After a long day of travel, we finally arrived at Puerto Lopez. The hotel was very unique and cool. It was like trying to navigate through a maze because when we first arrived it was dark and the setup of the rooms was quite confusing. After killing about ten cockroaches in our room, we headed to bed to prepare for the next day. The next morning we went to Machalilla National Park. We did a short hike up to a hut at the top of the hill and the view was amazing. We took some pictures and walked down to the turtle beach.

Unfortunately, we did not see any turtles, but we did some exploring on that beach. Then we walked over to another beach and all went swimming. It was so nice to finally go swimming at a beach. We swam for a while and people were doing stunts in the water as well. Later in the day we went to the town of Puerto Lopez and walked around. We did some shopping and got lunch and dinner. On Thursday, we ventured out to Isla de la Plata. It was about an hour boat ride and I did not enjoy it. I felt seasick the whole way, so I was not feeling great when I got there. Once we arrived we did a five and a half mile hike. It took about 3-4 hours. The hike was so beautiful but honestly kind of hard. We saw many birds, such as blue-footed boobies and frigate birds.

At Isla de la Plata the bird poop is so white and shines silver under the moonlight. That is one of the reasons the Island has its name. The birds were flying so close to us and one of them actually pooped on me. It is extra good luck there because of the meaning. During the hike, we all ran out of water within the first hour and the sun was very hot. I was so burnt and dehydrated by the end I felt like I just completed an episode of Survivor. When we were done we hopped on the boat and got some water and food. I’ve never drank a bottle of water so fast. It really did bring me back to life. We saw some turtles swimming behind us and then drove off to start snorkeling. One of the crew members let us sit at the front of the boat and they drove us past a group of sea lions which was very cool. Then we got to the snorkeling spot and hopped in. There were so many different kinds of fish to see. Some people swam way far out but a few of us decided to stay back and just swim around. We got to jump off the boat and got some cool videos and pictures.

I had so much fun swimming around the island. After we got back we went back to the town for dinner and hung out on the beach later that night. This morning, on our way to the airport, we stopped at Hacienda Castillo to see more of the chocolate process. We saw where they harvest their cocoa, grow it, ferment it, and dry it. Then they let us try some of their chocolate and we headed off to the airport.

The next 24 hours are going to be very long. Our second flight doesn’t leave until midnight and my last flight doesn’t leave until Saturday at 2:30! I’m so sad our trip is over but I can’t wait to sleep when I get home because I am so exhausted!!