Quito . . . My Final Destination . . . Almost . . .

HELLO!!!!!!! Well, I have a FINAL last flying home date - September 5th, arriving the 6th. That´s it. In a week, I´ll be home. What a realization . . .

Well, it´s not over yet. What have I been up to the last couple of days. I spent one more day in Puerto Lopez. Seb and I rented bikes and did a 24 K bike ride through the national park. We stopped and hung out on a beautiful beach. It was a nice, but tiring, day.

That night, we got on the bus to Quito. It was the worst overnight bus ride of my life. Our bus drivers were high on cocaine (which didn´t click in my head until around 4 a.m.) and they insisted on playing loud club tunes all night, driving insanely, and beeping at every car that passed. Meanwhile, Seb was sick and throwing up into paper bags in the aisle. Needless to say, I didn´t have a moment of sleep.

We arrived at around 530 in the morning. Since we had plans to stay with a friend of a friend of Sebs who works in the French embassy here, we just had to grab a cab to his apartment. His apartment is huge (although definitely a bachelor pad) and he has been very welcoming. Seb is in heaven speaking French and having French food, magazines, and movies around.

We grabbed a couple of hours of sleep and then headed out to explore Quito. It´s a very pretty, relatively small city set (as many SA cities seem to be) in a valley surrounded by mountains. I had to get my flight arrangements in order, so I spent some time doing that. Then we ran into some friends and had lunch with them. More exploring . . . Then Seb´s friend took us out to a leaving party for a friend. We had a good time but called it an early night as we were exausted from the night before.

Today we made an early start and headed to the old town of the city. It´s a really big section of the city and the old buildings and churches are just lovely. We walked around and visited some of the churches. Fun. Interesting. Relaxing. Now we´re off to see the sun set from a viewpoint at the top of one of the mountains. Dinner with Seb´s friend tonight. Then tomorrow, we might go to Banos for a couple of days.

That´s all for now. I can´t believe that this time next week, I´ll be home . . . Wow.