Santa Cruz and Quito: The Final Week

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Arriving back at Santa Cruz after three weeks on Isla Isabella felt somewhat like a return to civilization. As our taxi boat pulled into the dock, Kyla said, "Its nice to be back." When I asked her what she meant, she said that she could see her horse again. Indeed, as soon as we were on dry land, the kids took off running towards the playground. By the time I'd caught up with them, Jake was riding on his turtle (which he now calls by the Spanish word "tortuga") and Kyla was riding her beloved horse. It's amazing the things they like best in a place!



What I liked best about being back was having a bit more infrastructure. The minimarts were decently stocked and of course there was a proper supermarket - bliss! After three weeks of virtually no wifi, it was nice to suddenly have it, even if it was only in the hotel lobby and it only worked sporadically. Beggars can't be choosers! There was also better access to medical care, which was a good thing as Scott had a problem again. This time it was his ear. It had been clogged for about five days. He'd been to the clinic on Isla Isabela and was told he had wax clogging it but the doctor didn't have the right tools to clear it. Try Santa Cruz Island, he'd said.



So, while the kids played on their old favorite playground and I kept an eye on our luggage, Scott went straight over to the hospital as it happened to be very conveniently located right across the street. He got to see a doctor and was told that it wasn't a clog but rather an infection. Hmm, two conflicting doctor reports isn't good!



We checked back into our old hotel, Hotel Espana, and the next morning he went for a third opinion from a doctor at the hyperbaric chamber medical clinic, aimed specifically at divers. This doctor seemed by far the most "with it." He was also the first medical professional we'd come across who spoke English, which was a bonus. It turned out that Scott has very narrow ear canals, prone to blocking. This doctor was able to unclog them, and Scott could hear again. After complaining about the noise level of the kids several times, though, I suggested he go back and ask for his ears to get clogged back up!



Jake also ended up taking a trip to the hospital. It was nothing dramatic, just a splinter in his finger that had become infected. Of course, he wouldn't let me get anywhere near him. We took him to the hospital and he was as good as gold, letting the doctor prick and drain his finger of pus, and remove the splinter with barely any crying. We went straight to one of our favorite spots, Galápagos Deli, for an ice cream reward!



After running these errands and a few others, we realized that we'd been on Santa Cruz Island for five days and hadn't really managed anything touristy! Scott had been diving one day, but I'd done absolutely nothing but playgrounds and was itching to do one last "Galápagos activity" before flying out to Quito a few days later, but what? I'd wanted to visit Tortuga Bay one more time but we didn't really have the weather for the beach, plus the 2.5 km walk was off-putting with little kids. We also thought about going back to see the tortugas (giant tortoises) at the ranch, but it would be $40 in a taxi, and we'd already seen them so many times. In the end we spent the entire week doing the local thing - going to playgrounds and just taking walks along the waterfront in town. We also went to a Children's Day festival in the town center. We were expecting little girls doing traditional dancing, face painting, and maybe a bounce house. It was therefore quite a surprise when a teenage dance group called "Black Widow" took to the stage. I'm not a prude, but let's just say this wasn't your typical Children's Day festival entertainment. There were lots of slutty outfits, lots of bumping and grinding, and generally X-rated dance moves, especially for such a small town! I couldn't help but wonder what the little old ladies in the audience were thinking!



A week after arriving back on Isla Santa Cruz it was time to get our flight back to Quito. Unfortunately, our perfectly timed flight was delayed by almost three hours. This meant that our plans to arrive in plenty of time to check into our hotel, get dinner, and get to bed at the normal time were thwarted. It turned out to be a nightmare journey. First, the airline claimed that we couldn't take our stroller as it comes into three pieces and therefore counted as three pieces of luggage, putting us over our limit! In the end, they spent about twenty minutes elaborately tying it all together with tie-wraps! When we got on the plane, both kids freaked out that they didn't have window seats and "couldn't see out." Later, when the food came around there were more tears as they didn't like it (I had a ton of snacks, of course, but none were to their liking!) Once we landed, we were met by a taxi driver from the hostel and off we set for the one-hour trip into old-town Quito. About 30 minutes in, Kyla announced that she had to pee desperately. The driver pulled onto the hard shoulder of the freeway while I clambered out to take her on the edge of the road. The cars were whizzing by so we jumped back in as quickly as we could. As the driver closed the minivan doors, Jake let out a high pitched scream. His fingers were stuck! You couldn't open the doors from the inside, so we hammered on the windows and screamed for the driver to open it from the outside (he was by now at the front of the car). Poor Jake was crying and holding his hand, and as I tried to take a look at it in the darkness, my heart was pounding. Were we going to have to redirect the taxi straight to the nearest hospital to deal with mangled fingers? Luckily, they appeared to be ok so we continued on to our hostal, despite Jake's screams!



