Quick Trip Out of Montanita

It’s been a while since I last wrote, I know. The reason isn’t because I’m lazy and it certainly isn’t because I haven’t been doing anything. The reason is because 90% of what happens in Montanita is inappropriate for me to write about. With that being said I was excited to take a trip out of Montanita this weekend to Puerto Lopez, another pueblo along the coast.

Puerto Lopez sits in the same slipstream as the Galapagos so it has all the same marine life. For this reason, it has been called the Poor Man’s Galapagos but since the cheapest package to the Galapagos that I’ve encountered has been $1500 for a few days and a bus ride to Puerto Lopez costs $2 I’m going to call it the Reasonable Man’s Galapagos.

On the way there my eyes enjoyed the view as we drove through the small mountains and along the coast as well. However, my stomach was furious with me as our bus aggressively climbed the windy mountain roads and engine braked its way back down to the coast. Once we arrived, it took a few hours of haggling but we were finally able to arrange a whale watching trip. When we got into our dingy of a boat and started on our way out into the ocean I noticed our captain make a cross motion and give a little prayer which seemed a bit unnecessary at the time. We made our way out in front of a small island and saw nothing. The captain decided it would be best to head to deeper waters so we motored further into the ocean. It was around this time that my butt started to get a little sore as there were no seats in the boat and I was planted only on a thin piece of unforgiving fiber glass.

Our boat flew into the air and slammed against the sea repeatedly as the ocean waves had their way with us. Our skipper held onto a rope and stood at the front of the boat like a bad Titanic remake. However, we were at the back getting beaten up and drenched by the waves. After an hour of searching all we saw were a few birds hoist themselves high into the air then torpedo into the ocean and come up with a fish. The captain had to call it off – no hay ballenas. It was disappointing but the worst part was that we still had another miserable hour’s ride back to Puerto Lopez. The novelty of the terrible trip wore off quickly and we found ourselves completely miserable, giving dirty looks to the captain and the driver while begging them to stop every so often so we could rest – it was bad.

Just as we were arriving back at Puerto Lopez the captain asked if he could take us somewhere to look at some birds. He wouldn’t take no for an answer and the request quickly grew to an argument. In the process of our yelling a sudden burst of mist exploded from the ocean surface. No words were said as we all regressed into our unfriendly yet familiar positions in the boat and kicked it into high gear. There was more of a sense of relief than excitement as the first humpback whale crested out of the water, then another, and another, and another. A whole family of whales no more than 50 yards from our boats. After following the massive creatures for while, watching them flip their fins over and hoist their tails high in the air as they dove deep into the ocean we were still miserable however content as well. The whales went for another dive and where out of sight so we decided it would be a good time to head in. Just before we drove out a humpback breached out of the water, launching almost its entire body into the air. My mouth fell to the floor and the sight even impressed the skipper. Had I gotten a picture it surely would have made National Geographic jealous. On that note we drove back, stopped to see the damn birds, argued over the price of the trip in broken Spanish, picked up the first bus back to Montanita and proceeded to party until morning as usual.

MO