Today, Sunday, was a travel day. After getting up, showering and getting dressed, I repacked everything for the trip. Nathan and I met at 8 a.m. and checked out of the Hotel La Liria. It had been a good choice because it never lost power due to its location near a hospital, a zone that’s never shut off. (Thank you, Maritza, for this recommendation!)
We took a taxi to a restaurant in downtown Macas that Maritza had suggested for breakfast and sat at an outside table outside and enjoyed a good breakfast, both of us choosing avocado toast with juice. I also ordered guayusa tea.
Then we walked a couple blocks to an ATM to pull out more cash and waited at the adjacent taxi stand. A taxi quickly took us to the bus station, which was impressively large, clean and not too busy. We bought bus tickets to Tena, our next destination city, for $9.50 each.
At 10:20 a.m., 20 minutes before our bus was due to leave, Maritza and her family came to the terminal to say a final goodbye. She also gifted me one of her books in Spanish, a novel. (The previous night I had given her a book of American English sayings and Seahawks attire for her husband and the two boys.)
The bus departed on time and drove to the city of Puyo, picking up and dropping off lists of local,people along the way. It was a trip of 3 hours or so. At Puyo we changed to another bus from the same bus company that left immediately to go to Tena. We finally arrived about 4:30 and found a taxi (fare of $1.50) to take us to the Hostal Limoncocha, our accommodation for the night, where a room with three beds and a private bathroom cost $24. There was no power when we arrived, but it was still plenty bright to see.
We were really hungry since we hadn’t eaten any lunch, so as soon as we checked in and dropped our bags, we got a recommendation from the front desk person for a restaurant downtown Tena and took another $1.50 taxi ride to it. We enjoyed panini sandwiches there but we were still hungry, so we walked next door and ordered a small pizza. We were finally satisfied.
But while we were eating it started to pour rain. Absolutely pour! A river started running down the street. About 78 degrees, 100% humidity, lightning and thunder. After we finished and paid for the pizza, we waited under the restaurant awning for an available taxi. We had to wait 10 minutes or more, with lots of full taxis and cars going by, but we finally found an available one.
Even now, more than two hours later, it’s still pouring down rain and thundering. The room is on the third/top floor of the hostel so it’s very loud. Either it will be a soothing sound for sleeping, or it might keep me awake. I’m not sure yet. I can’t even hear my phone when it’s sitting next to me! And did I mention that it’s really humid? Welcome to the Amazonian region!
Lori's Travels 