This will likely be the final blog of our Ecuador travel seminar... We fly home tomorrow, that is, except for Ron Gettinger who stays for a few extra days of independent research. After my blog entry of last night we all went out to Cafe Hood, a wonderful bar and restaurant serving tasty food to tourists with sensitive stomachs. While there, a local Andean band strolled in and started entertaining us. Please look carefully at the following photo of one of the band members. This young woman is playing two instruments at once. You tend to see this kind of thing, say for a drummer, who might keep the beat on a bass drum, while also playing pan pipes. But, I've never seen anyone playing the chorango plus pan pipes at the same time! The chorango is the 10 string instrument that produces the high-pitched guitar sound familiar to fans of Andean music. Her hand is strumming the chorango just as fast as possible, yet she is able to also play the pan pipes that are wedged into the crook of her arm.

Our morning started in Banos where once again it was cloudy, but with very little rain for a change. You may recall that I mentioned a few blogs back a landslide that we encountered on the way into town. We learned that this was the result of an eruption of nearby Volcano Tungurahau within the past few months. Here is the view of what's left of a welcome sign on the outskirts of town and the devastation around it. Clean up continues and we waited in a single lane of traffic to get back out of town while bulldozers cleared away debris.

We had our farewell dinner this afternoon at an upscale restaurant, Mulata de Tal. Wonderful meals were had by all. Here is a photo of some of the impressive art displayed on the walls.

After dinner, Ron, Tina, Kathy, and I took a taxi to the historical center of Quito, while the students relaxed at our hotel--we're back at La Casa Sol, by the way. Here is a photo taken from atop the National Palace looking out over Plaza Grande. The statue to Tina's left is a monument to Ecuador's independence from Spain in the early 1800s.

 We arrived quite late in the afternoon at the palace, but were able to take a guided tour. Among the more interesting things we saw was a room full of presidential portraits and gifts from around the world to the current president, Rafael Correa, including one, interestingly enough, from George Bush, and even one from Harry Reid, majority leader of the US Senate. I say that the one from Bush is interesting because Correa is another in a growing string of left-wing presidents throughout Latin America. In fact, he is quite vehemently anti-US. The following photo is of a gift from the "mothers of the disappeared" in Argentina. It is quite different from all the other gifts, such as Bush's silver cup or a set of silver spurs from Chile.

This tapestry says, "Aparicion con vida de desparacidos. Madres de Plaza de Mayo." This translates approximately to "appearance with life from the disappeared ones," The Madres de Plaza de Mayo are the mothers of those sons and husbands disappeared during the reign of the generals in the 1970s and 1980s in Argentina, The mothers have kept a constant vigil in the central plaza of Argentina demanding information about their missing loved ones. A photo (not shown) shows one of the Madres making a presentation of the tapestry, in person, to President Correa.

Shown below is your faithful blogger assuming momentarily the chair of the office of the President of Ecuador at his cabinet table.

I'll close with my favorite photo from the rainforest. Enjoy!