Quayaquil, not Quito

Today’s adventure, no tomorrow’s…

Thursday morning at 5:15 AM, I decided to hit the sack for a nap before my 7 AM alarm clock went off. So with a few hours rest, bounded out of bed ready to eat breakfast and “finish” packing. Of course this meant using and packing the toiletries needed in the morning & getting them into a suitcase for the next 3 mos. George and I weighted both the carry-on and the one suitcase that I would check in; 38 lbs & 42 lbs, not bad! I had it in my mind to leave the house at 8:30, but succeeded by 9 AM. Good to go!

Arrive at Bradley International with plenty of time. When we get to the counter the Delta agent looks at my carry-on and thinks it’s too big. Are you kidding me? No lady, please see if it fits in the carry-on baggage thingy. Well, no it doesn’t, it’s too wide. I unzip the carry-on, George unzips the check in bag, and it is a grab stuff out of one and stuff it into the other on the floor of the terminal. Nice, huh? Okay, that hurdle over, I move to go through the official security check. George can’t come with and it is a sad but loving departure; big hugs, a coupla kisses, lots of I love you & I’ll miss yous. He stands outside the area and watches me remove my sneaks, hat, poncho, scarf, and quart size baggy of liquids. Then I have to dig into the famed carry-on and remove the laptop, camera, and camcorder. Makes me wonder why I packed to begin with?! George is there though, taking it all in. I get through this and it takes me several minutes to redress and repack. I turn to wave good-bye, blow a kiss, and wave again. Walking toward the Gate I decide to look back and there’s George still watching me leaving. I see him through the TSA equipment and give a final wave, and I’m gone.

There are 8 or more white rocking chairs facing a giant terminal window and I sit in one & drag out the laptop. Trying desperately to get my webcam to work. Ugh! Computers.  Time goes by, I board my flight. Awesome window seat near the front. Can’t say much about how the guy behind me puts his jacket in the overhead bin, just as I am trying to lift my 36 lb carry-on over my head. What I would say, I shouldn’t publish. Some other nicer, taller passenger comes to my rescue; hauls it up over my head & rearranges this guy’s jacket. I thank him profusely, his wife says “It’s good to have a tall man around” (yeah, okay lady), and take my seat.

Flight leaves on time at 12:25 PM and the view out the window nothing short of spectacular. The white snow, the brown trees, and the black shadows being cast are etched into my brain as we fly up and out over Connecticut. I see rivers and stream with the sun glinting off of them as we literally fly by; up high enough to see the Connecticut River, the Sound, Long Island, the Hudson, NYC, New Jersey, then the  Chesapeake, Washington DC, and the cloud cover takes over. 

This is pretty unbelievable but true!  It’s Friday, February 1, 2008; it’s 5:20 PM; and I am finally in Quito (!) at the Magic Bean hostel in my private room (I got downgraded to Room #3; no separate kitchen.) And this might be why …

Back on Thursday, January 31, 2008, I leave Bradley and I arrive in Atlanta International at 3:05 PM (one minute ahead of schedule; let’s hear it for tailwinds), and I have an hour or so to kill before my connection to Quito. The plane dropped us at B concourse and the connection is on E. I do have time, spent some hours on a plane already, and can use the exercise, so I walk. I find the E concourse, no problem. There is a food court in the middle of the area, and I remember that I have been here before (probably on my last Delta flight to Phoenix/Mesa for OLAC.). I cruise the food court, nothing greatly appeals, I buy a bottle of water for some outrageous amount of money, & I head to my Gate.

Around 4 PM, the passengers are called to board starting with Zone 1. My boarding pass says that I am Zone 9; meaning that I am toward the front; with my seat assignment 22A (another window seat. Yippee!) I find my row, ask the guy already sitting in seat C to toss my water bottle on my seat. Then, it’s me again, trying to haul my just under 40 lbs. carry-on over his and my head and into the overhead compartment. Of course, you know that he stood up and winged it right up and in. I thank him. Turns out that no one is assigned Seat 22B, and I say out loud to 22C, Hey! This is a window seat, but lo and behold, no window! Just the side of the airplane. Nuts! After my smart observation, we strike up a conversation. He is from Canada, and is a owner/operator of a Rivers Oceans And Mountains (ROAM) enterprise (http://www.iroamtheworld.com) one part of which has a catamaran that sleeps 8-9 persons. He “does” Galapagos tours! Is my karma working here or what?  Lest you think the answer is yes, read on.

I’m reading John Grisham, he’s reading Tom Robbins. After a little while of sitting on the plane, the Captain comes on the PA and announces that the plane doesn’t have any water pressure therefore, no potable water and the maintenance crew will be out to fix it — sit tight. Okay, so much for reading. We pick up our conversation about Galapagos, we introduce ourselves, and he tells me he has his favorite book with him (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Galapagos-Islands-That-Changed-World/dp/0563493569). It’s pretty worn, but he offers it to me to look at and/or read. Gorgeous photos/nice book. (My guidebooks, etc. are all packed in my checked-in luggage. Drats!) Then he tells me he has hiking/biking adventure business in a big old camp in Nelson, British Columbia. He is flying to Quito to meet a videographer to make a promotional video for his website. He has an office/apartment in the capital city, and he is meeting this video guy and then they are going to catch up with some bike tour he has going on in the Andes (!) He will ride the last two days of the tour with the videographer. And yes, he winters in Galapagos; summers in Canada. Not bad.

