Beach, shrimp and ocean breezes :)

Monday Nov 25th

Arrived in Puerto Lopez around 2pm and found a nice spot close to the beach and at the end of the malecon to enjoy our first night back on a beach! It's been over a month since we were suffering in the heat of the the Caribbean :)

Gateway to the Pacific

We go for a walk along the malecon and see all the fishermen coming back in with their catch. We see large prawns for sale for $8/kg!  But since I already have something out for supper we'll have to wait until tomorrow to enjoy those.  Funny watching all the birds trying to steal the fishermen's catch, they dive right into their big plastic boxes that are being carried on the shoulder of a fishermen.  These birds are not shy at all!! Damn cheeky birds! But funny to see one bird get the fish and other birds fighting for it and it gets dropped and picked up a few times. But the final drop is near a floating pelican who actually ends up with the prize!

Never saw these boats in the water

Low tide the boats just unload and wait for the tide to take them out again

To big for me to fry up in Vanna!!

Then a walk on the pier that must be newly built. There are alot of tourist here! We really notice them late in the afternoon when all the boat tours return. At the end of the pier we look at all the boats that anchor out here - mostly fishing boats. Very few go onto the beach. They have small boats that they paddle out to the bigger boats and just tie the small one on the anchor when they leave.  As we're looking out Dwayne spots a huge turtle swimming close to the pier. I saw it to but by the time I got my camera out he was gone. We did see him bob his head up a few times. Last time I saw a turtle that big was probably at least 12 years ago when we were swimming at Akumal, Mex and it freaked me out! I was out of the water BAM like that!!

Nice whale mosaic at the entrance of the pier

View back to the town from the pier

There is a nice waterway thru the town but unfortunately it stinks!!

Bars on the beach - I like the deer and sleigh that lights up at night

More fish vendors

Is this what is used to talk to aliens???

Guys making new nets

All the boats are anchored out from the beach

We check at the laundry place to find out prices. Seems it will probably cost us $20. We'll drop it off in the morning.

Tuesday Nov 26th

We have a nice quiet night where we are parked and after awhile we drive to the laundry to drop off our clothes. It actually ends up costing us $16 for wash and dry. We have quite a large bag of dirty clothes! Nice to just drop it off and pick it up later cleaned and folded :)

Then Dwayne goes one direction to check if there is water at a nearby gas station. I walk the opposite direction to check out stores, restaurants and then finally over to see what's happening with the fishermen. Again lots to boats in. But this time some have huge fish! There are a couple of marlins and also sharks!  Sharks are pretty weird (they were small ones) they skin is very soft, no scales and their body is floppy like they have no backbone.  We watched as they weigh the marlin and it comes in at 245kgs!! WOW! No wonder it took 4 guys to bring it to the scale.  This is the weight after head, tail, innards and fins are removed. There is also lots of grouper fish. Seems no shortage of fish in this area!

The marlin

smaller marlin

Cleaning that huge marlin

4 guys to carry it to the weigh scale

Box of grouper fish

SHARK!!

Floppy sharks being weighed

No idea what this fish is but he has the coolest blue teeth!

I then go into the building next to the fishermen boats where lots of vendors are set up for the morning  cooking up food.  I ask for ceviche and for a bowl it's only $4. When I was looking at the restaurants the prices were $7 and up.  I dont need the rice that they add to their plate :)  When it arrives it comes with fried plantain- wish it was fried tortillas instead, but they dont eat those here :(  The ceviche is tasty and lots of it. I see Dwayne walking over towards my direction and call him over. He has a few bites of the ceviche but he's not really a fan.

After I was finished we head back to the main street to find out about booking a tour to Isla de la Plata tomorrow. This is what I call the Pensioners Galapagos.😂  It takes only an hour by boat to get there, costs $40 each for the day which includes snorkelling equipment and lunch. And of course a hike on the island. This is where the illusive Blue Footed Booby bird lives. He also lives on the Galapagos, so glad a few decided to live here :)  This should be fun since the boat it big so I should be good on the water LOL!!! I'll take gravol in the morning just incase ;)

We end up going to another gas station to fill up with water. Dwayne said there was a hose at the other station but wasn't able to ask about it. After filling the tank we head to the grocery store to stock up and after that we found another spot on the beach near the office of where tomorrow's tour starts. Seems no problem to park here, other then it will be noisy by 5am when everyone probably comes down to go fishing.

We go back to the fishermen and buy our prawns for supper. They are to big to be called shrimp!! These are a little smaller then the ones we saw yesterday so paying $6/kg.  Bought $6 worth and went back to Vanna to clean them up. Think I'll cook up some pasta, and then cook the shrimp in garlic butter and thicken it up with some parm cheese and add a little pasta sauce and then add the pasta. Should be tasty :)

Our great spot on the beach

Beer time!!

Bought a babaco fruit - this is only half of it. It's actually a foot long

There are no real seeds, just fluffy stuff that is edible

chopped and ready to eat 

Cheers!!

This will be supper once I clean them! 

My Rosé shrimp pasta dish

Dinner was delious!! A little white wine with it completed the meal :)  Think I'll do it again tomorrow since after the trip to the island I'll want to make something fast.