A Bittersweet Goodbye

Wilma, Gaby, Andrea, and I went to a restaurant called Crepes and Waffles, aka the Trent-in-Ecuador crew’s fav lunch spot. As always, it was delicious. I learned the chain was a completely woman-run operation. In particular, they hire single moms as waitresses, which I thought was a neat idea. For dessert I had a scoop of Ferrero Rocher ice cream. It was super sweet to share my last lunch with the original host fam, and the crew I’d spent the most of my time with.

Today I went for my final run in la Parque de la Mujer. This is where I most often went/go for runs since it is the closest green space from the house. When it becomes routine to go to certain places, we don’t often take pictures of those places. I realized I’d never taken pictures of the park even though I had spent hours there, so today I snapped a bunch. 

Aside: weather in Quito is crazy at this time of year. In the morning, I got a sunburn on my run, and when I got my ice cream 3 hours later it started pouring buckets out of nowhere. On Tuesday, in fact, it rained more than it had in 42 years! Everyone says this winter has been the most rainy one yet.

I finally gave Dome her present, and at night the family organized a surprise goodbye party for me. Everyone was there! Wilma, Gaby, Juanse, Andrea, Sara, Dome, Carolina, Carol, Andres, Ame, Elssie, Victor, Nelson, Mamarina, Hugo, Sandra, Emily, Emi and her parents, Cristian, the other Carol, Carlita, and Luis. Pretty darn special. Mamarina sang me a song and both Wilma and Elssie said very nice things about me. Awwww! ​

I performed a rap/poem as a thank you. OOOH man.