We are up at 6 am (and no tea in bed so functioning is not easy for me) and down for breakfast at 6.30 am because we have to leave early in order to get the car back.
We are hoping to get some more beautiful pictures of the national park on our way back are disappointed as it is grey and cloudy when we leave. At first I think it is just that the cloud hasn’t been burned off by the sun yet, but as the morning develops and the cloud stays, I just realise it is a miserable day!
Photo: What a grey day
Even through the grey murk though, I am still spellbound by the beauty and the range of flora, fauna and temperature as we go descend the Andes. In the middle of the national park you go from being above the tree line where nothing except very short scrubby grass and thorny plants grow, to fir trees (so much so that at times It looks like we could be in the Alps), to huge clumps of pampas grass and deciduous looking trees, to dripping wet tropical rainforest. Mind you, everything is dripping wet this morning.
Photo: Pretty pampas grasses line the ‘roads’
Everything possible is covered with thick, black plastic sheeting. Whoever manufactures this stuff must make a fortune in Ecuador. The houses on the mountains are covered with it, the locals cover themselves with it and there are many areas of newly laid concrete covered with it. However, on the roads, most of it has blown into clumps around the rocks that have been placed to hold it down and has the unfortunate appearance of rows and rows of body bags. Not a good look.
The mountain road is still treacherous, probably more so with all the rain pouring off the rocks. We pass literally hundreds of waterfalls, some over gullies in the rocks which look beautiful, and others which bring down tons of orange/red earth and just look like the beginnings of mud slides. And the rain is actually light as we are in the dry season; goodness only know what it is like when it rains hard in the wet season.
Photos: The main road over the Andes!
Even in the mountains, and even with the road conditions, the driving is a real free-for-all. People overtake approaching bends in the road with no idea what is coming the other way. Sometimes there are three lines of cars or the road is so bad in one direction that cars just go on the other side, switching from one side to the other in mad zigzags to avoid the potholes (potholes? – craters more like!!). No one uses their indicators. I am so glad Mike is driving.
We reach the bottom of the mountains without mishap, although the car looks like it has had a mud bath. Almost immediately we are back in the middle of the banana plantations, then rice fields, then corn fields, then more banana plantations.
Photos: Working paddy fields
Photo: Houses on stilts in the paddy fields 
Photo: Banana heaven
Photo: Roadside fruit and vegetable vendors
The ground must be so fertile here. By the sides of the roads are countless shacks selling fruit, vegetables and spit roast pigs.
Photo: Roast pig anyone?
Photos: Condors (or condor-like birds) taking a rest
We arrive at Guayaquil airport an hour early as amazingly there is little traffic. This is the last day of carnival and people are still out and about with buckets of water, water pistols and foam spray. (Apparently the Government is trying to stop this practice of throwing water over everybody because it wastes so much – obviously this is not working!!)
We find a taxi to take us back to Puerto Lucia but he wants $80. We tell him we only paid $60 on the way out and eventually settle on $70. We would possibly have waited to get a better price but one taxi had already turned us down without even discussing price as he didn’t want to go that far.
We clamber in and two miles down the road we stop and he transfers us to his dad’s taxi. Obviously he didn’t want to go that far either. Although he has to ask directions a few times, he does eventually get us to our destination. It must have been the dangly things hanging off his rear mirror that helped him – a real holy trinity – Jesus, Mary and Garfield!
The afternoon is spent doing the laundry. Loads of it. It seems sensible to do it while we can use the free water here, and hopefully the soapsuds will help to disperse some of the oil in the water around here every time I empty the machine!
In the evening we are invited for drinks and nibbles by the Yacht Club, and an informal prize giving is held, and are given an update on the status of the yacht, Bristol Rose. This yacht, when leaving Panama, had their spinnaker rope caught around their propeller in the middle of the sea and in the middle of the night, and were left drifting 80 miles off-shore for nearly two days. They have now been successfully towed back to Panama and are being fixed. A very nasty experience for the family crew.
We are all tired after a long day and have an early night, although I do another load of washing first!
All in all, we have a fabulous trip into a very small part of the interior, and I feel we now have a little taste of Ecuador, much more so than if we had just stayed on the coast. It is a country with a lot to offer to people wishing to explore a little off the beaten track. I have to admit that going away from the heat and humidity of the coast is wonderful. It is lovely to feel cool for a change and to have smooth hair as well - when I straighten it, it stays straight! But it is lovely to come back to the boat and sleep in my comfortable bed, one in which we don’t roll together in the middle – not that I mind rolling around in bed with my husband but not when I am trying to get to sleep!!
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