Epic Adventure Finally Checked Off the Bucket List! (Isla de la Plata & the Blue-Footed Boobies)

We’ve been wanting to experience this adventure since we moved to Ecuador!

We took the hour long boat ride from Puerto Lopez out to Isla de la Plata (aka The Poor Man’s Galapagos) to see the Blue-Footed Booby nesting grounds. These interesting birds with bright blue feet only nest in Isla de la Plata and the Galapagos Islands, although we have seen them hanging out in Puerto Lopez where it’s easy to find fish scraps from the fishermen.

On our boat ride out to the island, we spotted a pod of Pilot Whales. We thought the tour leader called them Pride Whales, which is what we said in the video; however, Pilot Whales don’t sport the same rainbow colors.

The boat landed at a small beach on the northeast side of the island that was shielded from the big waves. Then we hiked up to the top of the ridge and back down the other side on the southwest side of the island where the boobies nest.

The Blue-footed Boobies are very white and fluffy as babies, but they lose the down as they age and their feet turn bluer the older they get. We also saw some Nazca Boobies, which are mostly white with black masks.

After the nearly 2 hour hike, we re-boarded the boat and took a short trip to a good snorkeling area. Unfortunately, the GoPro battery was dead due to operator error so we weren’t able to film under the water, but Amelia got some good shots from the boat of the turtles and fish.

We booked our trip with Xavier at Bike Spondylus Tours & Rentals based here in Olón. If you book a tour through him, tell him you saw our video!

Watch Our Video About Isla de la Plata in Ecuador

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JP Stonestreet

Hola todos! Welcome to my author bio page! Let's see. Where to begin... I grew up in the country on a lake outside a small Kansas farm town. As soon as I could, I got the hell outta there! Since then, I've lived and/or worked in Kansas City, Washington D.C., Denver, San Francisco, and Ecuador. I started and sold a dotcom, wrote a book about it, started a YouTube channel, and now I write a lot. Amelia and I have embraced the Unconventional Life and we want to help you do it, too!