Weather: About 70-75 and Sunny

Today we woke up in the hotel to a bomb breakfast with everything from waffles to fruits to omelets and even ahi sauce and corn kernels! The options were endless and it was an amazing sight to see. I got a waffle and an omelet. I couldn't finish the entire waffle but just to have a taste of home was nice. While Sara and I were having breakfast Lucy had gone back to her room. Soon after she left I got a call from her saying she was trapped in the stairwell because it locks from the inside, so she could get in just fine but couldn't get out. I tried finding her on the third floor but couldn't get to her since my room was on the fourth floor. I ended up having to go ask the front desk where the door was to the stairs on the first floor in hopes I could just let her out that way however, the door on the first floor was locked from the outside too. I went to the fourth floor and ended up finding where she was. She was panicked and laughing about the situation at the same time and immediately gave me a hug. It was a hectic start to the morning, but I am just happy she had her phone on her!

In the afternoon, Sara, Lucy, and I headed to Cumbaya for one last hurrah. Kayelyn joined but she was meeting her host mom for lunch, so Lucy, Sara, and I went to Bigote which is our favorite vegetarian restaurant in Cumbaya. We walked around the Paseo Mall too, and went to the farmers market that was there. They were selling a lot of different fruits, veggies, and homemade things like jam. We went to a chocolate shop too since it marked our last opportunity to have Ecuadorian chocolate for a long time to come. After stopping at the Supermaxi so Lucy could get some groceries since she was staying with her host mom until her flight that wasn't until Sunday night. Sara and I headed back to Paseo to meet up with Kayelyn and we headed back to the hotel until our flights. Sara and I treated ourselves to dinner at the hotel's restaurant and it was delightful. I got a veggie lasagna that was just fabulous and so filling.

The time for our shuttle came and we were eventually all at the airport saying goodbye to each other. There were other people that left earlier too which was a bit rough. I will say I expected the goodbyes to be so much harder than they actually were. I really didn't feel anything when it came to goodbyes and I think it's because I knew I would stay in touch with the people I wanted to. I found Sara's gate at the airport and that was a pretty rough goodbye, I couldn't stay long because my flight was boarding soon. Sure enough, Hannah, Olivia, and I were on our way to Miami! We were about an hour late taking off because the airspace over Colombia was closed due to a blackout, so the pilot had to re-route. I ended up sitting next to an Ecuadorian that had a Canadian citizenship as well and his final destination was Vancouver. He is an architect that attended USFQ and has a firm in Canada. He lived there for several years and moved back to Quito about two years ago, he's able to work remotely. He was telling me about some projects he worked on in the islands as well. It was really cool getting to know him and sharing a bit of my Galapagos experience with him.