Hi Everybody 😁! I have been super bad about our blog here lately. We have been taking Spanish lessons for the past 5 weeks (one week to go) and have made some great friends here in Montanita. We have also been volunteering (Ivan at a clinic and me at an orphanage – blogposts to come on this!) so things have been busy!

To get back into the swing of things, I thought I would do a quick post about a whale watching trip I took a few weeks ago. Ivan wasn’t able to go because his vertigo was acting up a little, but he rode with me to Puerto Lopez where I took the trip and walked around the town chilled out by the beach while I was out on the water. Puerto Lopez is a cute little town so I think he enjoyed it.

I got on a boat with about 20 other people, most of them Ecuadorians, and we rode out a few miles to the deeper water. It wasn’t long before we saw a group of about 7 or 8 whales! It was so cool! Or “chévere” as the latinos say 😁! Here’s some info about the whales from a website called positivturismo.com that explains why they come to Ecuador:

By the time these ocean giants reach Ecuador’s coast, they have traveled more than 4000 miles north from the cold waters of Antarctica. They come to the warm coast of Ecuador to give birth to their calves and to mate. Their young would not be able to survive in the frigid waters of Antarctica as they are born without sufficient fat stores to protect them from the cold. So the whales migrate thousands of miles to find just the right spot to give birth or to find a mate—a  place with balmy waters and plenty of food. Ecuador’s coast fits the bill perfectly. The Humboldt Current, which runs near the coast of Ecuador, stirs up large amounts of plankton and krill, which the humpback whales, as well as many other types of whales and dolphins, require to thrive and to raise their young. An adult humpback whale can consume up to 3,000 pounds of food per day. The females are generally larger than the males as they require much strength to nurse their calves for 6 – 10 months. With a few months of binge feeding in the tropical waters of Ecuador, the whales are able to bulk up enough to tolerate the harsh climate of Antarctica for the rest of the year, and the calves put on enough blubber to survive the freezing waters of the polar regions.

The number of whales that are seen off the coast of Ecuador can vary dramatically year by year, but ranges somewhere between 400 and 2600. The first to arrive each year are the young males, who travel in large pods and stay fairly close to the coastline. They are the whales most often seen leaping out of the water in an effort to attract a mate. Humpback whales are about 40 – 50 feet long and weigh almost 80,000 pounds. In spite of their size and weight, they are very athletic and can breach high out of the water or smack the surface with their powerful pectoral fins, which can be up to 15 feet long. Male humpback whales are also known for their elaborate songs, which may last for 20 minutes. Sometimes they repeat their song for hours at a time. Pregnant females, slowed by their additional weight, are usually the last to arrive in Ecuadorian waters. They give birth to calves which weigh about 2,000 pounds at birth, but grow very quickly during their first few months. They grow for about ten years, and their average lifespan is about 50 years.

Here’s a video of the whales we saw:

Chao mis amigos! ❤️