After checking in, we quickly headed out for a quick bite to eat. We'd had it all planned - walk two blocks to a cheapie little restaurant we'd eaten at when we were here two months ago, stop at the minimart across the street for water etc, then get back home to bed asap. As you've probably guessed, Lady Luck wasn't on our side. Everything was dark and closed, which is apparently normal for a Monday night. Thankfully, as we walked home, the kids dragged us into a cake shop, the only thing open on the entire street. It turned out that it had meals too. It was all pretty local and meat-laden, which isn't my style, but we ended up ordering a breakfast combo of bread and scrambled eggs each. They also sold yoghurts, milk and big bottles of water - phew! We ate as quickly as we could and had the kids in bed soon after 9pm - gulp!



The next morning dawned bright and sunny, our final day! We had two things on our agenda: shopping and playground. We took a taxi to a tourist market and quickly found the souvenirs we'd wanted plus a few extras. We then headed to La Carolina park, where the kids went on a hand-powered merry-go-round, watched the paddle boaters on the lake, and played on the surprisingly western playground. It took a turn for the worse when a vendor selling huge inflated balls on strings came by. Vendors here have the annoying habit of handing your kids whatever they want to sell them, knowing full well that it will make the kids beg the parents to buy them whatever cr#p they are holding. There was no way we wanted to deal with big toys on our last day, and besides, Jake and Kyla had been bought several things on the market earlier. A definitive "no" and making them hand the toys back to the vendor produced tears and meltdowns. That was our cue to go home and start packing for our 2am taxi departure to the airport!



By this time in the trip, after almost 30 flights in the past year, you'd think we'd be an old hand at it. However, given the fact that we had to drag the kids out of bed at 1:30am, I'd been dreading this flight. Our arranged taxi was waiting outside the hostal for us at 2am. We quickly loaded up the stroller and all the bags. For once, we didn't have to worry about the kids on the busy street. There wasn't a single other car to be seen, and no people. It was like a ghost town! As we were all climbing in, Scott suddenly said to hurry up and get in and lock the doors. There was a man walking down the street towards us quickly. Just as the doors locked, he made it to our taxi and we could see he was a shady-looking character. Our van pulled off and we saw him standing still, watching us. Creepy! This is definitely a disadvantage to traveling in South/Central America versus safe SE Asia!



The trip home ended up being nothing but a huge queue-fest. In Quito, the Panama layover, and arriving at LAX, we ended up being stuck in ridiculously long lines. LAX was the worst. It took almost an hour to clear immigration, and then a further 20 minutes or more in the exit line to get your luggage out. At the start of the trip, I'm pretty sure the kids would have freaked out. Now, they knew the drill and just hung out, amazingly calm. The crazy thing is that there were no bathrooms in sight during the long and crowded immigration wait. I was dreading the kids having to go, but luckily they didn't.



Our final leg of the trip required us to find a good old fashioned pay phone to call Scott's dad, who was parked close to the airport. About twenty minutes later, we were on our way, bags crammed all around us. We stopped to eat at Denny's by the airport, more to kill time to let LA traffic die down than anything else. By 8:45pm we were on our way. With only about 3 hours of sleep in the past 36 hours, it didn't take long until I was snoozing alongside the kids. Before we knew it, we were pulling into Scott's dad's apartment parking lot. We were going to spend the first few days here until we had our own house a little more organized for move in.



As I sipped a glass of wine (we'd only drunk beer on the trip) and washed my face in warm water right from the sink (we'd only had cold water in the sink on the trip, so this was a rare treat!) I had to admit that it was nice to be back home... but at the same time, I longed for more adventure. The travel bug never truly leaves those its bitten!

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Photos

Galápagos Deli
One of our favorite spots

The Cafeteria
Fun with Marcus, the owner's son.

Comments

[Home and Away]

Welcome home!!!
We've been following your adventure with the kids. it can be done as you've proved.