The darn Captain now says that we can’t fly this plane, but we will disembark and get it fixed, or bring in a new plane. Everyone gets off the plane. The crew says don’t go far, we will announce when the flight is re-boarding. I think, Okay now it is dinner time and grab a quesadilla at a Mexican fast food stand. Easy to eat, just tortilla and cheese, no guacamole, no sour cream. The help is slow and I’m wondering, Am I going to miss this plane? Of course, it turns out that we reschedule the flight from 4:30 (remember this?) to 7 PM boarding time. I didn’t have to wolf down my dinner. I see a couple people with their laptops plugged into outlets and I find one to plug into; needing to recharge my battery as I read/write email. A 7 PM boarding pretty much indicates an 8 PM departure. We re-plane (if there is such a word); our Captain keeps us up to date, but who wants to know that there is heavy traffic and we are number 5 in the lineup? Any way…

8 PM lift off and we will be in Quito in 5 hrs and 15 minutes, at 1:15 AM. I’m okay with this because I have already told the Magic Bean Hostel that I’d be arriving late on Thursday night. Parenthetically, a dear friend asked me just before I left, What are you most worried about? I say getting to the airport late and not finding a taxi to take me to the Hostel. But I needn’t have fretted.

We are flying along in the night toward Quito. No gorgeous sunshine to look down and see Atlanta, but I can glimpse the big city lights, sort of, through the seat and window in front of me. With not much else to do, I crash! I had almost 2 hrs of sleep to start this adventure, and I am more than ready to find La-la-land. Dinner is served; pasta or chicken? and Brian (22C) wakes me up just in case I want food. The quesadilla is still sitting heavy in my stomach and I was in a deep sleep. So, no thanks, and I go back to dreamland.

I am sleeping and the dreaded Captain wakes us all up to say that the weather above Quito is very bad, but he will circle for awhile to see there will be a window of opportunity to land. Brian tells me this is very typical of Delta. He (obviously) flies way more than I do, and I’m kind of surprised. Gosh! I had just read in their Fly Delta magazine that they were doing great! Ha! Now the Captain says that it’s impossible, everyone gets to go to Guayaquil(!) This must make some of the passengers pretty happy, but I’d say that only 10% of the plane is going that far. Hey! It’s only a 1/2 hour flight, so buck up! We will be landing somewhere soon. Right about now this sounds good.

At 2:30 AM, everyone stumbles out of the plane and into the Delta terminal at Guayaquil. Many of us would like to see Delta bite the bullet and give us all hotel rooms to go to sleep in a bed for a change. But no, they have us sit tight so they can figure out what to d with us. There is one teeny coffee shop open and I go for the espresso, and it tastes awesome!!

Delta decides that they will try to get into Quito with a 5 AM flight. Here is an $8 voucher for you to get some breakfast. Interesting token. Of course, now there are 100 people or so in the line for vouchers. I stand in line and met this young Asian guy who does IT in Minneapolis. I say that is way too cold for me, wasn’t it just 50 below the other day there? Ugh, are you kidding me? His name is Joe and we talk while we shuffle along in line.

Everyone who gets a voucher goes to get breakfast. I just stood in a line, and I am unwilling to do it again quite yet. I hold on to my voucher for a while, find another outlet, and plug in my laptop. I write the Magic Bean to tell them my circumstances and please hold my room, I expect to be there mid-day. I write another person who knows all about the Charles Darwin Research Station Library and is going to meet me in Quito so we can talk about what needs to get done, etc. Bravely, I tell her the same thing, running late, but will be there (I think, eventually, right?).

I have covered all of my bases regarding contacts and am (again) Good to go! At 5 AM, we all stumble back onto the plane. It’s the same plane, just refueled and ready to bring us to our original destination. Awesome baby! But, lo and behold, we fly north to Quito and (drum roll) the weather is bad, the aeropuerto es cerrado una vez mas! El Capitan says that we are flying back to Guayaquil!!!!! Good old Brian (22C) is absolutely flipped out. He may never catch up to his videographer!

Arrival at 8 AM back to you-know-where, we are told that we will disembark, get our checked baggage and go through customs (this is our second landing here and I haven’t even had my passport stamped yet!). We will all go on a domestic (Ecuadorian airline) flight to Quito now.

Filling out the paperwork for Customs and Immigration is wild. Since I am not a tourist, I classify myself as an Other (and you don’t have to explain anything, you just check it off !). Finally, I am on Ecuadorian soil (okay airport) after a 20 hour ordeal. Since everyone has all of their baggage now to recheck at the domestic flight desk, our poor, tired group queues up like refugees in anticipation of a place that will take us in. We will have a 10:15 AM flight to Quito; a 35-minute flight. Hallelujah!

