Everybody knows about the famous Galapagos Islands but not everybody can afford spending 100$+ per day, especially all of those who fit into the backpacker category like us. Luckily, Silver Island (the name derives from a legend of pirate Drake, very much like Amapala) is a great and much cheaper alternative to see some of the amazing wildlife of those tucked-away islands. This is our short guide to make the most of it!
Getting There
Silver Island is located jut off the coast of Ecuador inside the one and only coastal national park of the country: Machailla National Park. Tours to the island (which can only be visited this way even though there’s no entrance fee) are usually organised from the famous backpacker hub of Montañita (2h+ by boat) or the equally famous fishing village of Puerto Lopez (1h30min by boat).
Even though both seemed like a good catch, we preferred staying in Puerto Lopez because of the vicinity and the possibly of going on whale watching tours. Definitely not something you might wanna miss!
The Malecon of Puerto Lopez
To know more about our time there, read our article about Puerto Lopez: Whales, tuk-tuks and tasty fresh fish.
The Standard “Isla de la Plata” Tour
After a short walk around Puerto Lopez you’ll figure out that tours to the island are pretty much what all the tourism is about in town, especially from June to September (high season) when you also get the chance to see whales migrations. Every last company offers that tour with pretty much the same program but on our host suggestion we went with a local company called Cercapez.
Another Tour Company
PRICE AND TIMES
Your average tour will cost between 40-45$/pp (make sure to ask if the pier fee is included), will include an english-speaking guide, lunch, snorkelling, transport and will start at 9am by meeting up at the company office on the Malecon. From there, you’ll join the group of roughly 16 people you’re gonna be travelling with (after a short explanation of the day) and head down to the pier where you’re gonna be slowly loaded onto the company boat (make sure to sit on the right side) to start your tour at about 10-10.30am.
WHALE WATCHING (June to September)
After departing from the pier, you’ll head straight to the island and assuming you’re visiting during whales season there’s 99% chance the captain of the boat will spot them and get close. Expect to spend anything from 30min to 1h+ observing and following the whales before getting back on-route and eventually reaching the island by 12.30pm the latest.
HIKING ON THE ISLAND
Once at the island, apart from being greeted by thousands of curious crabs, you’ll be given two options of hiking trails, both of which will involve following one of the tour guides that came with you on the boat. Be aware that some “cheap” companies will only have a guide and hence you’ll have to go with the trail everybody agrees on.
Trail Map
The trail “Las Fragatas” is a short 1h loop that passes through where most of the blue-footed boobies colonies are and its very easy. The trail “Patas Rojas” is a longer 2h-2h30min loop that gives you the chance to explore the island in-depth by seeing colonies of blue boobies, masked boobies, frigates and even albatrosses.
Marta’s Video Time
All trails start at a small ranger station just up a pretty steep path that reaches the top of a hill. Amazingly enough, nearly all birds on the island don’t consider “humans” much of a threat and for this reason you can get extremely close to them. On top of that, keep an eye out for whales at the horizon (we did see some whales jumping not far from the island) cause the island is a great elevated view point on the surroundings.
SNORKELLING
After the hiking is finished, at around 2-3pm you’ll be loaded back again on the boat to head to the snorkelling spot known as “El Faro”. When we left Puerto Lopez that same morning, the sky was cloudy and snorkelling was not tempting at all but once there, the microclimate of the island and the weirdly warm ocean water made snorkelling a definite “yes”. Some kind of lunch, a.k.a sandwiches, will be served while on your way.
Expect to spend around 30min to 1h snorkelling and needless to say that the marine wildlife you’ll see has no equals. Colourful fish, sea-stars, corals patches and if you’re lucky even moray eels!
Crabby at the beach before departing
ON THE WAY BACK
Depending on how late your group was doing all the activities (and how good your guides are), the captain of the boat might decide whether to make small detours to see more whales or head straight back to Puerto Lopez.
General Thoughts
The tour to Isla de la Plata is not “cheap” but compared to what you could be spending to visit the Galapagos is a much cheaper option. That aside, 40-45$ for a full day tour of 7-8 hours is surely a good deal considering it involves an all-inclusive birdwatching, hiking, whales watching and snorkelling experience. Truth to be told, together with hiking the Quilotoa loop, this was definitely the top-highlight of our trip to Ecuador, worth every last penny!
This is a glimpse of our beautiful experience:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ddIhUvKYGY[/embedyt]
PLANNING A TRIP TO ECUADOR? CHECK MORE GUIDES BELOW!
[pt_view id=”ae1d929935″]