Waiting for a ride. Nov 21st, Friday.

Gas station that took us in for the afternoon.

Beautiful Cosanga.

Waiting...

...more waiting :-)

Stalin and his little girl who loved playing with the beetle.

Very helpful and friendly family.

Later on during the rain, another bus like ours.

Gas is $1.40 a gallon here.

A very cool Hercules beetle, unfortunately can get $200 or more on the black market.

Someone from Yanayacu was supossed to pick us up when we arrived at
the very small town of Cosanga. There was a mix up and our driver was
nowhere to be be found and no phone number to reach him at. So we
waited, for 3 and a half hours, the same amount of bus time it took to
get there.

The gas station was run by a very friendly family and they
commiserated with us on our situation. Normally we would have paid a
local person with a car to take us the 7  km to the reserve, but
today everyone was at the Walk of the Virgin. The town was deserted
except for the gas station family and the occasional person getting
off the bus during the afternoon.

So we waited for a long time, then decided it would be helpful if Ian
walked to the reserve, so off he went for what turned out to be a 2
hour walk, mostly in the rain. I hung out with the family and made
friends, they showed me beetles and we talked about life in Ecuador.
Did you know there is no postal service, at all, in the countryside?
None. You don't ever get any mail, unless you have box in Quito, 3 1/2
hours away. Imagine not getting any bills, magazines, solicitations or
advertising. All bills are paid at the place of service, electric
company, etc.

It turned out to be a pleasant way to spend the afternoon, Jose
finally arrived and we met up with Ian, who had arrived at an empty
reserve with the friendly dog, around 6pm. In the rain.