The bus pulled into the main bus terminal just about on time, and I easily caught a taxi to the Loro Verde. With my improving Spanish, the taxi driver didn't even try to overcharge me (much), and I ended up spending half what the ride usually took.

I got a single room at the Loro Verde again. Taking off for Venezuela tomorrow. Today, I needed to ship the carpet I bought in Banos home and do some other shopping. I needed a guidebook for Venezuela, some first aid stuff I used up on the mountain, and so on.

Halfway through the day, I came back to the hotel, and the manager told me the "rubia blanca" was here, and that he let her into my room. Hm. We talked it out, and decided to let the hard feelings go seeing as we were going our own ways tomorrow anyway. She briefly tried to tempt me with the idea of travelling together to Columbia, but we both knew it was a bad idea. We'd just end up killing each other at this rate. (Good thing, too, a couple weeks later, a bad earthquake hit Columbia, and many people were hurt.)

I found a box at a liquor store, packed up my carpet and a few smaller things I didn't want to carry anymore, and took it to the regular post office. DHL wanted over US$120 to ship it. That was many times more than I paid for the carpet, so I decided to risk the local postal system. A big risk, seeing as none of my postcards ever showed up. But as the military guy in the post office said, why would anyone there want an Ecuadorian carpet? It arrived a couple months later, and that carpet now adds some great color and life to my living room.

After an early dinner, I said my first good-byes to Michele and turned in early. I had to get up for a very early flight tomorrow morning. *snore*

Email me at nomad3 @ GoneWalkabout.com