LAST HOURS IN EL ORIENTE

Today has been kinda sad for me. It´s my last day here in the Napo province. I started off with breakfast at Cafe Tortuga where everyone knows my name. Then I went back to the hostel to pack. Unfortunatley the place I´ve been staying at this whole time was completely booked for tonight so I got kicked out. Guido put me up in his other hotel, Los Yutzos for $15. It´s supposedly more fancy, but now I don´t have a river view and my windows don´t even have screens so I doubt I´ll even open the window for fresh air. It does offer breakfast though, which will be nice before I head out early tomorrow on my 5 hour bus ride back to Quito, land of the criminals, people here say.
               After changing hostels, I had lunch at a very happening joint that was so packed with locals I had to share my table with two other women. I was excited because I was about to get served something other than chicken or fish, but my smile faded when I realized it was pork, which is something I just won´t eat in a third-world country. The usual sides of rice, beans, plantain, and that wierd onion salad tasted ok though and held me until dinner. Dinner was a hamburger and fries at Cafe Tortuga. I put the left-over fries in my purse for a snack for later. After all this walking and hiking and horseback riding, you never know when you´ll get hungry.
          After lunch I went back to Archidona to visit my new friends. They were happy to see me and I stayed just long enough to chat a bit and be offered some chicken. I declined. By 4pm I was back in Tena buying a few last-minute souvinirs. I might keep what I got for myself though. The heat here between 4 and 5:30 is pretty stifling when there is no cloud cover, but by 6pm the town cools off very nicely and people come out of the woodworks like ants to a picnic to hang out in the streets, eat icecream, and whistle at passersby.
         Noone is whistling at me, but people I have met over the past week have been stopping me in the street to give me a hug goodbye. I´ve known them hardly a minute, but they all act as if they will truly miss me. Lisbeth, the owner of Cafe Tortuga, gives me her personal cell number and tells to me call if I ever need anything. A free dinner would have been nice, I thought. Some Kichwa guy and his cousin, whose names I didn´t catch, even invited me to his sister´s wedding if I could stay a few more days. I still can´t totally grasp why this town has welcomed me like a long lost relative, but it sure has felt nice.
           The sunset was gorgeous tonight. Lights are now twinkling way up in the mountains in areas where I swore people couldn´t live. I´m so sad this part of my adventure is over, but it´s now time to go on to the next. I have an evening flight tomorrow from Quito to Cuenca, in the south of the country. See you there!