Home from Ecuador

We took the shuttle from Rincon de Puembo to the Quito airport a little before 8 pm. We made it through check-in with no problems. The security staff at the airport was friendly and helpful. Our flight to Atlanta boarded on time and the five-hour flight was uneventful. We all slept some during the red eye flight before arriving in Atlanta. Our Global Entry status allowed us to get through security in Atlanta with no line. We remarked how valuable Global Entry is to us during international travel.

Our flight to Cincinnati was scheduled for 8:15 in concourse B so we met Whittingtons in concourse A as their 7:15 flight to Orlando was boarding.

Mary picked up a fruit parfait as a morning snack while we waited for our flight to board. The aircraft was completely full for the 8:15 am flight from Atlanta to Cincinnati and left Atlanta on time.

We arrived at the Cincinnati airport a little after 9:30 am, picked up our bags and headed for the ground transportation area. Probably for the first time ever, we got there as the shuttle for the Hilton was arriving so we made it back to the car in record time and made it back home before noon.

We did laundry and started catching up on things that we hadn’t done in the time we were gone. Although we had left the Galaxy Yacht on Saturday, we still felt the boat rocking for several days after we returned.

While it felt good to return to our routine, we will never forget our time in Ecuador. Everyone agreed that this was one of our best trips ever. The activity level of the outings was just right for us, and we got to see so many things that we have read about in National Geographic or watched on PBS nature specials. It was nice to just be immersed in nature. We were initially concerned about not having access to cell telephone signals and Internet, but it wasn’t a problem at all. In fact, it was quite pleasant to not hear about runaway inflation, plummeting stock markets, supply chain breakdowns and political bickering.

We did our best to identify and check off the variety of birds, mammals, reptiles and fish that we saw on the trip. I think that we did a pretty good job of identifying everything but the fish since we all saw so many different fish depending on where we happened to drift by while snorkeling.

We have already started discussing a location for our next adventure. Right now, I think the movement is toward sub-Saharan Africa, perhaps Kenya and Tanzania. There is also discussion of something in the Middle East.

Walking around Puembo

Because we turned in so early last night, we woke a little after 4 am. There had been a wedding at Rincon de Puembo last night, but the music died down not long after 9 pm. We did our German lessons early and started packing for the return trip home.

Outdoor space at Rincon de Puembo

Cindy called around 6:30 am to let us know to meet them at the hotel restaurant at 7. I went out for a short walk around the hotel and ran into some of our Galápagos group waiting to go on the cloud forest trip that we took two weeks ago. We hope they enjoy the trip with Richard as much as we did last week.

Breakfast was excellent with lots of fruits, juices and breads as well as scrambled eggs and rice. We were not tempted by the tripe stew.

Courtyard to Whittington's room

Mary and I brought our bags from our room to Mark and Cindy’s room since they had the room until we had to leave for the airport at 8 pm. We decided to walk around Puembo and started by going to the city square going past many churches in session. As expected, most churches were Catholic, but we walked past an Apostolic Church along the way. We were struck by the number of dogs on the streets of the town. We stuck our heads into a roller-skating rink and walked through a market where all manner of food was being prepared and sold. After our walk we returned to the hotel where Mark and I took a nap while Mary and Cindy played cribbage.

Lunch at Floralp Delicatessen

At 1 pm we decided to walk to a delicatessen that Patricia recommended, Floralp Delicatessen on the Puembo town square. Mark, Mary and I had hot ham and cheese on ciabatta bread, and Cindy had cold cuts with tomato and avocado. We sat outside in the restaurant’s courtyard under a large avocado tree and enjoyed our meals. On the way out we picked up a variety of desserts to eat back in the room. We met some men from Toronto who are cycling in Ecuador.

After leaving the deli we walked back to Whittington’s room to hang out until time to board the taxi to ride to the Quito airport at 8 pm.