The Rest of the Story...

But no, its not Paul Harvey. Just finishing up my weekend adventure. On Sunday Micah and I took a Motorcycle taxi out to the Machalilla Park entrance. We then hiked through what's called tropical dry forest, for about 4 km. It was nice, and not too hot. The forest all seemed dead, but I guess when it gets rain it all blooms like crazy, and is really beautiful. It was dry now, and it almost looked like a forest fire had gone through. We saw several lizards, and on the beaches (the trail went to 3 or so) we saw lots of crabs. We wished we had known about the nice beaches on Friday, because we would have gone there, instead of the beach in town. Oh well, I won't complain. We got back to the main beach, where our taxi driver picked us up, only 10 minutes late (a miracle in Ecuador!!). We checked out of the hotel, grabbed some ice cream, and headed for the main street where we could catch a bus to Manta. The ride north got quite sunny and hot. At Jippi Joppa (pronounced 'Hippy Hoppa') the bus filled to standing room only, and it was pretty crowded for the rest of the trip.

We got to Manta and, following our Lonely Planet guide book, we got a room in a hostel right by the bus depot (not a great idea if you like peace and quiet), and then went and found their recommended restaurant, which was pretty good, if a little Americanized. Not having anything to do, and not wanting to be out after dark, I think I was in bed by 8. I sure did enjoy all the extra sleep I got on this vacation. We got up next morning, and couldn't get breakfast, because nothing was open, so we just took a cab out to the airport. The plane was on time, and we made our 45-minute hop back to Quito. I could see Chimborazo poking out of the clouds, but most of the other peaks weren't. We landed in Quito, caught a bus home, and then it was time to go to work. Sigh.... its so hard to get back into working mode after a vacation, but there's lots to do here. I imagine I'll be running pretty steady for the next two weeks, so I'm grateful for the quiet weekend that I could have.