21 December 2012 • 330 km / 205 mi (map)
This morning I went for one more walk around downtown Cuenca before heading back to Quito.
Cuenca, being a very, very Catholic community (96% according to my tour guide) was in the throes of celebrating the holiday. This is the end of the school year and so I was treated to lots of parades in which students of all ages were marching from church services back to the end-of-year party at school. (Many schools there are church-run.) The parades were very elaborate, with heavily-decorated cars and trucks and marching bands. Parents and grandparents would stand on the sidewalk and watch the parade and police blocked traffic as each parade passed.
I’m back in Quito tonight, having taken a late-afternoon flight back north. My hotel in Quito asked a mere US$30 to extend my checkout time from noon to 9pm tomorrow. That, my friends, is what I call a No-Brainer. My flight from Quito to Atlanta leaves the next “morning” at 12:30am, thus the unusual checkout time request.
This has been a wonderful trip, but I am very ready to be home.
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