Puerto Lopez - Whale fish, Whale fish

Happy, happy, joy, joy more buses - Not sure if we have mentioned about the buses and driving skills of the average Central/South American?they are just crap. There is no regard for safety at all. most buses have a wall and door between you and the driver so you can´t see out of the window which is a good thing. Overtaking on blind corners is a national pastime and not just one car at a time. So our time had come to take our lives in our hands once again and take the 6 hour journey to Puerto Lopez which in fact took 8 hours and 4 buses, each dodgier than the last as the buses deteriorated so did the roads. At one point our 3 ´drivers´were discussing which side of the road to drive on to avoid the crater sized potholes in the road in pitch darkness. Now this was bad enough, our tolerance was strained to say the least but add to it that the seats were designed for midgets with no legs and a curved spine and that the guy behind me decided to shout Hi at the top of his voice every time we went over a bump (and we went over may bumps). His theory was that when a Karate dude falls on the floor he says Hi to lessen the blow. I am not sure if he was just socially retarded or just plane retarded cause he at one stage started shouting ´what is happening´to his friend when we stopped to let some people out. Oh god how I hate other people sometimes!!!

Off the bus we get and trudge down the length of the town to a hostel that was recommended by the guys in Canoa, we should of know that the place would be a little run down as the stoners had said that it was great cause the owners son was running the place and just got stoned all the time. It turns out that the the local drug dealer lived just outside the hostel on the beach in a tent.

But we were here for one reason on one reason only Humpback Whales. We had arrived just towards the end of the mating/migrating season when the Whales swim up the coast of South America and just kinda hang out around Puerto Lopez. During this time you are basically guaranteed to see at least one. We were told by a girl studying them that the best group to find is either a mother and calf as the calf is very excitable and they jump a lot or a female with 2 male admirers as they are trying to show off to get the girl.

We booked a trip with the girl in the hostel and the next day we were up bright and early to go out on the boat. We stood on the beach while we watched all the other boats get full and leave and there was no sign of ours. Great the one thing I really wanted to do and it wasn´t going to plan. Finally our boat, captain and the rest of our tour turned up. We headed straight for the front of the boat sure we would get wet but we would have a great 360 view.

I was a little nervous as I had heard stories about whales coming up really close to the boat, while that would be really cool I think I would poo my pants if this happened. ------->

We travelled out for what seemed like ages crashing over waves and getting drenched but then we stopped and waited. It was very surreal ,very quite and everyone was holding their breath, and then I saw the first whale of the day. I pointed, shouted and squealed like a little girl. I was so excited, we had come across a little family, a mother, calf and another female travelling together. There was alot of breaching the water with either their heads, backs, tails or fins and blowing water. Then we were treated to the most amazing sight, a full out of the water, up in the air back flip. It was amazing, I have never experienced a group of about 20 grown ups audibly sighing in unison before. We were treated to about 3 more hours of searching the horizon spotting then and going in for a closer look. It was great just as we were about to head off we had one more massive back flip just at the place I was looking, now that was really cool. The hard thing about it was that there was just so much water to look at and you didn´t want to miss anything so you are flipping your head back and forth seeing what the other boat were looking at.
There is not really more I can say about it without repeating myself although I will just state how amazing it was these are not the most beautiful creatures in the world but you just felt like you were seeing something wonderful every time even just their backs breached the water. I have always been fascinated with Whales and dolphins and I have seen them both on this trip in spectacular form. I have definitely seen my something majestic.