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At 5:15 a.m. we were awakened by a marching band somewhere out on the street. We were no longer in the deep jungle, that much was obvious. It was a decent-sounding marching band, though; it didn't sound as if the instruments had been run over. The bass drum went BOOM BOOM BOOM!
After it passed, We tried to sleep some more. The sounds of the little industrial city made it difficult. We finally got up at 7:30. It was a good thing that we did, because at 7:35, a man came to the door to check the mini-bar. They certainly take the mini-bar very seriously at this place! Our clothing had dried overnight, and we gathered everything together and packed it for the flight to Quito. At 8:30, a cleaning woman arrived and wanted to clean our room. We told her we would be checking out in another half an hour. They certainly make it impossible to have a leisurely morning! We finished packing and texted Craig's brother Steve. I decided to leave my sneakers behind. They were very muddy and dirty, and someone here probably needed them more than I did. So I left them in the room when we went to the lobby at 9 o'clock. We were told that the American breakfast was included in our stay, so we sat down in the dining room and had juice, coffee, fruit, bread, and jelly. At 9:25, we saw Ñame through the window. I went out to meet him and he greeted me with a big smile. We settled our mini-bar bill at the desk. Ñame got a friend with a pick-up truck taxi to pick us up. Three other friends helped with our luggage and rode in the back of the truck. The airport was literally 5 minutes away from the hotel. As we walked in, Ñame gave me a seed necklace he had made with seeds collected from the mirador hike. We put our bags down to secure our place in line, took a seat, and Ñame said he'd be back before we got on the plane. We were seated in front of a desk for Icaro Airlines. All we could think of was Icarus (which was solidified by its logo of a little man wih wings), and that is not exactly a name that evokes confidence when flying. At 10 o'clock, they opened the Tame Airlines counter and Ñame came in and we said our goodbyes. We checked in and as we walked through security, Ñame peeked his head through the window and called out "Adios!" We called back and waved as he left with his friends. The group of birders from San Francisco who had been on our flight from Miami to Quito oh so many days ago were on our flight today also. What are the chances? They had been at Sacha Lodge for the entire time we had been in Otavalo, Archidona, and kayaking on the Shiripuno, and we were all returning to Quito on the same day. There were also a lot of businessmen in suits traveling on our flight, a reminder of the oil industry presence in the area. We had a 25 minute flight to Quito (11:00 - 11:25). After such a long boat and car ride yesterday, we were certainly happier to take a quick flight than to spend 5 more hours in the car. We picked up our luggage and Daniel met us and sent us on our way in the Adventure Life van. He said he would pick us up in the morning (even though we hadn't formally scheduled a transfer). I got a photo of modern statuary outside the airport; stylized brightly colored silhouettes of people. we were driven to Casa Aliso, where our dear Patrick met us outside to welcome us. We told him that we had to be picked up at 4 o'clock the next morning, and he asked if we would like to have box lunches to take to the airport since nothing would be open that early. Wow, how thoughtful! We readily agreed. He showed us to our upstairs Room 7 (the one we had stayed in on our first night in Quito). When we entered, we saw that the bag we had left behind was already in our room waiting for us. Patrick asked if we were going to get some lunch. We told him that we would shower first and then go next door to Clancy's for some food. He asked if we would like a glass of juice. That sounded perfect! We told him any kind of juice would be fine, but in the back of our minds we had visions of ice cold blackberry (mora) juice like Casa Aliso had served us at breakfast on our first stay. We started to organize our things in our room and soon Patrick was at our door with a tray bearing (you guessed it!) 2 frosty glasses of blackberry juice and an English language newspaper. “Mora!” Craig exclaimed. “Your Spanish is getting better!” joked Patrick. He asked if we needed any laundry done, even though it was long since past the time when they usually accepted same-day laundry requests. This was very kind of him, but at this point everything was dry and packed and we may as well just wait to wash it until we get home. Craig and I marveled at just how good Patrick is at his job. He made our return to Casa Aliso feel like a homecoming. He said that his shift was almost over, so we said goodbye and thanked him so much for making us feel so welcome. We packed our bags for our trip home tomorrow while we each took a nice shower. Then we headed out for lunch. Patrick's replacement at the front desk told us that Patrick had left free drink coupons for us. What a sweetie! We went next door to Clancy's. Craig got the shrimp cocktail and I got the fried calamari with two sauces. I got a piña colada and Craig got a Pilsener beer, compliments of Patrick. We toasted the end of a lovely trip. Craig enjoyed his steak with mushroom gravy and fries, and I enjoyed my ravioli with ricotta. After a liesurely lunch, we went back to the hotel. We used the computer in the lobby to type up a blog post about our time with the Waira Churis. We worked on it for over an hour and a half. Some other people arrived, waiting for the computer, so we let them use it and went back up to our room. A while later, I checked the lobby and the computer was free again. We took the opportunity to write up a blog post about kayaking the Shiripuno River. We went back to the room at 8 o'clock. I wrote in the journal and we watched some TV, going to bed by 8:30. As we turned off the light, the front desk called to see if we wanted an early morning wake-up-call. We had set our alarm for 3 a.m., so we requested a wake-up call as a back-up. View Larger Map |
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