There is no Q in Ecuador

As Terry said, this bus trip was better than many we have taken. Cayo took us to the bus station on his way to work. The bus travels between Quito and Esmeralda on the coast and does not stop to pick up locals on their way to school or market or whatever. We have not visited Esmeralda, but I understand that it is unique in that there are lots of folks of African descent who live there. It was a port city for the slave trade. Anyway, Cayo is great about taking good care of his gringo-in-laws. So he talked with the bus driver and the assistant (who we call the flight attendant) and told them where we were going. I was not convinced that they were listening, but Cayo seemed confident.

My seatmate was a young chap and I tried to talk with him a couple of times, but he was a low-talker and a mumbler. With my poor spanish, that made it impossible for us to communicate verbally. However, we did pretty well with sign language and such. He was nice and became pretty amused at some of the slapstick comedy in the movie (Daddy Daycare). He probably took this bus frequently because he knew exactly where the entrance to Arasha was and he got the flight attendant's attention when it was time for us to get off.

Another unusual feature of this bus line was that they served crackers and coca cola. The FA came down the aisle handing out plastic cups and sealed packages of crackers. Then he returned with a liter of coke. He came back later and picked up the cups, but not the cracker wrappers. My seatmate threw his out the window, but I stuck mine in my backpack. I just can't seem to adopt the local littering practice.