Heading home today, I mean back to Cuenca, yeah! We weren't being picked up until noon so we got up and had breakfast first thing this morning. After we got our stuff all packed Mike decided that he wanted to take a little stroll to the hotel next to ours. Thankfully it was really close and we didn't have to walk very far as it was super hot and muggy this morning.
Our driver arrived about half hour early and so we got on the road and headed back to Guayaquil. The same ride as when we came and it took about 3 1/2 hours only this time there was no comfy air conditioned van but rather a beaten up Volvo. It had air conditioning apparently but it was difficult to tell, and those speed bumps that we navigated on the way to Puerto Lopez had risen in the few days since we arrived so much so that I can't see how there's any underside left of the Volvo; every time we went over one I could hear the bottom of the car scrapping, metal against concrete. It wasn't the best car journey I've ever been on but the driver, Jorge, was a nice guy and chatted almost the whole way. He was quite amusing because when he got on a subject that interested him he got louder and the car got further into the middle of the road. In fact, we spent most of the drive straddling the spot where the white line can usually be found, but we got to the airport in one piece. Since we arrived in Guayaquil a little early Jorge took us on a drive around the city so we could see some of it besides the airport. It's a nice looking place with a beautiful park, but it is huge and not the safest place in the country. As we were driving through downtown we had to stop at a traffic light and there were a group of young men walking past, Jorge locked all the car doors. I'm glad I don't live in a place where I don't feel safe driving around downtown in the middle of the day.
We had over three hours to wait at the airport, but we had lunch and did some people watching and the time passed quickly. The plane back to Cuenca was even smaller than the one we arrived on Thursday but it was fast and we were back in Cuenca and getting in a taxi about 30 minutes after boarding the plane. We got a taxi to our apartment and he took us on roads that we'd never been on before; that keeps happening to us here, we keep finding new streets, stores and restaurants.
We finally got back to the apartment around 7.30 this evening and it is so nice to be back to the cooler weather, no bugs, and no chance of having to get on a boat. The trip to Puerto Lopez was nice and I'm glad we got to visit the coast but we've done it and I don't want to do it again anytime soon.
It looks like they've had some rain here while we've been gone as Tomebamba is surging tonight, I'm going to go snuggle under the covers on our bed and listen to him roaring under our window.
Sorry for more moaning but I think I'm done now for a while!





Mike: A trip worth taking but not repeating! On to the Amazon! The boats will be small and you'll have to row.