What to see in Puerto López

Yes, I really wanted to write something about this little Galapagos for the poor people, place. But I had not so great experience here. Nevertheless I will try to do an as objective resume here and will of course also tell you what went wrong.

As already mentioned Puerto López is Galapagos for the poor. It’s right next to the only coastal national park of Ecuador, which consists of coast, sea, and a tropical dry forest. There are several species living in there such as howler monkeys, anteaters, lots of birds and on the coast as well as on the isla de plata frigate birds, brown pelicans, boobies, in the sea sea turtles, sharks and whales. Whales are seen between June and September.

Playa Los Frailes

This is one of the most beautiful beaches of Ecuador. It can be reached with a bus in direction of Jipijapa. Just advice the driver and he will stop and call you. It’s 50 cents. The beach is free and open until 4 pm. They will kick you out at 3:50 pm. Going back is possible with bus or just take a car that stops for you (1$).

Isla de la Plata

A visit to this island is possible with a full day tour (they are usually 45$). On this tour you will also do whale observation, snorkeling and a walk on the island. You can see almost all the species that are not endemic to the Galapagos. This includes sea turtles, manta rays, boobies, frigate birds and pelicans. See more here about the species of the Galapagos islands.

Whale tour

It is also possible to do a whale tour only. This is a half day trip which normally also includes snorkeling in a bay. Those tours cost around 25$.

Is it vegan?

No, no and no. I was searching carefully an agency that has animal friendly tours. And finally found “Palo Santo Tours”, which is run by a biologist. I also chose them because of the excellent reviews they have on Tripadvisor.

But it all came different.

It seemed that I was the only person interested in seeing whales and finally it ended up that they brought me to another agency, where they booked a tour for me. I really wonder why I spend hours of search for a good company when it always ends like this. But things went even worse. The equipment of “Whale Expedition” was okay, the boat and life jackets too. And soon we reached a spot were a mother and a baby whale were. I was glad and waited for the captain turning of the motor of the ship. It never happened and we ended up chasing those majestic animals for almost two hours. I desperately wished to become a seagull and fly away, because I really felt ashamed for my own species. After chasing them for a long time, to other boats joined in, the mother whale just couldn’t endure us anymore and started to breach. When we asked the guide, why she is doing this, he said that they don’t know the reason. But wasn’t that an obvious sign? For me it was and I was feeling sad, angry and ashamed at the same time. And when we ended up snorkeling next to the port because of weather reasons I first thought this is a bad joke.

As the other companies joined in the chase, I cannot even recommend any other.

I remember that the tour in Puerto Madryn was much better, they turned off the motor and we waited for the whales to come closer. An Irish girl told me that she had similar experience in Colombia (turning off the motor and so on).

Agua Blanca

This is a community close to Puerto Lopez. There is an archeological museum and some pools of mud to do some wellness. Entrance fee is 5$.