The End. At last.

19 January 2007

I have to tell you about the last day of my Ecuador adventure before I leave for Cannes tomorrow, otherwise I can’t go. This is a rule I just made up, which I’d be quite happy to break, but seriously, isn’t it about time I wrapped up the adventure that took place 7 months ago? This is what happened on the 13th and 14th June last year, two days which kind of merged into one thanks to a long night-time transatlantic flight.

After a bit of a lie-in at our hotel – the first for nearly a fortnight -, we had our breakfast in the tiled dining area and then packed up our final bits and pieces and checked out, leaving our bags at reception. Following our tour guide Sofia’s recommendation, we headed to the Museo Nacional Banco Central Del Ecuador. As we entered the cool building, we met Stewart and Celestine from our group heading out, evidently having not had the lie-in that we had allowed ourselves.

The museum was full of interesting prehistoric and ancient artefacts, including a gold room full of intricate decorations and I wandered around from exhibit to exhibit. A young boy was being given a guided tour by a museum worker, who led him around the displays in the correct order at least, but recited all her spiel about 3 inches from the boy, with intense eye-contact the whole time.

I caught the attention of a group of Ecuadorian schoolchildren, who couldn’t make me out at all. They tried to ask Suzy about me, but Suzy didn’t have sufficient Spanish vocabulary to answer them. I think she just kept telling them that I was an adult and that it was all ok, really, it’s ok. The kids pushed forward one of their group as someone who could speak English, but judging by the boy’s silence and the look on his face, I think his classmates had somewhat overestimated his linguistic capabilities. Eventually the school group were gathered in the foyer to leave the museum and several of them found a gap in the screens separating us to call “hello!” and then “bye!” to me as I continued to make my way around the displays.

Suzy and I went upstairs to the exhibit of Catholic art, but it was a bit tedious. We atheists can only take so many crucifixions and Holy Virgins in one day, so we left before we ran too much of a risk of being struck down by a thunderbolt on our way out.

Back at the hotel, we ordered some lunch from the restaurant and chatted a little to an American couple who had been in the country just a couple of days. They were off on a Galapagos cruise too, so we were able to sit there all tanned and smug imparting our enthusiasm and knowledge. Oh, there’s nothing like a couple of Been-There-Done-Thats.

Sofia came to collect us and Celestine and Stewart, taking the four of us to the airport on an otherwise empty enormous coach. At the airport we all thanked her and pressed various denominations of bills into her hand before going through security to wait for our flight.

The flight from Quito to Madrid included an “everybody off” at Guayaquil at about 8pm. I was starving by this time and hoped that the layover wouldn’t take for ever. We weren’t hanging about too long before we were reboarded and the evening meal was handed out, which I remember tackling with gusto – lasagne in with the right hand, bite from the bread roll in my left hand… After the food, there wasn’t much to do and the rest of the flight was pretty long, boring and uncomfortable. However I guess I must have got some sleep – though it didn’t feel like it – as I missed two films that were shown onboard.

At Madrid, I finally had mobile reception again after twelve days without and found a missed call from John, possibly moments before. I sent him a text and he rang back for a chat, letting me know that they had cheered for Ecuador during their match against Poland – and that it was Fathers’ Day on Sunday!

At long last we were boarded for our flight from Madrid to Heathrow. We sat with a young guy who had been teaching English in Ecuador for the past 9 months – and who was certain he’d seen us in Quito the night before.

The last note in my travel notebook reads: “The captain has just informed us that Spain beat the Ukraine 4-0!”.

Olé!