Day XV- January 16th, 2oo7- Overtime
The alarm went off at 7AM, we finally got everyone up, moving and out of the hotel by 9AM. We took two separate cabs to the Malecon. Apparently there was some confusion and half of us made it to one destination, the other made it to another. Both groups waited. We made it to the steps of Cerro Santa Ana: a famous historical center of Guayaquil. There are little shops and artisan places all along the 444 steps to the top. At the top there was a chapel and a beautiful view. By the time we made it up the 444 steps, we were exhausted from the major lack of sleep and the oppressive heat. We wandered around a bit, enjoyed the view and stopped off in a couple of shops.

Shot of the waterfront

The boys obviously had more energy than I did


Aaah, the last step



The chapel at the top



Darian and his pirate friend


The river- the wet season is coming. This was actually really interesting to watch because you'd expect the water to be moving, but the chunks of grass are really floating down the river. It only really occurred to me when I was reading Our Daily Bread and they were describing how they could tell the rainy season was coming- "Big islands of grass went traveling down the stream...seen from a distance {it} made it look as if the water were boiling."


Pretty gateway out of the historical area


The walk back down

We didn't have too much time to spare seeing we were expecting to depart somewhere between 1o and 11. We found our way back down to the main road, caught a cab and within ten minutes of getting back to the hotel, we received a call to pack our things, check out and meet in the lounge. We quickly cleaned up everything and ran downstairs.
Our bus picked us up, drove us to the airport and we got in line for a moment of truth. Would we get on this plane? They were offering people $5oo to not get on the plane. (Once I arrived to the frigid cold of NYC, I regretted not taking that $5oo!) We did finally get on the plane, checked our bags with no complications, boarded and headed back to New York. The flight was amazing- brand new with individual television sets- with all brand new movies, video games and television shows. I got an excellent seat at the front of the section with crazy amounts of leg room. The six hours flew.
We finally made it home, exhausted, we were coaxed to stay the night and drive back to Marist the next morning. The semester was jump started with a day lost and a ton of work waiting for me. It was worth every second of it though.