Isle de la Plata was my alternative. I would have loved to go all the way to the Galapagos and made it a proper adventure but the Canadian dollar and some of the people pollution issues I have read about made it beyond reach and beyond reality for us. I hate exploitation in any form and it seems that the human interference on Galapagos is now a struggle for the park commission to reverse. Galapagos is another one of those things I am 40 years to late in seeing. My advice to anyone is to grab opportunity when it arises and to not wait. For many many reasons I waited and those same opportunities may never come again.
Isle de la Plata is referred to as “the poor mans Galapagos” . I refer to it as another ecosystem on to it’s own. I was actually one of the two most anticipated excursions I planed on while I was here. The second one is still to happen.
Both of us were unjustifiably concerned about sea sickness and the intensity of the climb when we got there. Neither of us ot sea sick and we both, even tho it was tough at times completed our hikes. I was glad Marianne came to grips with her limitations and decided on a shorter easier loop than mine. I opted for the full hike which was a little over 5 km. May not seem like a long hike but when you are on the top plateau of the island and the temperature reached 45C with no shade it made it very challenging to the old guy as well as the younger ones that were with me. A third of the hike was uphill and the rest was along the cliff face.
I certainly was not disappointed. We saw 5 species of boobies, frigate birds, tropical red billed bird, mocking birds and pelicans. Our guide, Wellington, was thrilled when we came across some masked boobies. They apparently are quite rare and he asked for copies of pictures we took. We also saw blue footed, red, Nazca and the brown. The red and the brown were a far distance from the path so pictures are few or not at all.
There were still some chicks to be seen and they of course were entertaining. Few of the male frigates were in breeding shape and the ones that were also were far from the path.
Would have been nice to see some marine life but that did not happen for me. Marianne’s hike took her to the edge of the cliff where in the clear waters they were able to see tiger sharks and rays swimming in the bay. They got to the boat long before my group did and they had green sea turtles and colorful fishes around the boat feeding.
Some of the group went snorkeling. We opted out. I sink at the best of times and am not the best of swimmers. Marianne was nice to sit out with me. We enjoyed the breaking surf against the rocks instead.
Best day we have had while here, enjoyed every minute.
Some pictures in a gallery below.
