Last words, pre-Galapagos

I feel some pressure to get some blogging done before we head off to the Galapagos and don't have connectivity for 8+ days (the longest for both of us in something like 2 decades).

Something impressive happened in the Plaza Independencia in Quito.

Part of me feels guilty about the blogs I haven't posted.  The awesomeness that needs to be celebrated, that *would* be celebrated, *instantly* in my home culture, but here it's more complicated.  For example, today, we simply wanted to go to old-town, but it was shut down and there was some *very* important stuff happening.  We stayed for it.  Despite at least 2+ hours of crazy waiting, nobody official spoke (which was weird for us).  But there were lots of horses, official bands/marching, people in uniforms, gates, security, and stuff... I could spend a whole post talking about this and the people we interacted with in this environment.  But instead, I must own that we don't have time.  We're preparing to go to the Galapagos and we're just generally dealing with day-to-day life -- like packing a bag full of clean laundry (which, did you know, is less easy to cram into pockets than dirty laundry).

I mean, we are happy we got into our AirBNB at close to midnight in Quito without any major security issues a few days ago and that our laundry is finally done... It took all day yesterday, multiple trips upstairs to a secret *pad-locked* AirBNB laundry facility where things were *not* *remotely* *electronically* *kosher* plus emails and texts and South American levels of patience (which we just aren't qualified to deliver).  At one point, our laundry was covered in water and the high voltage electricity to the laundry facility was dead -- no rinse, no spin, no dryer.  But the lights worked.  Thankfully, after bothering our hosts yet again, we said "F This," and left the mess to enjoy a delicious 2-hour lunch.  Clearly, this was the proper South American response, because when we got back, the power was on and our laundry had drained and spun, finally ready for the dryer.

240V splits to 2 separate 120V circuits via simple cords without chaos,

 right?

I called to reserve a taxi to the airport today -- I think it went okay, but my Spanish is still pretty spotty, so if we don't re-emerge, you can start your search in Quito, near the Superfines, waiting for a taxi to the aeropuerto that we thought we reserved...

In the meantime, I'm definitely getting up early to run some laps at the huge track in Parque Carolina -- I can't find the total distance on the Internet, so I will report back when I can as a public service.