Ecuador: The Tunnels

Unbelievable day today. There aren't enough adjectives to describe how incredible it was. We took a motorboat out of town to a place called Los tuneles. It is a place where the lava from the volcano hit the sea and created strange contortions of the rocks---bridges, tunnels, pillars. The landscape looked like something out of science fiction. I expected Captain Kirk at any turn. The landscape would be enough to make this a great place, but add exotic bird and marine life and WOW! We saw blue-footed boobies nesting. A sea turtle swam under one of the bridges. Schools of colorful fish swim by. Iguanas crawled everywhere.

Getting into los tunelos was not easy. Massive waves break around the entrance. The captain had to wait for the right moment;then gun the engines and ride the waves into the entrance. It was a little more exciting than I would have liked. Getting out was equally exciting. The boar had to dive head on into the waves.

Then we snorkeled. Gigantic sea turtles were everywhere. They swam under us and around us. I touched several of them. Then we snorkeled into some caves to see the sleeping white tipped sharks. They were cool but some were as long as I am and I was anxious to get out of the caves. Of course we saw too many kinds of fish to remember: Parrot fish, Clown fish, Damsel fish, Angel fish, Sargent Major fish. As we left, we passed a group of manta rays—some over 6 feet across. Such an amazing day!