Last Day

We made the long journey back to Quito: 6 am canoe ride to a mile hike to a 2 hour motorized canoe ride to a car to a plane to the city. Then an Uber to our lovely hotel, where the proprietress let us check in early. We rested and Phil went out in a downpour to visit the National Basilica. 

Dinner was at what our proprietress claimed is the best restaurant in Ecuador, Somos. I didn’t know that it was the best when I chose it; we were just excited by the idea of guinea pig dumplings. They were exquisite—-everything about the restaurant, from cocktails to dessert, was fabulous. 

Ah, the joy of a long night's sleep! We woke refreshed, though slightly unwell due to the Quito pollution and elevation, breakfasted leisurely (no 5 am jaunt in the jungle!) and ubered to El Panecillo, an aluminum mosaic statue of the Virgin of Quito that stands nearly 140 feet high overlooking the city. The vistas were glorious, and we climbed up in the statue, gasping and wheezing, to admire the stained glass and still more views.

Then we walked down to the Metropolitan Cathedral to see the famous Last Supper with guinea pig (it’s on the serving tray) and nativity with llama. We’d missed the Last Supper when we went before — and it turns out that was because Phil had mistaken the church of Santo Domingo for the Metropolitan Cathedral. Quito has a LOT of churches.

Back to the Casa Anabela, which allowed us to stay as long as we needed. Then to the airport, back to JFK, and home--by 4 am, we hope.*  **

Ecuador has been marvelous, full of challenge and adventure, pleasure and exhaustion, astonishing animal life and gracious, kind people who have forgiven our nearly nonexistent Spanish (though Ben saved the day several times with remnants of high school language class). We’ll be glad to be home, but we’re very glad we went.

THE BIRDS WE SAW

Galapagos                                                  

Darwin’s Finch                                           

Chilean Flamingo                                      

Common Moorhen       

Brown Pelican

Great Frigate Bird

Magnificent Frigate Bird

Long-tailed Mockingbird

Blue-footed Booby

Nazca Booby

Grey Gull

Swallow-tailed Gull

Lava Gull

Great Blue Heron

Cattle Egret

Shearwater

Tropicbird

Galapagos Yellow Warbler

Andes

Salvin’s Curassow

Blue Grey Tanager

Ecuadoran Black Vulture

Redheaded Barbet

Great Thrush

Grassland Yellow Finch

Brown Inca Hummingbird

Violet-tailed Sylph

Booted Racquet Tail

Violet-headed Hummingbird

Green-Crowned Brilliant

Velvet-purple Coronet

Emerald Toucanet

Amazonia

White-tailed Toucan

Bronze -winged Amazon Parrot

Blue-headed Parrot

Black-headed Parrot

Many-banded Aracari

Chestnut-eared Aracari

Cobalt-winged Parakeet

Dusky-headed Parakeet

Russet-headed Oropendola

Crested Oropendola

Palm tanager

Opal-crowned Tanager

Opal-rumped Tanager

Blue-grey Eastern Tanager

Green and Gold Tanager

Turquoise Tanager

Silver-billed Tanager

Gilded Barbet

Back-tailed Tityra

Piratic Flycatcher

Flame-Crested Flycatcher

Great-crested Flycatcher

Grey-capped Flycatcher

Great Tinamou

Ringed Kingfisher

Amazon Kingfisher

Pygmy Kingfisher

Hoatzin (stinky turkey)

Violaceous Jay

Lesser Kiskadee

Greater Ami

Green Honeycreeper

Roadside Hawk

Plumbeous Kite

Snail Kite

Double-toothed Kite

Laughing Falcon

Crested Owl

Yellow-tailed Woodpecker

Cream-colored Woodpecker

White-winged Swallow

Black-winged Swallow

Neo-tropical Palm Swift

Fruit Crow

Snowy Egret

Boat-billed Heron

Pied Plover

Yellow-rumped Cacique

Oriole Blackbird

Moriche Oriole

Spangled Cortinga

Tropical Kingbird

Black-faced Dacnis

THE OTHER STUFF WE SAW

Reptiles and Amphibians

Galapagos Land Iguana

Galapagos Marine Iguana

Galapagos Tortoise

Yellow-footed Amazon Tortoise

Volcano Lizard

Caiman Lizard

Black Caiman

Grey Sea Turtle

Green Sea Turtle

Yellow Spotted Amazon Turtle

Poison Dart Frog

Smoky Jungle Frog

Pacific Big-mouthed Frog

Rain Frog

Slender-legged Tree Frog

Mammals

Galapagos Sea Lion

Amazon River Otter

Agouti

Fishing Bat

Four-eyed Opossum

Common Opossum

Spider Monkey

Squirrel Monkey

Capuchin Monkey

Howler Monkey

Owl Monkey

Dusky Titi

Some Fish and Crustaceans

Black-tipped reef Shark

Galapagos Shark

Common Ray

Sally Lightfoot Crab

Insects, Bugs, Etc.

Galapagos Scorpion

Leaf-cutter Ant

Bullet Ant

Scorpion Spider

Wolf spider

Golden Orb Spider

Blue Morpho Butterfly

Owl-eye Butterly

Tiger Butterfly

Imperial Moth

Flat-shelled Snail

Amazon Millipede

Amazon Walking Stick

Flying Walking Stick

Various Katydids

Various Grasshoppers

*It is 9:48 pm and we are still at the Quito airport. Our original flight, nonstop to JFK, broke, and Avianca replaced a 700 passenger plane with a 120 passenger plane, bumping the other 580. Utter chaos ensued. A kind woman — not an Avianca employee, they were all hiding — told us that passengers were being offered a choice of flying to Bogota and overnighting there before continuing to New York, or flying out 24 hours later. She also told us that some people who’d been bumped the day before still hadn’t gotten home, and that on Saturday the entire airport was closing for an undetermined period to repave the runways. So we bought tickets home on Delta thru Atlanta, arriving at JFK 12 hours later than expected. This hasn’t happened to us for decades, so I suppose we were due, but it still sucks. Hate Avianca, do not hate Ecuador. (But really, who closes an entire airport and cancels all the flights just to repave the runways?)

**We made it, only 12 hours (and considerable dollars) later! We did get to see a very drunk lady get hauled off the plane in Atlanta after loudly predicting the plane's crash and insisting she was en route to Atlanta when she was in Atlanta. She went peaceably. I will spend many hours this weekend on the phone with Avianca trying to get my money back.