After saying goodbye to the Turners in Quito we endured a 9 hour bus ride back to Bahia. Driving over the Andes was beautiful but my eyes were glued to the road as our bus driver accelerated around hairpin corners with never ending drop-offs and passed 3 cars at a time on blind corners and hills. I am pretty sure our bus had no functioning brakes. Even though he took more risks than I would have in a race car video game I am sure he has driven those roads 100s of times and knows what he is doing. Yeah right.

We got back to Hiatus and found out that this time the boat fairy had come and done some work while we were gone. Now, I am sure John from s/v Nakia doesn't like being referred to as a boat fairy but we are grateful for the time and work he put in on re-varnishing our toe rails. It's a good thing we don't have a lot of teak on the boat, because we have seriously neglected the little bit we do have. We avoided the upkeep this last year so much that it got to the point that the varnish was blistering and peeling off. It was ugly. John sanded and varnished the rails and they look fantastic now. We will add 4 more coats of varnish when we get to Panama which will hopefully ensure the rails still look nice when we go to sell the boat. John used some local labor to help with the project and the guy is taking his cut and buying a fishing boat, a big step for him in a small town. Guess our procrastination paid off as we were able to help someone else out! :->

Now, the goal is to get the boat ready and head out of Bahia de Caraquez on November 10th for Panama. We will spend the next week and a half tackling our to-do list, test all boat systems and then finally travel to Manta (2 hours away) where we will officially check out of the country and do some major provisioning at a US style supermarket. There is basic provisioning in Bahia but it will be nice to restock our lockers and refrigerator with more of a variety. It will be a busy week but we are excited to go sailing again!

By the way, Galapagos pictures are now uploaded in the Photo Album. Enjoy!

Picture above is Kent working hard on the boat.