We got up early (it was becoming habitual) around 06:00.  Justin had to open the door to go downstairs to pee - as the bathroom was downstairs like at Caño Cristales - and when he opened the door Crystal woke up.  Once again, we thought it idiotic to have the bathroom on a different floor.  We had to sleep in our clothes (as the downstairs wasn't enclosed and was visible to anyone walking by), and we couldn’t walk barefoot to the bathroom either.  Granted, these are first world problems, and likely one-percenter problems.  Because it was misting a bit and Crystal wasn't feeling great, Justin took the bags in multiple trips to the front desk area, and saw some poison dart frogs on the walk.  We ate breakfast at 07:00, right when they opened, so we wouldn't be late to meet David and El Tigre.  We checked out at 07:30, which took a while, which was surprising since before we even went to breakfast we told them we were out of the room, and told them what we’d taken from the mini bar.  

The Ecohabs have an excellent location, but the service (and the warmth) left a lot to be desired.  For people planning to visit the Ecohabs, don’t stay in rooms 2, 4, or 6, as they have no privacy on either the lower level (with the bathroom) or the upper level (the bedroom).  The units on the very western edge (like ours, number 11) have the best views (towards Playa Arrecifes and Cabo San Juan), but are the longest walk, and also get less of a breeze, since they are slightly over a ridge that blocks some of the wind.  Unit 10 might have the best combination of view and breeze, but we aren’t sure.  Basically all the units besides 2, 4, and 6, have a trade-off of view and privacy versus length of walk and lack of breeze.  

After check-out, El Tigre and David drove us back to Santa Marta to head to the airport.  We were happy to take off all the various wristbands when we finally left the national park.  David asked about our day in Tayrona, and what all we saw and did.  He helped us figure out what some of the birds might have been.  [Laridae is maybe the name of the the birds diving around Playa Arenilla, a pale-breasted thrush is the gray bird from the Cabo San Juan hike, and a tropical kingbird is maybe the yellow bird from Cañaveral.]  There wasn’t much traffic to speak of, and we got to the airport well before our flight.  We exchanged contact info with David, and so if/when we return to the Santa Marta area, we can hopefully see him again.

There was no lounge at the airport (not a big surprise), so we just got a small bottle of rum, a couple Coke Zeros, and some potato chips, for about €15 total.  Our flight was a bit delayed, but by only about 20 minutes or so.  The flight itself was quite empty, but somehow we were in the only row that was fully occupied.  Like pretty much every flight in Colombia, however, it wasn’t that long.  When we exited, there was a woman in a huge hurry, pushing her way past Crystal even though she was in a row behind us.  This was all to get on a bus, since we didn’t have a jetway - what an idiot.  Once we got in the terminal and past baggage claim, we were greeted by Julian yet again.

There wasn’t much traffic on the highway going into La Candelaria today, and we were now quasi-experts on this.  Our driver took the scenic route, looping all the way around from the north to the east to the south before coming into our hotel from Calle 7.  Because we couldn’t find a quiet room at Hotel de la Opera, despite telling them the second time we wanted whatever the quietest room was, we booked a place around the corner, The Orchids Hotel.  Inside, there wasn’t a peep, just a nice quiet man to check us in and a bunch of orchids hanging on the wall behind him.  The elevator was, no exaggeration, perhaps the slowest elevator we’ve ever taken - we were wondering if we were on Punk’d or something.  Our room was quite large, and we hung stuff everywhere, as they all got damp/moist from the humid air in Tayrona.

After doing that, we set out right away, as our travel agency had informed us that the tejo place closed at 20:00, much earlier than we expected.  We had intended to go to dinner, then tejo, but now we’d need to reverse the order.  And before that, we wanted to find something for Levi and Olivia.  We’d tried in Cartagena, but go figure, the one time we actually wanted someone to engage us about buying something, the store owners ignored us.  Today, it took a little bit of time and effort, but we think we found some stuff they’d like.  Sizing is a big issue, as seemingly every country uses different measurements.  We decided that going forward, we’d just get measurements of how long their shoes are, and how long their shirts are, in centimeters, and just have that handy so that we could just see how the clothes we see measure up (some pun intended).

We brought the stuff back to the room, then walked the block or two to Tejo Ancestral.  The place was empty, and we booked a court/lane (not sure what the right word is) for an hour.  They asked if we’d played before, and we told them that we’d in fact played here before.  So they just let us choose our stones and we were on our way.  Shortly thereafter, a Dutch couple showed up on one side of us, and a German couple on the other.  We thought maybe this would be more fun, but it was the opposite.  Several times when we were picking up our stones from the clay, one of the gunpowder triangles on the court next to us went off, so basically 2 meters away from us.  

Our ears were ringing, as if we were standing right next to someone firing a gun.  It was also giving us PTSD every time we went to grab our stones, because we were spooked that gunpowder was about to go off right next to us.  We can empathize with Dirk Diggler from the robbery scene in Boogie Nights.  The actual playing was still fun, but we decided we need to come when no one else is around, or bring some sort of ear protection.  We played two games to 21, and Justin won each time.  He must’ve hit peak buzzed/drunkenness, as we think we threw about 20-25 times in total, and he had 5 bullseyes.  We both got at least 1 explosion as well (Crystal was due), but those are worth 3 points instead of 6.  Neither of us has ever gotten the explosion and bullseye, which is worth 9.

We went to dinner nearby at Pacha Peruana.  We each got Maracuyá sours to drink.  To eat, Crystal got some orange soup, chupe de pollo, and Justin got a pancetta dish with something like a Shirazi salad (but if you replaced parsley with cilantro) and potatoes.  Everything was very good.  We came back to the room, and Crystal stayed there, whereas Justin went out to walk around downtown for a bit, including going past la calle de las sombrillas yet again.  He got in about 45 minutes of walking, then came back to the room around 20:30.  We were both asleep around 21:00, but neither of us would sleep particularly well.