Day Nine and Ten, the long trip home

We awoke on the last day heading back to Baltra, Ecuador, Miami and home. Lindblad had reserved the VIP lounge for us to wait for our plane, which was very nice. We went back to the same Hilton in Guayaquil that we stayed at on our way to the Galapagos, and we walked down the street to a "barbecue" restaurant that the tour guide recommended. Barbecue is ubiquitous for charbroiled, not the BBQ that I am used to in GA! It was basically a steak place, but it was very nice. We had difficulty ordering, since we are very limited in our Spanish, and they were limited in their English. I finally got the waiter to make recommendations for us, and all of us ordered one of the two recommendations. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera for this final Last Supper, and I missed a picture that I will always regret: Jane and Babette, who are tiny, dainty ladies ordered the fillet Mignon. When it was served it was the entire fillet, like you would buy from Sam's or Costco. It came on a tabletop grill, and basically you allowed it to cook to your liking. The steak was HUGE sitting in front of them! They made a brave attempt, but I believe they still didn't eat half of what was served to them. Mark and I ordered a different steak, but again, they were these huge inch thick cuts of steak, for about $10 apiece. The beef was superb and we ate till we could hardly move!

The next morning was another early wake up call, breakfast buffet, and a few good byes before we headed back to the airport. Again, we were shuffled through the airport in rapid order, had a little bit of time to shop, then it was time to board. Mark and I had several hours to wander around the Miami airport again, then finally, we were headed home.

Here is a picture of me with two wonderful ladies that we met. Our group on the trip had two Marie's, two Barbara's, and two John's. I made the comment that I was pretty sure there wouldn't be two Alice's, when a minute later Alice Number Two showed up! She was traveling with the mother of our Head Naturalist on the ship. I didn't have the nerve to ask them their ages, but they were some very spunky women. They hiked, swam and snorkeled with the rest of us. These two, along with all the other women in Jane's group were quite inspirational for me in how to grow old...stay busy and active!

Here I am with Margaret Fowler and Alice Waddington.

And here is what I fondly referred to as Mark's Entourage...the group of Jane and Babette's friends that gathered for this expedition. I look forward to future outings!