Whales and other Wildlife!

Going to the Ecuadorian coast was the perfect choice for us.  It has amazing wildlife, beautiful beaches and plenty of fresh seafood.  The number one on the tick list for my parent's trip was to see Humback whales which come to the coast during their breeding season.  But we knew that were going to be there at the very beginning of the season and that maybe the whales would be late.

When we arrived we asked whether any whales had been seen so far and we were told that they hadn't arrived... so we crossed our fingers that they would come towards the end of our stay.

In the meantime we took a day trip to Isla del Plata, the poor man's Galapagos, to check out the birds and sealife.  As we prepared to leave on the beach of Puerto Lopez, the fishermen told us that they had seen whales that morning... we crossed our fingers that maybe we would see them on our way.

Waiting on the beach for our tour boat ... watching the day's catch being brought in and the birds trying to get their share.

Luck was on our side... about an hour in to the trip we came across a pod of 10 whales and were able to follow them for 30 minutes until we had to get back on track to the Isla.

Whales are pretty tricky to photograph ... I couldn't find whale watching setting on my camera in time!!  I have A LOT of pics of the sea and white water as the whales dived!

The rest of the day was just as successful as we saw Blue Footed Boobies, Frigate birds and Angel Fish.

I've got blue shoes on!

Nesting Frigate birds... amazingly these pics aren't due to my camera's zoom ... we were really close!

And Angel fish too!  These guys came up to our boat as we were having lunch .. hopeful that they'd get a bit of cheese sandwich!

And the day was rounded off with seeing more whales on the way home.  We passed 3 more pods in the distance identifiable by the spouting from their blow holes!