Whales, Dolphins, and the Nicest Boobies I've Ever Seen

On our final day of the coast we packed our bags and set out on a full day boat excursion for whale watching and island hiking. Now, aquatic transport and I have had a pretty rocky history together, and past interactions have always ended with tears and/or vomiting. So the decision to put me on this boat was a little like giving a baby hand grenade - maybe there's a 50% chance he'll find the pin, but sometimes you have to take risks for the sake of entertainment. And so we embarked into the mighty pacific, with barf bag at the ready. It certainly could have been worse, but as I held on for dear life to the side of the boat with the crew (and Andy) laughing I progressively got more and more nauseaus. In between dry heaves though I was able to catch some pretty spectacular glimpes of playful whales showing off their back flips for us. After about 30 minutes of whale watching we landed (thank god) on La Isla Plata (the Silver Island) for a 3 hour hike where were able to interact with various exotic bird species, most prominantly the blue footed boobie and the red chested frigat. The blue footed boobies are truly beautiful and accurately named creatures, and their feet are really a bizarre and wonderous shade of blue. They are hilariously curious and always seemed to have this blank confused look on their face. They have an adorable waddle and though they fly quite gracefully their landings are sloppy and awkward. Once the hike ended and we were fresh out of booby jokes, we boarded the boat for some snorkeling. On the ride back we were accompanied by a pack of dolphins which was really a treat to see as I had never seen one outside of seaworld. The ride back seemed oddly long and relatively freezing, and I was more than thrilled when we returned.

That weekend was a comedy of errors, as we decided to drive 4 hours north to another beach in the hopes of doing some hand gliding (yes hand gliding). It was really our sole purpose for travelling but our half- cocked, unresearched plan was abandoned after a serendipitous meeting with a well spoken local who warned us of the stupidity of hand gliding in this part of Ecuador. Apparently, authorities don't feel hand gliding is a serious enough endeavor as to require a license for providers. You've gotta respect that laid back attitude. It was disappointing for us, but even more so because we had just driven 4 hours out of our way, adding a total of 8 hours to our trip down to Cuenca, where we were headed to finish our final week of Spanish classes. To put some perspective on our travel route, it's as if we were going to Washington DC from New York, but made a quick stop in Boston. Not the smartest route, but certainly an extended opportunity for some more ABBA in Spanish. After 2 long bus rides, we arrived in Cuenca late at night, found a hotel, and enjoyed our first taste of American television in a month. It was also such a relief to sleep late for the first time in a while. We would need our sleep, because in the morning, we would be making Cuenca our bitch.

More pictures, completely scattered and unorganized, for those interested:
http://picasaweb.google.com/etanofrane/Ecuador#