Day 12 was very bittersweet since it was our last full-day but we also went on my favorite excursion of the entire trip to Isla de La Plata. It was an hour boat trip from Puerto Lopez and as a person who gets motion sickness, I was feeling nervous. But Dramamine really did the trick and I just took a nap on the boat until we arrived. Our first activity was going on a long hike around the island. I was a little tired and sweaty but the hike was so worth it. I have never in my life seen scenery so stunning. There were so many cool spots where you could see flowers, mountains, and the ocean all together. We also got crazy close to frigate birds who flew all around us and saw many blue footed boobies. There was even a little fluffy baby one. It really put into perspective how important it is to keeps places like this protected and well up-keeped.
After that, we got to go snorkeling which I had been very much looking forward to since I had never done it before. It was super cool! I got to see a lot of colorful fish and even more small fish swimming all together. I also got to jump off the top of the boat where the captain was. I jumped in a couple times and on my last turn, I did a cannon ball. It honestly hurt when I hit the water but everyone said it looked cool so…worth it 😄. On the boat ride back, I was half asleep but then I heard someone say, “Look dolphins!”, and immediately got up. They were swimming very close to our boat and looked majestic. We also saw some sea lions lounging on the rocks. If I come back to Ecuador (which is very likely), I would definitely come back to Isla de la Plata.
As I’m typing this at the airport, I feel so grateful. The experiences I have had on this trip from exploring the rainforest to dancing with the Waorani tribe to harvesting cacao pods to snorkling in the ocean, I will never forget. It helped me get out of my comfort zone since I’ve never been this immersed in nature before. If you’re someone reading this and thinking about choosing Ecuador as one of your locations, I would definitely recommend. It’s not the most luxurious and relaxing location but it’s a trip you’ll never be able to go on otherwise. Thank you to the CBA Global Experiences scholarship and Frederick Honors Global and Experiential Programs scholarship for making this trip possible! And thanks to you for keeping up with my blog! I’ll see you on my next Pitt adventure.