Fireworks lit up the sky. Huge loud speakers blasted music from a live band, so loud that we could feel our feet vibrating from the ground beneath us. Beauty queen contestants performed with singing and dancing and multiple costume changes, culminating in the bikini line-up. The streets teamed with hundreds of people, many who came by bus from surrounding villages. Street vendors sold mucho beer and local delicacies. It was the annual celebration of the founding of the town, just 43 years ago. And it was our last night in Guadalupe.

Burger and I retreated across the swaying foot bridge to our room before midnight, but the music followed us and lasted throughout the night. Sleep was almost impossible, even with earplugs. The boom boxes were still going strong at 5 am when we arose bleary-eyed and dragged our luggage back across the bridge to the awaiting taxi. My concern that the taxi driver might oversleep was unfounded, but now I had a new worry: did he get any sleep last night? Was he sober?

Steffi had partied almost all night long and was in even worse shape than we were for the two hour ride to the airport in Catamayo. We could barely appreciate the spectacular scenery as we traveled from the tropical Amazon side of southern Ecuador, up and across the backbone of the Andes and then down again to the dryer climate of the western flanks. Our sleepless state and the serpentine turns along the mountainsides combined to make us all queasy, so we were glad to arrive at the airport in Catamayo two hours later.

Photo: Burger enjoying "meat popsicles" at the Guadalupe festival.