My hostel for my last night in Tena, Los Yutzos, was a dud. It was noisy, musty, and the "free" breakfast was coffee and bread. You had to pay for any extras like an egg or piece of ham. Lonely Planet guide books are liars. But I woke up to a gorgeous cloudless sky and all was forgiven.
George the jungle driver pulled out of traffic when he saw me on the street with my suitcase. There was no way he was going to let me walk to the bus terminal. He insisted he drive me there in his truck and give me a proper send-off. It was kinda nice having someone say goodbye to me in front of everyone at the terminal. The ride was a short four and half hours and when we arrived in Quito the sun had followed us.
Quito is where the airport is, so I walked up to the window at Aerogal and bought a ticket for a flight that would be leaving in 3 hours. It all worked out very smoothly and before I knew it, I was on flight 1725 flying high over snow-capped volcanoes. It was an unusually full flight for a Wednesday evening-- me and the whole Cuenca soccer team!!!! I got to sit next to one of the players and on the other side of him was one of the coaches. A little girl walked up to our row and got their autographs. I wanted one too but I was too shy to bug them. When we landed and I was riding to my hostel here in Cuenca I heard the announcer on the radio say that the team had just landed at the airport returning from Quito. I wanted to grab my taxi driver and say "I was on their flight!!" Then I remembered that Julia, the Angelina Jolie look-a-like from my jungle hike, got to ride in the elevator with Enrique Iglesias in Guayaquil. Her story beats mine.
The driver dropped me off at Hostel Tourista del Mundo on Calle Larga in a very popular and central area of town. This is a place not in the guidebooks and I like it a lot. The owner,Wilson, is super friendly and gave me my own set of 5 keys to different doors and the grand tour which consists of two huge buildings. I have to share a bathroom with one other guest but the hostel is just $6 a night and I could roller-skate in my room it´s so big. The fourth floor affords beautiful views of the city.
After figuring out what key went to which door I decided to go out for a small bite to eat. After walking to just the next corner and getting more stares than I cared for, I realized what the locals were staring at. First of all I looked raggedy from all the traveling I´ve done today. Secondly, I was still wearing my flip-flops and a necklace made out of jungle seeds and animal bones that I bought in Tena. Ecuadorians from the mountains are very formal with some of the men actually wearing suit pants and women wearing dress shoes and elegant wool wraps. They stared at me like I was wearing the animal bone necklace through my nose. I immediately went back to my room and put on something more appropriate.
I ended up eating at some weird Ecuadorian version of Applebees. I didn't want to venture too far from my hostel since it was dark. My waitress, who never even looked me in the eye, pointed to some strange contraption in the middle of my table. It was like a remote control or the buttons you push when you need the stewardess on a plane. "Push it when you need something or the bill", she said. She brought me a cold nasty piece of pizza and the wrong drink. I pushed the button and she never came back.
I miss Tena...
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