---

Sunday, August 15 ....we’re heading to the coast to find some sunshine and heat! After two sleepless nights in Banos, we are back in Quito awaiting our flight to Manta and then onto Puerto Lopez on the Pacific Ocean. Banos was an interesting place to see but two days was enough...especially with rainy, cold weather and the bar below our hotel room. The first night the music didn’t stop until 3am and then we were awakened at 6am by noise of the backpackers who couldn’t find rooms and slept in the lobby. The next night wasn’t much better. Brad and I took a 3 hour tour of several waterfalls around Banos while the kids explored the town and rode go-cart around town. We took the 9am bus from Banos to Quito which turned out to be only 3 hours...we had expected it to be longer. From the bus terminal in Quito we rode the public bus to airport (on the opposite end of the city). After a 30 minute flight (would have taken us at least 8 hours on the bus) we arrived in Manta, where we were greeted by our taxi driver. The 114 km trip to Puerto Lopez took over two hours in the rickety van with its oil light on and maximum speed of 80km.

---