Saying Good-Bye

Heading back to the mainland with the Backroads group was a bittersweet experience. We had the fun of one more early wake-up,

Good-bye Chiva!

Goodbye Isabella!

a last boat ride,

Our fearless leaders

and an airplane trip where we had a full-sized plane to ourselves for the hop over from Guayaquil to Quito. 

NOT our plane - our flight was delayed by an hour and a half

Phone booths!

Once back at the hotel, we viewed the sideshow that Ronn had put together of the trip, and relived the memories of all we had done together. We then wished a fond farewell to our guides.

The three families met for dinner (which extended to a two and a half hour meal due to the slowness of the kitchen - so glad we could afford to give that much time!), said goodbye to each other, with promises to write.

I can't wait to start planning our next adventure!

ps. While reading the drafts of these posts in the Galapagos (written primarily on plane and boat trips), 

Amit said to me "what's the point of writing your blog? You know that no one reads it.". I suppose the irony of her clamoring to read the blog even as I'm typing did not quite register.

While I don't have the skills to capture the richness of experiences either in words or in pictures, the act of writing this blog, and matching photos to words helps to memorialize those moments in my memories as well as in cyberspace. It's fun for me to go back and reminisce as I read past posts, and I do hope that my girls avail themselves of the opportunity to do so as well.

Beyond that, if someone else is entertained or benefits from these scribbles about our experiences, all the better.