Mante, balene, tartarughe marine

Puerto Lopez is known for diving and whale watching. That's why we got our little diving license in Munich and now it was time: we visited the fish. The pictures you see were taken from the internet, but they could have been ours too (with the right camera). Moray eels, stingrays, starfish, octopus, many brightly colored fish with unknown names, and... we saw a manta. The manta is a giant. Its wingspan is 5-7m (take a look at your living room, depending on it, the wingspan may be larger or smaller *g*). It is a completely harmless fish that scoops up plankton with its 2 fins in front of its mouth. Many other fish 'sit' on it, cleaning it and feeding themselves at the same time. 'Our' manta found us very interesting. It circled closer and closer to us. In the end, there was only 1-2m between it and us. Despite all our knowledge, our hearts were already beating faster!

On the way back, we saw humpback whales. One of them was curious and came quite close to the boat.

Tomorrow we will go through the nature reserve to the beach of Los Frailes.