Whale watching

Well, we made it find down to Puerto Lopez. We were hoping for warm, sunny weather, but we got overcast and drizzling the whole time. Puerto Lopez was a pretty typical small, coastal village. It was quite muddy everywhere, and somehow the mud looked exactly like the dog poop, and everything blending into a nice sticky goo. Since we were looking for hot weather, we only brought flipflops. You get the picture.

Anyway, we found out that Puerto Lopez happened to be the spot where humpback whales come every year to show off and mate. In July and August, their antics are fantastic, with the huge animals breeching clear out of the water in an attemp to lure the lucky ladies in audience. We just caught the end of the season, and went out in search of whales. Here is the guide person that took us out on the boat. He wasn't the captain or the designated whale watcher, but more of a coordinator/tour guide. And he had dreds.

Here we are on the boat. It had a couple of engines, which according to the guidebooks is a good sign that the probability of making it back to shore is good in case one engine dies. Apparently this is a problem of sorts. On board were our family, a bunch of Germans and some Ecuadorians. I would guess that about half of the group got seasick, and at least 3-4 vomited overboard. I was quite proud of the kids. Not only did they not get sick, but when the ocean was the choppiest and less-hearty folk were leaning overboard, our kids were squealing with delight and having fun toppling over one another everytime the boat hit a big wave.
Here is one picture of a humpback. We have a couple other decent pictures. Most of them are the whales blowing out air and then diving back down. They can hold their breath for around 30 minutes. Supposedly there is around 400 or so whales that come up to the Ecuador coast every year. We also say some pretty cool tail flips as they were diving down, but don't think we caught any on camera.
Here are the kids up on the front of the boat, on the prowl for ballenas (whales). They had a great time. Also in moments like these I am happy that the tour operators don't have liability on the front of their minds like they do in the states, and let the kids clamber all over the boat and just plain have fun. On that note, we are also having a ton of fun riding in the back of pickup trucks too (knock on wood, please don't let anyone fall out).