December 30, 2024
Isla de la Plata, Ecuador ( some translate to silver or birdshit island )
Booking a fantastic trip to the Galapagos Islands takes time and lots of coordination. Christmas weeks are also premium time and I was late to the game, for doing it on a live aboard boat. The ones I am interested in book a year out - so I will do this in the near future. Isla de la Plata, provided me with a little taste at a really good price point. We were part of a small charter boat that took about an hour to get out to Machalilla National Park
on the Isla. The island is uninhabited and features beaches, headlands and shrubland. It has many marine birds, blue footed and masked boobies, Galapagos' albatrosses and frigates. Trails run from Drake Bay to sheer clifftops overlooking water that attracts manta rays and humpback whales. There was really good snorkeling in Bay.
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Somewhere in the South China Sea, i n a galaxy far, far away ... was the Odyssey and a bunch of fun loving travelers....who had an idea for a fun cocktail party!
Yesterday we joined in with many of our fellow residents to take in some of the many water spots around Coron . We signed up through Get Your Guide, others used Trip Advisor and they both contracted with Psalms Travel Services in Coron. As I've explained before, figuring out our excursions in each port, is a big time suck for me. We prefer to find local venders without having to go through the big agencies (because you usually can get better service, pricing and customization) but sometimes it is just easier to stick with the big guys, when the excursion is super popular. Psalms turned out to be an excellent operator and I laughed when I saw they had used the below images on their Facebook page today. Didn't realize my pink dry bag stood out so much!
We are currently docked at the port of CORON , in the Palawan archipelago islands, of the Philippines . While the port itself is nothing special, and the surrounding town is hardly thriving, the people here are amazingly friendly, joyful and so happy to be around! You can see from below, they have a ton of hotels and restaurants but mostly it's their water actives that attract a fair number of tourist. Known for their crystal clear water, dramatic limestone cliffs and powdery white sand beaches. June is the start of the rainy season, but so far the weather has been good.