More 'Life on the Hard'

Today David went to the machine shop and they were able to get the prop body off of the shaft and to straighten the shaft. Yay, success!! I reorganized my little cupboard of clothes and found some cool ropas I did not remember bringing, so how fun is that!?! The hotel activity is winding down after three days of kids competing for trophies and titles in sailing, tennis, volleyball, and ping pong. Alex has been busy doing it all, and he and Daniela go back to the highlands tonight on the all night bus to Ambato, where she lives and teaches at the university. She also owns a bookstore with her family, so after she teaches classes, she works the bookstore. We hope to reconnect with Alex when he returns on Friday and hopefully we will stop in Ambato and visit Daniela on our way to Banos. There are some great places we will be exploring after we fly to Quito next Tuesday from Guayaquil. We will have a week to adventure out in several directions before we fly home; I will let you know our plans when we get closer to the time. I did make reservations at the Secret Garden Hostel for our first night in Quito and we are leaving our bags there so that we can do some traveling without dragging stuff with us.  I'm excited. We still have much to do to ready ourselves and Sidewinder for our vacation. -Suzi