It
feels good to be leaving this place and finding something new. I got up and had
a good chat with Mike and was really good to hear about all the antics that
Luella is getting up to. I then chatted to my folks who were enjoying the long
weekend in Betty's. I even had a quick chat to Vanessa who was in Cairo and had
just been to see the pyramids and also visited King Tut.
With
the catching up out of the way I got down to packing before having a walk and
saying my farewells to Kristin and my faithful beach hammock. I did have to lie
in the hammock for a while and read to give it a proper farewell. I even found
a cute chocolate Labrador to play with. After building up a bit of a sweat I
went for a quick swim before heading for a shower and finding a new little
place to grab some lunch. It was a little local place run from the guys house.
Lunch
wasn't the best but I was full and happy as it included a beer and an ice cream.
I then grabbed my book and made my way down to the beach but unfortunately my
hammock was taken so I sat on the beach reading before I made my way to chat
with Sami a little. While chatting to Sami Blanca and Bruno reappeared as I
hadn't seen them for the past day. It seems like they knew I was leaving and came
to say goodbye.
I
was getting a little worried as it was getting late. I was planning to leave on
the bus at about 10am but George (another guest in the hostel) lives in Manta
and he offered to give me a lift and we planned to leave at 2. Departure time
came and went and there was no sign of George. It was too late for me to start
with getting a bus and at 5 we finally got away and were in Manta at about 7
after a very scenic drive along route de spondylus.
George
very kindly dropped me at the bus terminal where I started looking for a bus
but there were none running that direction so I would have to go via
Puertoviego and then back to Bahia. It was a very roundabout way and also it
would take a lot of time so decided to cab it as I was already running late. It
was a little pricey but the other option was to stay a night in Manta which
wasn't appealing.
The
drive was very different to the one with George as the driver and I had a
conversation in very bad Spanish with the taxi driver while he was driving fast
and breaking all the rules (like most Ecuadorian drivers). We even had to find
an alternative route as there was a bridge that was closed.
Eventually
we got there and found the place I was working at. Here I met the team before
taking a walk to get some beers to enjoy. The beers went down well and we even
had some left over rum which got the conversation going. After a little while
Isabela and Pedro went to bed and Joel and I chatted for a while before I
decided to head to bed.
I
set up my bed and got my noisy fan set up before finishing a short story and
calling it a night.