The order of the afternoon was hot showers and re-working the bags. We decided to have an early supper outside the hotel so walked to a pizza place that we could see across the park. Shared a nice thin crust pizza – somewhat different to what we are accustomed to but quite delicious and filling. Then we topped it off with tiramisu for dessert.

• Getting Started
• Lovable sea lions, silly birds and blushing iguanas
• New people, new sights, new challenges
• Good-bye to the Galapagos
• A couple days in Quito
• Ecuador Mainland
• Travel tips
• Galapagos Journal, text only
• Ecuador bird photos

Oct. 12: We slept better this night but have realized that we are again dealing with being at 9,200 feet in altitude after having spent eight days at sea level.

Edwin picked us up at 9:15 a.m. and we headed to El Pannecilo where there is a statue of the Virgin of Quito overlooking the city. All the guide books warn of pickpockets and thieves being prevalent in this area but we only saw the stall vendors and a few others visiting the overlook and statue. Perhaps it was because we were there in the middle of the week and the middle of the morning. There is probably more activity on weekends and at night. The statue is a metal copy of a small wooden one that was carved by an indigenous artist, Legarda. The original is in the National Museum. This virgin is patterned after the description in Chapter 12 of Revelations.

The relatively new botanical gardens was next on our list. Edwin had never been there either so he enjoyed the visit as much as we did. The orchid house is fantastic and well worth a visit. The gardens are small but we spent more than an hour taking in all the different parts as well as seeing a few birds that were enjoying the nectar and seeds produced by the plants.

A supermarket was our next stop - I wanted to get some packets of the toasted corn to take home. I would have loved to just meander up and down every aisle looking at all the products but we wanted to take Edwin to lunch and needed to keep watch on our time.

Edwin found us a really nice cevicheria not far from the hotel. We all had bowls of ceviche which was delicious. The place was very clean and lovely. We even discussed going back there for dinner but it didn’t happen.

It was hard to tell Edwin good by because we had come to love him during our time on the mainland. He is such a nice person as well as an excellent driver and spotter.

Later that afternoon we decided to walk again on Rio Amazonas and got caught in a downpour. We took shelter in a bank entrance during the worst of it but still got pretty wet. Came back to our room, dried out and then went down to the lobby only to find Charlie sitting in the waiting area. It was great to have a few minutes with him again before he and his new group headed out to do some shopping. He was very pleased to learn that I had managed all the hikes when we were in the Galapagos. Mercedes arrived at 6 p.m. to tell us that a fellow named Augusto would pick us up at 4:15 a.m. to take us to the airport tomorrow.

We had a light supper and decided to try to get to sleep early. We had repacked our luggage the day before so there wasn’t too much preparation needed.

Oct. 13: True to form, we did not sleep very much. Up at 3:30 a.m., down to the desk at 4, paid our bill and Augusto arrived. Traffic was nil! We made it to the airport in less than 30 minutes and began the process of getting to the Continental check in desk. The gauntlet is different in each country.

Augusto was able to walk us to the entrance to the building but go no farther. At that point we had to show our tickets and passports to the guard at the door. Once we got 10 feet in the door we had to show them again in order to get into a line. The next person who checked the tickets and passports also made the decision as to whether luggage would be hand searched. Thankfully we did not get selected for that “honor” and were allowed to get into the actual check in line at that time! Once the agents showed up, check in went quickly, and we were directed to the line where we paid our exit fee and had stamps placed on our boarding passes.

Then it was time to begin the security/immigrations/security gauntlet. The first person only wanted to see our boarding passes, then immigration checked our passports, kept the entrance slips we had been issued the day we arrived and stamped our passports. After that we proceeded to the security area with the scanners for hand luggage. We were told to remove our shoes and belts. I tried to explain about my artificial knee but they could have not cared less that I set off the machine! Once our carry-on luggage and shoes and belts went through the scanner we were waved on our way... go figure!

At the gate another security person took a portion of our boarding passes and checked our passports. If we needed to leave the boarding room for any purpose, we had to surrender that small part of our boarding pass to the security guard as well as our passport. This was necessary even to go to the bathroom. We got them back upon returning.

The flight to Houston was uneventful and not full so we ended up with a seat between us and were able to sleep a little. We arrived on time and went through customs with ease. The flight to Denver was full but there were no problems. Gathered up our luggage and waited for the bus to Boulder. Once there, we were picked up and transported to our home by our good friend, Annie Smith.

It was hard to come down off the wonderful high we had experienced on this trip to Ecuador, but looking at the pile of dirty laundry brought me back down to earth rather quickly.

Again, we must thank Mercedes and Xavier of Neblina Forest for making this trip of a lifetime come true for us. They really did a great job of taking care of us and will do the same for you. And without Charlie Gomez as our guide and companion and our friends Mary and Jack Dodge and Marco Morales it would not have been the same. I highly recommend traveling with friends in a small group. We certainly hope to do this again in the not too distant future.

Click thumbnails for larger versions

The Virgin of Quito, who overlooks the city from El Pannecilo

The relatively new Quito Botanical Gardens ...

... and two of the varieties of orchids found there.