Galápagos Day 8: The Interpretation Center, and Farewell

Our Total Itinerary

Top Row: Dave, Angela, Gary, Bart. Bottom Row: Richard, Dee, Jennifer

“Now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain…” so sung Frank Sinatra and others in a wistful moment of remembrance, and I think we all knew how Frankie felt as we faced the swan song of our incredible 8-day adventure in the Galápagos. It began like any other day – waking to the sunlight, rolling out of bed to the smells of the awesome food brewing in Edi’s kitchen, talking with our fellow passengers one more time. But this time we knew this was the last time, and so we treaded slowly, trying to savor each final moment aboard the Princess. But the time came to disembark for the final time, and we headed out, by panga as always, to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, a familiar sight by now. Our morning excursion was a rather ironic one for our last day: going to the Interpretation Center, where we were to learn the history of the islands and the development of animal life, human life, exploitation, and the rest of the crazy stories that tell the tale of the Galapagos.

By now it was like going to a museum in our hometown, as the islands, pictures of animals, and history seemed very familiar to all of us, and in a way it was a great way to sum up all that we had experienced over the past 7 days. Again, we treaded slowly through the museum, side by side with all our friends. And then at 9:00, we all convened one more time with Enrique...

...who directed us back to town, where we were free to wander the streets in search of souvenirs, soft-serve ice cream, and a final laugh at the goofy sea lion colony that groaned and retched and slothed next to the city. After successfully finding t-shirts and snapping final photos of the city, the 10 of us that were leaving the islands said goodbye to Elizabeth and the young Israeli couple, Asa and Lihi, before boarding the bus to the airport.
At the airport, we checked in, said a fond farewell to Enrique, and headed off to wait for the flight, which was supposed to leave at 12:45. But, true to the dependable travel that Ecuador is known for (ha…), we found out that our airplane wasn’t even going to arrive until 2:00pm! That only meant one thing: POKER! We played, using shredded paper as poker chips, and pined away the hours in the pastime that brought us together on the boat.

Eventually we got hungry and ventured out to eat an almuerzo in a nearby restaurant. It was a sweet travel delay, as it allowed us to spend a couple more hours socializing with our friends, but soon enough, our flight arrived, and we all boarded the plane to sail off into the East towards the mainland. After an hour and a half flight, we arrived in Guayaquil, where we said goodbye to Gary, Richard, and Ohad. The rest of us flew the rest of the too-short distance back to Quito. On a side note, the skies around Cotopaxi were clear! Take that you reclusive mountain – we finally snuck up on you and caught you without clouds! Seems as if we indeed got the last laugh.

Finally, we arrived in the twilight hours back in the homebase – Quito. The seven of us that remained: Bart, Dee, David, Angela, Aisha, Jennifer, and I, sat together at baggage claim, collected our bags, went en masse out the door with our bags in tow. And it was there that we said our final goodbyes and parted ways. Jennifer and I boarded our taxi, which shuttled us back to our homestay. As weird as it is to think of Quito this way, we were back to reality, with only two short days left in Ecuador before our return to the United States on Thursday. But what an exhilirating feeling, to have lived 8 days with amazing people in an amazing place! And we have tried to share with y’all at home as much of our aventura as we can through this blog, but there will always be more to tell, and our bittersweet departure on Thursday will be buoyed by our enthusiasm to share with you face to face all the in-betweens and the small remembrances that have given our lives so much color!

And to our friends from the Princess of Galapagos, we had the time of our lives! Keep in touch, and we hold out hope that someday we may meet again…