A night view of the dining hall at Mashpi Lodge
Today was mostly devoted to getting back to Quito in preparation for the next leg of our trip. After breakfast, we made a visit to the Science Lab at Mashpi. One of the biologists, a woman named Chiara, told us lots about the research they are doing into forest health and biodiversity. It was really interesting and impressive to see how devoted they are to that work.
Mick and I with Juan Carlos, guide extraordinaire
We had one last delicious lunch and said our goodbyes to the people there who we had spent the most time with. Our Quito guide Wilson and driver Mauricio arrived to pick us up a little before 3:00 and off we went. Today’s pictures are of the dining area at the Mashpi lodge, and us with Juan Carlos. He is the one who led all the expeditions we took and taught us so very much about the Cloud Forest.
We had a lot of fun on that ride, sharing music back and forth. Mick and I love a lot of Latin music (that we got to know back in our days as Zumba instructors), and it turns out we have some common taste with Wilson and Mauricio in terms of what we like. We were all delighted at one point that two Ecuadorians and two Americans were listening over the internet to salsa music by a Japanese salsa band! Wilson is particularly fond of cumbia music and loved Cumbia del Saxofon by Chicos de Barrio, which was one of my suggestions to for us listen to.
Tonight we are staying at a hotel close to the airport, as we catch our plane to the Galápagos Islands early in the morning and this is convenient.
It was a long day, followed by not much sleep, but now we are in the Galapagos !