Jen and Rebecca Say Goodbye to Their Cachalote Family (1/6/10)

Morning came early on Wednesday. Our excursion today consisted entirely of a panga ride thru Black Turtle Cove. The water in the cove was incredibly smooth, so we could see down into the water for several feet. The cove is known for being a nursery for many sharks and rays. It’s also a mating site for sea turtles. Sadly, we didn’t see any sharks, but several rays swam under our pangas.

Based on the level of activity that we witnessed, we were obviously visiting during turtle mating season. How many people can boast that they’ve seen a turtle-three-way?

(This is just one turtle, not the three-way. The turtles shouldn't have to be like Paris Hilton exposing their private time on the web!)

Our ride thru the Cove was a perfect end to our eight days on the islands.

After we finished our panga ride, we headed back to the Cachalote one last time to sail the short distance to the airport on Baltra. We said good bye to Juan, Maria Flora, and her daughter at the airport. Oddly, we were a little jealous of Juan’s new passengers. It was almost like he was cheating on us! The airport itself was barely a building – it was more of an open-air shelter with a tin roof – but what more do you need on the equator?

Once we arrived back in Quito we said goodbye to the rest of our group and then headed back to the Hotel San Francisco for our last two nights in Ecuador. When we checked in, the clerk was going to give us room number 4 (the same room we had before we went to the islands). Somehow, thru our limited Spanish, he realized what we were saying and switched us to a bigger, more awesome room at the other end of the hotel.

We spent the rest of our day wandering aimlessly about Quito and exploring the markets. We were both suffering through odd bouts of dizziness, so neither of us felt like being too active and we cut the night relatively short. But not before we did some fun market shopping and a very friendly man bought us some cafe con leche and chatted us up for an hour or two! Ecuadorians are friendly. Or at least this one was. I think he wanted to practice his English on pretty American girls...