Last Friday night at 11:00 PM, Fausto picked me up at my house & brought be to their home, which is about 15 minutes away. (He had to pick me up that late because he was coming from Gualaceo, where they have another home.) It made sense for me to spend the night at their home because that way we saved probably a half an hour as I live out of the way of the direction we were heading. I slept (briefly) as we (Magui, Fausto, their son, Adrian, whom I would guess is about 20 years old, & I) left their house about 4:15 AM Saturday morning. We traveled about 5 hours, which was longer than it should have taken, because somehow we made a wrong turn and got lost in Guayaquil, the biggest city in the country. It didn't bother me in the least that we were lost because when I wasn't sleeping in the car, I had my eyes peeled on the scenery. We traveled through a number of temperature zones. It was hot in Guayaquil and of course on the beach. The beach was in Ballenita, about an hour beyond Guayaquil. Magui and family have a lovely apartment, not only overlooking the beach, but about a 5 minute walk there. It was very resort-like. The apartment building has a very large pool and a sauna.
Magui and I walking along the beach in the morning, then she & her husband, & I went into the town for a seafood lunch. All of us were tired so we took a nap after lunch and then Magui and I swam in the pool. She and I swim about the same amount. Although I have swum 2 other times since I have been here, I haven't been to the Pittsfield Y in over 5 months, and therefore am not in my usual good swimming shape. Nevertheless I had no difficulty swimming for close to an hour. From there we went to the sauna, which was a reminder of the shaman experience for me, which did make me a little anxious.
From there we went out to dinner & then to bed early.
The next day, Sunday, was similar to Saturday--to the beach (where I witnessed robbers examining their loot of cell phones & wallets), to the pool for more swimming, & then to the sauna. The anxiety was less this time in the sauna. We left about 4:45 PM, but it took much longer to get home for several reasons: traffic, stopping for dinner, & almost running out of gas. Magui had asked her husband and son, who was driving, very early on in our trip home, if there was enough gas. They both said yes. I could see that the gauge said that tank was 1/2 full. When we were about an hour or so outside of Cuenca, at about 10:45 PM, traveling on a very windy, steep road in very thick fog, making visibility poor, where there were no lights, no stores, nothing, I noticed that the gas gauge was just before E. I saw no point in saying anything because there was no place to get gas. When Fausto leaned over 2 times to look at the gauge & then told his son to pull off the road at a shack, Magui asked why & was less than pleased that we were on empty. Of course there was no gas at this shack, but the man said that 3 kilometers ahead there was another place to stop. I doubted that we would make it, but we did get to a run-down building, where Adrian honked to no avail. Magui got out & knocked. Eventually a woman, who had probably been asleep, came out & to the rescue. She had a pail with some gas and a spout for pouring it. We got the gas & traveled on our way. Magui, at this point was very funny, talking about hombres who say we have enough gas when we don't & then have no shame when we are traveling on fumes. The same kind of words could be said in the U.S. or perhaps anywhere in the world.
It was a weekend to remember......
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