Up early to get to the airport in case the plane is overbooked. Security at the airport is very strict, control everywhere. But the plane was not even full, much less overbooked. Giovanna went with me to the airport. She is so nice and I sincerely hope that things start looking up for the agency she works for. She and Marta made my stay in Peru so much more enjoyable. Even though they are tourist guides and it is part of their job to be nice to tourist, they are much more than that. I found the people in Peru so friendly and helpful and very honest. I hope that the beautiful country of Peru begins to recover economically and the high rate of unemployment soon improves.
The formalities of entering Ecuador were quite straightforward and my reservation at the Hotel Embassy was also ok. The room is nice but the hotel is what you might call boring. I walked around this part of the city and went to Aeroperu to change my flight to August 3rd instead of the 8th. I am already homesick, especially now that Megan and Caren are not with me.
Now I would be joining my first Earthwatch expedition. Led by Dr. William Conner, of Wake Forest University, the project focused on his ongoing research of arctiid moths. These have evolved interesting methods of communication for mating. Three Earthwatch teams had already done research at Tinalandia in the western foothills of the Andes Mountains, on the Toachi River. The group I was joining would be Team IV.
Quito is a very clean city with a modern district with many new cars on the road. New cars were rare in Peru. There were many ancient cars in Lima and Cusco although there were modern tourist buses in Cusco. I have signed up for a tour to Cotopaxi tomorrow and looked at about 20 different shops. What beautiful souvenirs. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the first moon walk. I remember that I was in Charlottesville at UVA watching this great moment with almost everyone else in the U.S. and much of the rest of the world.
