Vacation on Vacation

Visiting Puerto Lopez during my final days in Ecuador was truly a well needed (and well deserved, if I might add) rest. Usually I find beaches to be pretty similar no matter where you go; they sort of have the same recipe: first plant palm trees, then add sand, and top it off with ocean. Then, if you'd like, add a couple cute little cabana buildings complete with beach themed bathrooms and mosquito nets and you end up with the little beach hostel we stayed at. Which was beautiful, I cannot deny that, but I  especially enjoyed being on the port part of the beach a few minutes away from our quaint little one because it was, yet again, like nothing I've ever seen before...

The sand here smelled like rotten fish but it made the place that much more rich. The amount of boats that looked like old children's toys that have withered away in the bathtub for years was astounding and it was even more astounding how in use they all still are. And we got to use one too, on our way to Isla de la Plata, a little island so named because of the myth of buried treasure that supposedly still hides somewhere among the rocky cliffs. This island was cool and haunting, with its naked trees, cloudy haze and rough cliffs, but the best part was I got to see these:

Blue Footed Boobies! Yay! Single expectation of Ecuador: fulfilled. Though I have yet to eat any black clams. Oh well.

I decided to skip out on the hike because of the lovely parasite in my body that took away a lot of my energy, so instead I picked a lone spot on the beach to look at the waves and all the boobies and pelicans hunt for food by diving into the ocean. I truly was astonished by this and would sit so still for so long that these little guys would get rather close:

and with the slightest flinch of my body hundreds of them would scuffle away much faster than they needed to. I seriously enjoyed playing with these things...letting them get close, then I blink, then they sprint away like they are thinking “shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT RUN AWAY!” I really had fun with this.

There is not very much I can say about these final two days...how much can you talk about sitting by the ocean and suntanning? So, I shall sum up my time at the beach like this: closure. A restful time to put a definitive end to the whole month away from home. And this felt very good.