Last Two Days in South America-Goodbye, Galapagos, Goodbye Quito, Ecuador

Sunday, April 10, 2016, WTRD 92

Today is our last day on the Galapagos Islands.  We disembark after breakfast and saying goodbye to the crew in San Cristabol where we will catch our plane later this afternoon. We carry only our day bags and will catchup with our luggage at the airport.  Once we arrive in the city of San Cristabol with 22,000 inhabitants, we are transported to the Galapagos National Park  Interpretive Center.  Seems a bit counter intuitive to  come here last as it would have made more sense to come here first.  But given the scheduling of boats in different ports and prescribed routes, here we are.

A pictorial island chart showing what flora and fauna are on each island.

Graphic of the tectonic plate movement  that lifts the Andes and creates the volcanic islands of the Galapagos

Three major currents push temperature, nutrients, flora, and fauna to the Galapagos

Three dimensional exhibit shows the islands and the depth of surround sea bed.

The original artifacts of the first cruiser message center in the Galapagos

Good Bye San Cristabol...Good Bye Galapagos.  We are off to the Airport.

Monday, April 11, 2016, WTRD 93

By the time, this blog is posted  we will no doubt be home and planning the next adventures in our lives. Bur let me concentrate on our last day in Ecuador.

We arrived late yesterday afternoon from the Galapagos Islands, ate dinner with friends, said goodbyes to those leaving before dawn Monday morning, and carried ourselves off to bed.

We made an accommodation reservation mistake in our original planning.  We knew our departure date was April 13, so reserved Monday and Tuesday nights in Quito.  When we checked in and needed to make arrangements for a transfer to the airport with the reservation desk, we needed to plan to arrive at the airport three hours in advance of flight time.  We knew we had a red eye, but thought it was Wednesday night on the 13th.  Turns out we were leaving at 12:50 am on Tuesday the 13th just after midnight on the 12th,!  We had one day less than we thought and booked one more night than we needed.

The bad news, we couldn't get a refund, but the good news was we would have the room until we checked out at 8:30 pm.  Once we realized we would only have Monday ro see Quito, we booked a private morning tour.  Our guide, a young single mom in her early 30's picked us up on Monday morning at 9:00 am.  Unlike many of her clients, we weren't terribly interested in visiting all of the Catholic churches, so she was at a loss as to how to fill up our time.

But it all turned out well, as she spoke excellent English and could answer a lot of our questions.  We leisurely strolled through the old Colonial section of Quito discussing a a variety of topics (public and private education, child rearing practices, salaries $370 a month on average (tops - doctors and university professors around $1200/month), currency, politics, corruption, impact of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests and those who kidnap children for ransom and/or sex trade, poverty, health care, and American expats retiring in Ecuador-one can live comfortably (Ecuadoran style) for $1200 a month.

Tasty fruit

Food at restaurants was expensive, but open markets the food was cheap, 4 large avocados for a dollar.

The meat was probably cheap, too, but somehow unrefrigerated meat with flies just didn't look appetizing.

Ecuador, of all the countries we have visited  in South America, seems to be the most modern, clean, and well maintained countries.  However, I think the standard of living is so much higher in the US, that living "well" in Ecuador wouldn't come close to lower middle class living in America.

After three months in South America We are culturally fatigued by so many things  we take for granted in America.

I am fatigued by not being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet, overflowing soiled paper baskets,  and the condition of public toilets, not being able to use tap water to drink or brush my teeth, not having hot water plumbed to bathroom and kitchen sinks,  not having confidence in restaurant food preparation or non-refrigerated perishables, by over the top wealth in rich churches


















and the bone grinding poverty of the people that support the church with nothing returned except the promise of salvation (seems scamful),

humidity so high that it takes days to line dry clothes (even those coming out of a dryer feel damp),  disruptive demonstrations protesting corrupt governments, and politicians making bogus promises (a little bit like home, though).  We have enjoyed our adventure especially the people we have met, but are looking forward to coming home.

Every Monday, in the main government square at 11:00 am there is a changing of the guard ceremony.  The President or Vice President of Ecuador, makes an appearance (today it is the VP), school children get front row seats,

horsemen,

swordsmen,

spearmen,

waving officials,

and marching band in colonial uniforms create the weekly spectacle.

The square is filled with young and old,

but our guide who never comes to this weekly event says it is only attended by supporters of the current administration.  Guess that tells you her sentiments of the current administration.  We enjoy the show of power.







Just after 1:00 pm our guide drops us off at the hotel.    We immediately go out for lunch in the poring rain and find a local geocache, return to the hotel, finish packing, cleanup, nap, go out for dinner with last of our traveling group, checkout of the hotel at 8:30 pm, take our transfer to the airport, and do all the preflight routine, board our plane and head home to America.  It's been a great trip.

Best of all, we have enjoyed the people we have met and with whom we have made friendships.

Until our next adventure, all is well with the Worrall Travel R's heading home.