Back from the Galápagos. Cuenca tomorrow!

A very early start for us this morning. A taxi arrived at 5.45 to take us, Bud and Gale to the port, where after having our bags rather cursorily checked, a water taxi dropped us off at the speedboat. The journey this time was better because the boat was much less crowded so there was more space and fresh air. On arrival at Puerto Ayora we were met by the G Adventures representative (I've forgotten his name now... sorry!), who asked Dave and me to meet him nearby at 9 and then took Bud & Gale to their next hotel. We said goodbye to them because we wouldn't see them again. It had been a pleasure sharing many of our Galápagos experiences with them.

Dave and I had some breakfast at a nearby restaurant; scrambled eggs, two rolls with cheese, coffee/ hot chocolate, juice and fruit salad with yoghurt.

At 9 we were put into a taxi to the ferry, on the other side of Santa Cruz.

Once on the ferry it took ages to leave; then on the other side there was another wait for the LAN bus to turn up. Even after it arrived and everyone got on, we had to sit there for ages waiting for it to depart to the airport. I started to get really worried that we would miss our flight. Other passengers, with a flight even closer than ours, complained, only to be told that we were waiting for another ferryload of passengers. Once the latter had arrived and got on and the bus finally left, we had only 30 minutes until our flight was supposed to depart! The bus journey took up further five minutes. On arrival we rushed to the check-in desk, only to be met by a 'CLOSED' sign... luckily for us there were three or four others who needed the same flight, who had their tour guide with them - she got the check-in girl to print boarding passes for them. After they'd gone through the girl printed precious boarding cards for us too - thank goodness! We rushed through the passport and baggage checks as quickly as we could (the terminal was tiny, which helped) and arrived at the boarding gate 15 minutes before the given departure time. Luckily for us, nobody had been allowed on the plane yet. We had made it!

I managed to get some half-decent photos of Baltra Island as we took off and of the River Guayas, rice fields and of Guayaquil itself as we descended. We were given some lovely little Ecuadorian snacks mid-flight.

Once we'd got back to my flat we rested until the evening, with only a trip out to find an internet café because the internet wasn't working properly at the flat for some reason. We had intended to tell our families about our engagement but by the time we got to one that had phone cabins, I thought it would be too late at night in the UK, so I just checked my email instead.

In the evening we had dinner with three of my former students at an Italian café near to the language school! They were from a class I'd been teaching until last week and this was their idea, something they wanted to do as a thank you to me. When they found out that Dave was with me they insisted that he come too. So we went and had a nice chat and some delicious pizza and dessert with them. At the end, they refused to let either me or Dave pay for our food! Very kind and generous of them.