Our day started by sleeping in, which was nice. We had some heavy, heavy rain and some thunder last night that sounded so awesome, I recorded it. I also recorded sounds of the jungle the night before. What great sounds to sleep to. Although we wondered what we were getting ourselves into the first night we arrived in the Jungle, it ended up being one of our favorite parts of the trip so it is bitter-sweet to say goodbye.
We had breakfast at 8 with our group. Our group was great! There was our guide, Juan from Ecuador, Corrie from Canada who was a perfect fit for Connie and I. There was a couple, Wiclo from Finland and Minna from Holland that now live in Finland. Then there was Shaun who was from Manchester, England and Sergio from Guadalajara, Mexico who had met earlier in their travels and were traveling some together. And of course, then Connie from California and myself from Minnesota. I find it just awesome when you meet a group of people, from all over the world, that all get a long so well. They were all trying to talk us into staying longer! We would have loved to, but also were excited for the rest of our agenda while in Ecuador.
Promptly at 10, we were back in the canoe for our 2 hour ride back to the reserve where we would meet our driver to bring us back to Lago Agrio. The 2 hours went surprisingly fast. It almost didn't feel like enough time to take it all in for the last time. Once back at the reserve, we ate a quick boxed lunch as we waited for our driver. A random funny while we were waiting, there were a couple military men that requested a picture with Connie and I. Of course, we obliged.
Now back in the pickup with the same cute, short, old man who doesn't speak a lick of English. I think what I liked about him so much was that he reminded me of my dad. Made me feel dad was close. Made me smile.
Once to Lago Agrio, we had about 5 hours to kill before heading to the bus station. We paid a hotel $1 to hold our bags so we didn't have to lug them around. We then walked around the town for a while and through the markets they had going on. I probably would have shopped more, especially for shoes as they had an over abundance of shoes. I wanted to buy shoes for both Spencer and Billy, but had no idea what sizes to by as their sizes are different than ours. I was actually a little bummed. It would have been easy if I would have had internet access but there were few places that we had service.
The craziest thing we saw here.... we saw a motorcycle hit another motorcycle which also happened to be the police. The crash sounded bad, but they both got up and were OK. Although, the cop was less than happy, as you could imagine.
After we tired from walking around, we found a place to grab a bit to eat and just reminisce about the trip and our last few days in the jungle. It was nice to sit an relive everything that had happened so far. We both felt it seemed like forever ago we first arrived because we had done so much. We also felt like it went too fast, as we had so many other things we wanted to do before heading home that we just couldn't fit in the 9 days we were there. We have a list started for what to do when we make it back!
We then headed to the bus station to catch our 9:20 bus. Another overnight on the bus. Let's hope this one goes smoother than the last....
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