Midday in the rainforest, near the equator - what could possibly go wrong?

A building near the artisan village

Not much to tell about last night as we ate a short dinner - one course - went to bed and read our books until time to sleep. We were prepping for our trip to Machalilla National Park in the morning. 

So up early and onto the bus where our guide told us that Ecuador has two seasons: the rainy season and the very rainy season. They expect well over a metre in annual rainfall and the green nature of the countryside bears that out. Our trip to the rainforest was going to take longer than we thought because a high tide had washed away part of the highway so we sat back to let the miles slip by. 

Love is in the air

Flowers from a "mystery man"

And then the Captain’s announcement came. I hasten to add, at the point at which we should have been casting off and sailing into the sunset. We weren’t going anywhere. It sort of felt like rubbing even more salt into the wound. Think about it, (First World problems I realise) but here we were, in a country, able to look but not touch a small slice of it, but being told we had to hang on for several hours more. Having rocked up in Callao at 8ish yesterday morning, we had waited and waited all day for fuel only to be told it might arrive by 11pm with the hope we may leave by midnight. For those old enough, you’ll understand the phrase “at this point I must have lost my presence of mind”.