. The fact it never stood still might have also been a factor though.
The dry arid climate meant that the area wasn't very leafy and only a few Mimosa and a white lily were blooming at the time. Large fruiticose lichens attached to many of the larger shrubs and stunted trees.
The views were amazing from all around the island. We took the shorter trail so that we could enjoy it and spend the time looking at stuff rather than hiking very quickly and missing everything.
It was the season of the breeding boobies!! I saw more boobies on this one island than any nude beach I've been to ever before. But unfortunately unless you like birds these aren't the boobs you're interested in.
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| Young Blue-footed Boobies |
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| Adult Blue-footed Booby |
Even though they aren't common in the areas we visited in Ecuador between Gail and I we always seem to find peregrine falcons if they are around. I wonder if they like baby booby for dinner?
The tour was a bit disappointing in that you don't have much time to explore the island and then the snorkeling is only good if you are willing to dive down or get close to the rocks. Also my biggest complaint was that they actually appear to feed sea turtles to get them to come close to the boat. One of the most common injuries to turtles is from being hit by boats so this is an absolutely terrible thing to condition turtles to come close to.
During our visit to the west coast we went to Agua Blanca (Machalita National Park) which also required a guide who again did not speak English. Others were quite disappointed but I do like the fact they are employing locals and giving them more of a reason to protect these areas. Agua Blanca is a nice walk through archaeological sites, edges of farmland and the main preserved areas by the river.
I have an irrational love for a type of bird called a Mot-Mot. Well it might not be completely irrational they are gorgeous, colourful birds with a hilarious sounding name and very cool looking tails.
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| Blue-crowned Mot-mot |
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| Blue-crowned Mot-mot |
There were many bright coloured birds here which to me doesn't suit the dull scrub habitat very well. It is so easy to spot the bright colours of a Vermillion Flycatcher or Southern-Yellow Grosbeaks and others. I can't imagine how it is good for their survival to be so bright against a dull background but obviously it works!
Don't wear anything you don't want ruined by sulfur smell into the hot springs at Agua Blanca because the smell and the mud that they say has healing properties doesn't come out! I don't know about the healing properties but it definitely does make your skin very soft after so likely works as a good exfoliate.
The river is the only part of the area where you can see green vegetation and tall trees. The contrast from the lookouts at Agua Blanca are absolutely stunning. The vegetation quickly changes to arid scrub that continues up the hills on either side.
As near the town of Puerto Lopez lizards were everywere! They were foraging on the ground in the scrub and on the sides of roads and trails.
After experiencing Puerto Lopez for a few days we tried to get closer to an area where we might get into the lower cloud forest regions. We went south to Sami Lodge in San Jose. The lodge is on the outskirts of town and although we didn't get into any cloud forest regions (you need off road vehicles to go down those roads apparently) it was definitely different from the extremely arid area near Puerto Lopez.
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| Black-necked Stilt and baby |
The beach in San Jose is not as nice or picturesque as Puerto Lopez and is more of a muddy sand with some very cool invertebrates living in it. It is also built up right to the water so there is no walkway along the beach and just a few public access roads can get you onto it.
The outskirts of town are rich with birds in the scrub and farmland.
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| Pacific Parrotlet |
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| Red-bellied Scythebill |
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| Blue-headed Parrot |
Again there were many lizards everywhere but only one small brown frog near a small creek. Unsurprising since we had so much sun and no rain all. Apparently they do see large venomous snakes every so often although I was not so lucky.
The birding is great even from the balconies at Sami Lodge. The trails there are quite overgrown, poorly marked and don't actually form a full loop.
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| Black-capped Pygmy Tyrant |
An entire family of scarlet-backed woodpeckers did just show up one afternoon in a tree right infront of me when I was trying to identify a small odd bird with a short stubby tail that turned out to be a black-capped pygmy tyrant.
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| Scarlet- backed Woodpecker |
The surfing town south of San Jose is absolutely packed with younger tourists and locals.There are drink stands everywhere and the beach has a raised walkway that allows you a view of the crowds and umbrellas. Needless to say we didn't stick around long but if you want a place to party here would be a good bet.
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