January 17th

Log Entry by Jaqui Neibauer

Tonight is our final night in Quito, Ecuador before we fly to the Galapagos Islands. I had a great time here, but I'm ready to go see giant sea turtles, sea lions and marine iguanas. 

We spent most of the day today shopping around Quito and getting lost on the busy streets.  We went to a marketplace in downtown to do some souvenir shopping.  It was amazing how inexpensive everything was! 

The culture down here is very different than at home in Seattle.  There are stray dogs all along the streets. In fact, Kati and I had a run-in with one.  We were going around a corner and this dog came out of nowhere and was running and barking at us. We thought he was going to bite us...it was pretty exciting! 

We found these wondeful "internet cafes" where it only costs 6 - 8 cents to make international phone calls.  Much better than roaming fees and calling cards!  We ate dinner at an italian restaurant downtown.  The food was good, and like everything else down here, it was very inexpensive. 

Well, I'm going to get to sleep now.  We leave this hotel at 6am and head to Quito airport. We have a short layover (40min) at Guiyaquil airport and then it is a short trip to Islands.