03/05/00 Sunday - Long day on airplanes. Up at 3:45 to drive to Herriman for S&D then on to the airport. Met Bill, M&D in Dallas, had lunch, then flew on to Miami. A short wait then the final leg to Quito. Beautiful flying over the city--the lights reflect the terrain, all curves and hills. And they're not as garishly bright as the ones at home. Arrived approx midnight, met by a representative of Metropolitan Travel who arranged transportation to Los Alpes, and all fell into bed.

03/06/00 Monday - Woke to the usual roosters, but really a relatively quiet neighborhood this time. Bomb threats to the US embassy across the street necessitated closing roads close by so the taxis weren't caroling their two beeps at each intersection. Very comforting to find very little changed at Los Alpes. The sala is still filled with ferns and succulents and is still the place to congregate. In fact the Hostal has only improved with the addition of a skinny young kitty who jumps into your lap and begs to be played with. Showers were hot and pleasant. I forgot the way the water drains outside the shower itself to a drain in the bathroom floor. PLP & I joined M&D at breakfast around 7:30 and had wonderful coffee and toast with delicious marmalade. PLP had huevos revueltas (scrambies). The rest of our party trickled in and we chatted and drank coffee until a leisurely 9ish. Then we hit the shops.

Found all the sweaters, t-shirts, tagua nut figures, hats, postcards, notecards, gifts and chochki's (Debbie's word) we could possibly want. Had lunch in The Magic Bean accompanied by the house stout, which wasn't too bad and will probably be the last of the good beer here in Ecuador. Came back to the hotel around 4:30 for a rest period. It will probably be an early night since we will be picked up at 5:45 tomorrow morning for the ride to the airport and the flight to Guayaquil. We'd had some of our purchases delivered to the Hostal and repacked in order to take only what we needed to Galapagos (44lb wt limit). We had cocktail hour (beers & pistachios) in the Sala then had a lovely, leisurely dinner at the Hostal. (Dinner served from 7-9 & we were there from... 7-9!) Patti even managed to drink 3 glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon. Lots of laughs and good conversation! We all retired right after dinner.

To the Islands