Último día en Ecuador

For our last day, we returned to the indigenous community, Palacio Real. This time, however, we were not getting a tour of the plants and the llama museum (Yes, a llama museum. The llama is an important animal to their people, and we also learned how to speak llama...), but instead we were working with the people to get a glimpse of their daily life. We first fed the guinea pigs and rabbits, before moving on to the bigger animals. As we were walking over, we received a good luck bracelet from the community, made of alpaca. We then helped chop down the agave plants to feed the pigs, cows, sheep, and the llamas. At first, we were just carrying the giant leaves to the feeding area, but then many students got a chance to use the special knife to cut the spines from the leaves, and Mat jumped right in to help cut the larger leaves from the plant. Then, it was bigger knife time, cutting the giant leaves into small pieces for the animals to eat, while others got a donkey ride.

Afterwards, we head down to the community school, where Zac and Monica immediately got "claimed" by a few of the students. We then had time to talk to the kids, ages 7-10, talking about favorite colors, animals, and school subjects. Then, if there was an nervousness or shyness remaining, it disappeared when the fútbol came out. Most kids jumped in to play right away, while a few stayed on the bleachers with me and the other adults, asking to play with our cameras. They were fascinated by the technology and were so careful with the cameras, putting my strap around their necks and sitting next to me just as I asked them to. Needless to say, I think they managed to take around 150 pictures during the soccer game! Thank goodness for digital cameras!

We then head down to the restaurant for lunch and got back in the road for Quito. After a steak and French fry dinner, we were back at the hotel for a few hours sleep before leaving at 3:15 for the airport. After dealing with a long line, we are a few minutes away from boarding. Almost home!