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Published: June 19th 2014
So my darling daughter should know better than to bait her poor old mum, especially when it comes to writing blog stuff. Apparently the assumption being that because it took 9 days for my last blog to hit the airwaves, and I only have 9 days left of my big adventure once I hit Cancun, you guys would be lucky to get another blog out of me. Hahahahahahaha! I have at least 2 good ones left in me yet!
Let me tell you about the last 4 days…….
School finished…..but the school edition is coming out next.
I then wandered back to my home for lunch and then made my way to Playa Mann to work on my ‘tan’. The weather wasn’t too bad and I always had fun people and sea lion watching. Did my last minute shopping and was back in time for dinner. Saturday was spent helping Aryeal with his English homework before we made our way to Playa Mann for a swim. Best day ever!! Although we were only there for half an hour as it got very cold for Aryeal after we finished swimming, I had taken
my snorkeling gear and we had played with a sea lion for most of that time. He had swum in and round us, nibbled my pink flipper (kinda wondered about the condition of my toes if I hadn’t been wearing them?) and put on a wonderful twirling display right under our feet as we floated above. While I was pretty cautious, as I had seen them be quite dominate on the beach, Aryeal assured me that in the water they were fine. I was seriously hoping that I hadn’t lost anything in translation on this information! Turns out he was right and I have to admit this will go down in the memory banks as one of those “I’m going to bore everyone to death with this story being told a million times”. Such a special afternoon.
The next day I had arranged with Miguel for Marisol and Aryeal to take a taxi ride with me and Luna to the highland sights of the island. Luna had met up with another volunteer on her project, so Tim also joined us for the day which was great as the taxi ride was then split 3 ways. As I
am the ‘Goddess of Rain’ I didn’t let the team down and the wonderful view of the lagoon where the magnificent friggit birds in all their red glory swoop to clean themselves, was shrouded in mist and cloud. We waited, and waited, yelled at the clouds, took photos just to prove we wouldn’t be put off, but nothing worked and we left with really great shots of frustration. The next stop was a restaurant to order our lunch before we went to see the giant tortoise reserve, which has a species unique to this island. It was wonderful with the tortoises not housed behind walls as they were on Santa Cruz. The rain held off but the mosquitos sure didn’t! After an hour of information from the free guide, we went back to our restaurant to the most enourmous lunch. The only problem with this was that Miguel was planning a BBQ for my last night with them and I wasn’t sure I would be able to confidently eat it all. Finally finishing, we made our way to the surf beach were we would spend 2 hours before the taxi came to retrieve us. Fortunately my talents as the ‘Goddess
of Rain’ were raining… oh, I mean waning…and the water was reasonably comfortable. Lots of March flies (how dare they in June!) and waspy things but it was still great for photos of sea lions, fine white sand and crashing waves in which I clumsily body surfed (horrific mental image but you needed to get the picture right?).
The rain came back as we made our way across the island to home and I was very excited that Miguel would be barbequing to give Marisol the night off. First though, I was meeting Luna and Tim at the pub to watch Italy play England. Funnily, we were about the only ones interested in this game of soccer -guess there not being South American team playing the match may have had something to do with it. After England’s defeat we went our separate goodbyes as I would be busy packing for Quito that night. Wandered back home to find everyone getting ready to go to town for the BBQ. A little confusing but then I should have known better…….Miguel is fairly typical of most men and when they offer to cook (expect for you Michael, Kalvin and Ryan)
which translated to “I’ll find a restaurant that does BBQ”! It was a lovely night and the food was great, which may not have been the case had Miguel actually cooked.
The next day the taxi came to take my bag to the airport for checkin and I then walked into town for the last time. Took more photos, knowing that the possibility of my return was pretty remote. Noticed that although it was Sunday, which means the shops are mostly shut, strangely all the pubs & cafes were very busy with the locals. Oh Yeh!!! Ecuador was playing Switzerland…..unfortunately for Miguel and Marisol they couldn’t get reception on their TV. I was due to for the airport at 11 am so I told them to go to town and enjoy the game as we had already said our goodbyes. They left promising they would meet me at the airport. Hottest walk ever with my heavy back pack and heavy heart! I waited out the front for as long as I could but as the game was 1 all, new that it would be impossible not to see it to the end so went through the gates.
As I was wandering across the tarmac to the plane I heard my name called! Looking around I could see a hand waving madly through the opening in the steel gate as Marisol tried to get my attention. As I waved & yelled back (yes, I was that embarrassing person), she yelled for Miguel, who then threw his hand into the mix….what a lovely surprise!! Turns out their motor bike didn’t feel like turning around and they hadn’t been able to get there any quicker. Of course, now I not only had a heavy heart, but just wanted to bawl my eyes out as this lovely family had told me never to forget them and that they would look after Shakira so that she wouldn’t miss me too much and that I needed to work hard so I could come back and visit them as they would be waiting for me.
As I am writing this blog, I’m sitting in the airport at San Salvador waiting for my connecting flight to Cancun in about 5 hours…..uggghh! I am really, really tired as after arriving at Maria’s house in Quito round 7 pm, I had couple of wines
with Laura a law student from Boston who is working pro bono Quiot for 2 month as part of her degree. While we didn’t stay up all that late, I only slept about 2 hours as I had seen the luggage I had left with Maria before I went to Galapagos and had no idea how I was going to be able to squeeze it all into my luggage. Laura and I had planned to go to Mindo Rainforest the next day and we had to be up at 6am to catch the 2hr bus ride for our big adventure. Another very memorable day were we walked around 20 kms (mostly because we go lost….yes it’s contagious….or maybe people just shouldn’t listen to me?) but found the butterfly house (where one put its footprints on my face!), considered the possibility of zip lining and riding the very dodgy looking cable car to the waterfalls (yeh…neither of them happened…) and then found Mindo Lindo! A private property just out of the town of Mindo which had 20 hectares of rainforest, tracks, flowers, hummingbirds and…….MOSIQUITOS!!! We spent 2 hours there, where the owner provided us with lemongrass tea and a cake similar
to a cherry ripe, showed us through the property and explained that he was propagating plants that are endangered. Once back in Mindo we decided to look for a bag that would manage all my shopping and reduce my packing stress. Found it! And rewarded ourselves with an Amaretto coffee plus a delicious brownie. Returning to Quito by 7 we then had the challenge of finding a safe taxi to get us home. Fortunately for me, Laura has great Spanish and we arrived safe and sound back at Maria’s around 8 pm. Dinner and then the rest of my night was spent repacking everything and sleeping for 2 hours before my 2 am taxi arrived.
Now to kill time (that’s this blog) before the next leg of the journey takes me to Cancun. Hope I can stay awake! (and you have no idea how much retyping I have been doing trying to keep my fingers co-ordinated……6 cups of coffee isn’t helping like I thought it would L)
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