Day 16 - Sun June 3, 2007 – San Cristobel to Quito – Bob: 21, Kathy: 53

Today was mostly just a transition day. We ate breakfast, disembarked and got back on the Panga one last time. When we arrived on shore, there was a sea lion lying on a bench that said Galapagos and as we turned to leave, she sleepily waved goodbye.

We headed back to the airport. We waited for a very long time at the airport, but eventually we were on a plane heading back to Quito.

We collected our luggage and took a taxi to our hotel for our last night. We asked the taxi driver how much money (“Quanto”) and he said, “Ocho” which is Spanish for eight dollars. We were outraged. We read him the riot act and argued with him until he finally backed down and agreed to the normal five (“Cinco”) dollars. We were still peeved, though, because you can guarantee he's out there taking advantage of every tourist he can.

We spent the afternoon walking back through the same handicraft bazaar we had found during our previous time in Quito. We bought our obligatory representation of God for this trip: a carved wooden statue of the Virgin Mary. It only cost me twenty-three dollars, and it's beautiful.

We took a taxi to the old town again and went on a horse and carriage ride.

Coincidentally, the two passengers getting off the carriage were from our boat, the Flamingo! They must have had the same idea.

We also visited a few more churches and got several more photos.

The second church was beautiful and had an interesting ceiling.

Then we took a taxi back to our hotel, walked to a nice restaurant where we ate a nice inexpensive dinner. We ordered two pisco sours, which is a famous Andean alcoholic drink. However, Kathy didn't like hers, so she gave it to me to drink. I'm glad I wasn't driving! She ordered a large bottle of beer instead.

Then it was back to the hotel. We fly home very early tomorrow morning.