At 9:30 AM, I am frantic for a little while because I thought I would miss my flight. The airport was packed with people! No English/Spanish announcements now. Remember it’s a domestic airline. Todos en Espanol. Wasn’t sure how this airport worked. Couldn’t find which Gate what flight left from. But, after what became hours of hanging around (a key to finding out how anything works), it became clearer somehow. There are 4 gates only, and whatever airline pulls into whatever gate, that’s the gate! Silly me, I kept looking for the ICARO (name of the airline) gates. The Jose Joaquin de Olemedo International Airport flight board is very small, but most of the flights on Friday morning were delayed; Guayaquil to Quito, Guayaquil to Baltra (Galapagos), but especially the flights out of Quito to Guayaquil continuing on to Baltra. To be fair, Quito is experiencing so much rain that the cloud cover is impenetrable and it continues to be difficult at the Quito airport for landings and my estimated departure time from here keeps getting delayed, again and again. Finally the flight board says that the 10:15 AM flight will load and depart at 1:30 PM which I think puts me in Quito in less than an hour. I am so ready for this flight! Going down the gate runway, I see the plane on the tarmac. It has been years since I have had to climb stairs to get onboard. Last time has to have been in the Caribbean, 30 years ago! The air temperature is very tropical, humid with the sun blazing. Truly praying that Quito will be also.

Some of the Delta passengers have boarded a previous flight to Quito. With this flight, the airplane is filled with most of the Quito folks (who just had my same experience) on one plane. When we land, we clap and whoop it up. Wahoo! We have arrived.

At ICARO/Quito airport baggage claim at 3 PM, many of us (including me) come to find out that the airline decided to take more people than luggage, and the next flight will have my bag on it. Swell, yet another hurdle to jump over. Next flight expected after 5 PM. My bud there, Brian, was in total disbelief!! Ah, yeah, me too! Others who went through this ordeal were as flabbergasted. Brian was so angry, he just left.

Seeing Joe from Minnesota I asked him what he was going to do: wait for the arrival of the next flight, or go to his hotel. He voted for the hotel, telling me that by the time the plane had refueled, flown back to Guayaquil, reloaded with more persons and more baggage, the Quito airport might be closed again. Glad I took his advice and went to the Bean.

Got here around 4:30 PM. Felt like my new home away from home, that’s for sure. Remember that I have had the same clothes on for what feels like 36 hours! A little soap & water on my face, teeth brushed, some unpacking done, and I was on my way out the door to the South American Explorers Club (SAE). With a map and some directions from the Bean staff, I head outside. (Luckily, I packed a mini-umbrella.) The SAE Club closes at 5 PM, but I never found it. I did find the Marriott Hotel though, and this will be my ace in the hole choice for the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Finally, I shower and feel like a new person. Having made arrangements with the woman from CDRS, Susana, I am expecting a call from her on the Magic Bean phone at 8 PM. So I start this blog entry, then go downstairs with my laptop for dinner (con cerverza) and I am both stuffed and wondering why I drank a beer at this altitude!

Around 8:30 PM, Susana calls and we make arrangements to meet here and go out. She is 8 months pregnant, and living in Quito (instead of Galapagos) to have the baby. She told me she is tired because she flew to Bogota to take the GREs. Yikes! Quito offers the tests on paper, but she wanted the electronic version, which I guess gives you your results faster, which is what she needed. Wow!

I can’t believe that I am about to write this, but I ask the hostel staff how I would go about getting to Otavalo’s famous Saturday market tomorrow. No problema! What time do you want to leave? All of the Ecuadorian guidebooks say get there early (like 5 AM) to be there to watch them set up and then shop. No way can I even think about that one. I say I want to leave at 6 AM. It is a 2 hour ride by bus. How will I get to the bus station? Taxi. You will have a taxi here for me at 6 AM? Si. Would you like to have cafe con leche and a bagel for your breakfast to take along? Si, es un bueno idea (spelled the same as English, pronounce different is all).

And with that done, I retire to my room. I am beat, it is cold and (duh!) rainy; no central heat. I am so glad to have my crazy fleece poncho that I made and brought to add to my bedspread. (In case you don’t know me, I hate to be cold!) 

I sit on the bed, and blog some more, and there is a knock on my door. Yes? You have a phone call. Me? Si. It is Marcia from Quayaquil (I hope you see the humor here) asking me how I like Ecuador and Quito (!) I tell her that I spent mucho tiempo in her airport today. And relay, briefly, my experiences. She asks me what I am doing the next days and I say that I am going to Otavalo market tomorrow. She says, Oh, you should also go to Ibarra, just north of Otavalo. I say No can do! I have to get my “delayed” luggage from ICARO sometime too. She says to visit Old town Quito. It is beautiful. I will try to get there. She knows that I want to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday. And I told her that I did find a TV at the Bean in their little restaurant where I ate dinner. Good and enjoy Ecuador. I am amazed that she called. What hospitality!

Welcome to Quito!