9/25/2021 (Saturday) Departure Day.  We had our suitcases out last night, and they were picked up shortly after 7am.  We took the zodiacs to the port with our carry-on luggage.

We had some time to walk through the town, and then took the bus to the airport.  Here's the group checking luggage.

Eventually, we boarded the aircraft - an Airbus A-319.

Our arrival in Guayaquil was uneventful and we bused to the Hotel Del Parque, the same hotel we stayed at on our outbound visit.

With Tauck, you usually get an extra day at a hotel, either at the beginning of the tour, or at the end.  We usually take the extra night at the beginning to recover from jet lag.  However, we encountered a problem with our return flights.  Our tour officially ends on September 26 (a Sunday) but we could not get flights out of Guayaquil that day to connect in Lima for our (non-stop) flight to LAX.  By staying an additional night in Guayaquil we were able to get to Lima - and with a long layover - get a flight from Lima to LAX. 

We could have flown on the 26th from Guayaquil to Miami, and then to LAX, but that was too much travel time, especially with the layover in Miami.

Tauck had arranged for a COVID test at the hotel but it was an antigen test, which is acceptable for entry into the US.  But Judy and I have to go to Lima to catch our flight to LAX, and Peru requires a PCR test - an antigen test is specifically indicated as not acceptable. 

Marcos found a company which sent a technician to the hotel to take the samples from Judy and me, and we got the negative results back before the end of day.  The technician arrived about 7:30pm and we stepped away from our farewell dinner to be tested.  Here we are being tested, in our own hotel room. 

We returned a farewell dinner at the restaurant, Casa Julián.

We all said our goodbyes.  Here's Judy with Marcos.  He really did an outstanding job.

That was the end of the day and the end of the tour.

9/26/2021 (Sunday) There were no flights from Guayaquil to Lima on this day so we decided to stay an additional day and fly to Lima on Monday.

We slept late.  I think both of us were catching up on rest. We thought of hiring a guide and doing a tour of Guayaquil but decided we'd prefer to take a day of rest.  We did walk about a mile to a shopping center and did some browsing - bought a few small things for gifts.

We saw this cute sign on the walk.  Can anyone give me a good translation of the text? [Update: I'm told the translation is "Educate your owner".]

Basically, just a day of rest and enjoying the hotel.

9/27/2021 (Monday)  Today we fly to Lima, and then at 1am on Tuesday, we fly to LAX.

Leticia from Metropolitan Touring showed up right on time with a car and driver and took us to the airport.  She came with us into the airport and took us through the baggage check and check-in, leaving us only when we entered the security check area.  Here she is at check-in with us. We were cared for up until the last moment.

We were able to use the LATAM lounge at Guayaquil while waiting for our flight.  It's a very nice lounge. The flight to Lima was uneventful.  We arrived in Lima about 4pm and our flight to LAX didn't leave until 1am.  We had made reservations at the Wyndam hotel which is at the Lima airport but realized that we'd have to clear customs to enter Peru, and then clear customs again to re-enter the airport, so we decided to just wait in the LATAM lounge.

9/28/2021 (Tuesday)  We boarded the plane - a Boeing 767-300 - about midnight but it departed about 1:30am, a half hour late.

Even with the late departure, we arrived at LAX on time, about 8am local time. 

We breezed through customs with Gobal Entry, picked up our bags and met the Carey Limo driver at the exit of Bradley terminal.

Even though it was rush hour, we made it home in about an hour.  We were going opposite rush hour traffic.

About noon, we went to pickup Skipper at boarding.  Skipper is getting old and somewhat frail but is still hanging in there.

We have news on the canine front.  We had an opportunity to adopt two Cavalier King Charles girls.  That's Lizzie on the left and Annie on the right.  They're a bit over four years old and very nice dogs.  Boarding three dogs gets to be fairly expensive, but how do you put a price on love?

And that was our trip.  A couple of notes about the trip.

Tauck, and especially our tour director, Marcos Soto, were wonderful.  There were no real problems during the tour, and Marcos did a few things, like getting us walking sticks and wildlife guides, that we didn't know we needed until we needed them.

We stayed at four Belmond hotels in Peru and they were all very, very nice.  Tauck really works with some of the top end hotels.  I did not know of Belmond Hotels until this trip.

The Silversea ship, the Silver Origin, was excellent.  Our cabin was large and well laid out, and public parts of the ship worked well.

We flew nine flights with LATAM, some in business class and some in tourist class.  LATAM is a very good airline with modern airplanes and well trained staff.  Seven of those flights were on the Airbus A-320 or the A-319.  The two flights to and from Lima were on a Boeing 767.

The COVID precautions were not a problem.  Everyone on the tour had been vaccinated and we wore a mask for most functions.  We had many group dinners and were not masked at them, obviously.  Both Peru and Ecuador required double masks in the airports and on the planes.  This could have been irritating on the long flights between LAX and Lima but the cabin crew did not enforce masks wearing when we were sleeping.  It would have been nicer not to have to wear masks, but a tour with masks is better than no tour at all.

We enjoyed the tour and are looking forward to our next Tauck tour - if it goes - to Morocco in early 2022.  Morocco has a high incidence of COVID right now.  Unless they get it under control, I expect that Tauck will cancel the trip.

Thanks for going on this trip with us.

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