Our last day of the Galapagos adventure! There was a final shore excursion to a nearby beach but not wanting to get wet or have to return to take a shower when they were already pushing us to leave our room so they could clean it for the next occupant, I elected to stay in the room. I also had some final packing to do and to just relax.
Leslie went ashore and after a couple of hours returned. We had set out our luggage which was picked up to be sent on the the airport ahead of us. We had a final lunch out on the fantail bar area, chatted up our new friends, took photos of everyone and just relaxed until we were called to the our panga for the trip to the Baltra dock and the bus to the airport.
All went well with this process. Our flight was on time and we were whisked back to Guyaquil and then on to Quito. A taxi ride to our new hotel digs and we were moved in by the end of the day. We walked around the corner for a quick dinner which turned out to be pretty good and then back to our room for the night.
My altitude issues came back with a vengeance. Any effort needed to go uphill or stairs and I have to stop to catch my breath before m
oving on. While in the Galapagos I had no problems at all. So my last two days are going to be about taking it easy, I think.
The hotel's breakfast room is on the top floor two flights up from our room. What a view awaited us. Entirely glassed in the dining room looked out across the old town, church domes and spires, hillside homes and looking up La Virgin de Quito statue towers over the city.
We had arranged to meet with Leslie's former student, Jilly, who had returned from a vacation back home in the states. She had volunteered to show us around and when she arrived at the hotel our first morning back, we decided to
go out to Mindo, a small town about two hours by bus from Quito. We taxied nearly an hour to the bus station before boarding a bus for the ride out. $3 per person. It was a wild ride in which I discovered I can get a little motion sick. We were dropped off at the side of the road in the middle of no where. Across the road was a guy with a pick up truck with a canopy. We crawled into the back and he drove us the final couple of km into Mindo.
We stopped at a restaurant/hostel called Caskaffesu owned by an Am
erican expat. I have no idea what it means but it was cute as a button. Had a great lunch of grilled local trout, Leslie had a trout cebiche and then we walked a short distance up a side street to a place that breeds and displays butterflies and orchids and hummingbirds for the public to see. We also hired a local driver to haul us uphill over a rutted, potholed dirt road to reach the Tarabita an attraction that i
s an open cable car that runs on a gas powered motor that runs a four person car along a single cable out across the rainforest canopy. We were about 400 feet above a river and the surrounding tree tops at the midpoint. There was not enough tim
e for us to do any of the hiking to several waterfalls on the other side so the operator pulled us back to the middle and then stopped, then ran us back partway, finally bringing us back to the starting point. It was exhilarating and my fear of heights for some reason didn't bother me at all. The whole thing would never be allowed in the States without any safety devices and the checks that would be req
uired, but it was fine. We thanked the operators, piled back into the truck and headed back do
wn the hill to Mindo, through town, picking up passengers and dropping them off as we went. We even stopped once so the driver could chat with a friend who happened to be riding a burro up the hill. At another point we pulled over and out of the forest walks a guy holding a very sharp machete! Leslie remembers thinking to herself that all Michael's fears about this country would now come true and we'd be hacked to pieces and stripped of our money belts with all that cash we were still carrying around. No such luck! He was just a buddy of our friendly driver who stopped to give him a ride into town.
We continued on through Mindo and up the hill the way we'd come until we reached the bus stop where we were dropped off at the side of the highway to await the bus to Quito. It showed up in 15 minutes which began the bus ride from hell!
A two hour bus ride back to Quito, only there are no seats left on the bus, no windows open to offer any ventilation and a driver who learned to drive at the Quito branch of the Parnelli Jones school of bus driving--there are no rules and you take all corners as fast as you dare while playing Latin rap music as loudly as possible. Standing all the way back to Quito, only $1. We paid the bribe of $5 so I could sit down. Leslie sat on my knee and eventually she and Jilly both got a seat of their own. Jilly finally, mercifully, got us off the bus when we got close enough to Quito to grab a cab. We took it far enough to drop her off and then on to our hotel.
I opted out of the dinner with Jilly and some of her friends on La Ronda which is along Guyaquil Street where the buildings have ornate wrought iron balconies like the ones in New Orleans. I'm done! 6 hours of buses and taxis to spend 3 hours in the country side. Ugh! Leslie is kind of stuck what with Jilly being a former student and her local friends wanting to meet her. Tomorrow we pack for the trip home, stay close to the hotel and relax. About 6:00 pm we will depart for the airport for the first of three flights home. I am so looking forward to it. As much as I enjoyed it, I am really ready to go home.
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