The story of how Booby got his blue feet...

Bouncing through the surf wind whipped almost nauseous out to sea. We are heading to Isla de la Plata, an island haven of seabirds about 40km off the Ecuadorian coast. The poor man?s Galapagos they call it. With our budget that sounds about right and I have no complaints. Raucous cliffs snow capped in white guano crammed with seabirds of all kinds. Creatures of the windy deserts of the open ocean heights. Frigate birds, pelicans, tropic birds, and many boobies. A bare and rocky desert and bone dry gnarled trees of the dry forest over the promontory of the small island looking out to sea.

Did you know there are blue footed boobies, red footed boobies, and masked boobies, amongst others. I found this out and many things about boobies that day. For instance did you know that the deeper the hue of a blue footed boobies feet the older and richer its diet in sardines, using those pigments stored up in the feet! Whats more their blue feet help them attract fish which they nab diving to short depths around a meter. Whereas red footed boobies (we also saw, so rare!) dive to lesser depths but little is known about them since they hunt at night. Preying on squid in the open ocean come up from the depths under the cover of darkness.

Other notable encounters included scrub mockingbirds and vermillion flycatchers, peregrine falcons and a hummingbird hardly bigger than a bee, one of the smallest in the world. Snorkeling in the near shore waters off the rookery cliffs before leaving. Suction cupped masked too tight around my head and pinpricks from cool water on bare skin. Corals jumbled along the bottom like a boulder field of color and anemones dancing rhythmic in the tides breeze. Reaching for the bright beautiful shapes of reef fish loitering under our bow and the anchor line receding into the depths. Window into worlds above and below the waves?.