WTF Bienvenidos al Ecuador

This post was written on January 3, but I couldn't post it til today due to lack of internet, obvs!

There was no way I could've known as I parted ways with my parents and headed toward security at Philadelphia Airport that I would later have the pleasure of witnessing the seemingly impossible transformation of what was intended to be a 4 hour and 48 minute flight to Quito from Atlanta into an 11 hour affair. Had I known that I would've been awake for 23 hours straight I might have packed some tylenol pm, or a horse tranquilizer. All seemed to be going smoothly when we arrived in Atlanta, only having experienced a 20 minute delay on the first leg of our flight.  What's more, the flight to Quito boarded on time at 5pm.  Then, with little to no fare warning, what had seemed to be a normal day took an inexplicably horrible turn for the worse.  I'll give you a play by play: 

5pm – board plane ignorant to horrors awaiting us

            530pm – pilot announces someone’s luggage has been put on the plane, but the passengers aren’t on the plane, so they must remove all the luggage to find those few pieces and then reload all the rest. (in the mean time I mention to Kelsey that I am sure my luggage will somehow be lost or harmed in this process…remember this)

            600 – pilot reassures us that it will only be a half hour more

            7pm – An hour later, Pilot congratulates us as we are ready for take off

            702 – pilot realizes we are last in a line of 049820357 planes to take off. We wait.

            730 – take off. Finally. Wtf. Original arrival time 10 30, new arrival time 12: 30.

            730-12 fly fly fly, normal normal normal, at least we’re on our way…think again

            12: final descent into Quito… BUT NO! The pilot announces there is too much fog to land. We hover above Quito until 12:30 when the pilot announces that we do not have enough gas to wait for the fog to die down so we will fly to the coastal City of Guayaquil to refuel.

1 arrive in Guayaquil to refuel

            1-3 wait around like claustrophobic idiots to fly back to Quito

            4am - arrive in Quito

            4-5 Wait in an absurdly long immigration and customs line, pick up inordinately heavy luggage, meet family who welcomes me with balloons and BIENVENIDOS posters

            5-6 drive to Lumbisí, check out the digs, pass out.

            10am – get up, open luggage, realize both zippers have been ripped of my suitcase along with the TSA lock that apparently didn’t do its job.  Seems suspicious, what’s up with the TSA ripping the lock off that they are supposed to be able to open. Oh wait, realization, it wasn’t the TSA b/c generally speaking the TSA wouldn’t steal all of my bras, my sperry topsiders and my hair straightener.

            Sort of a random assortment of stolen items but damn I loved those boat shoes and not to complain but bras are damn expensive and even though it was only 5 bras that’s like 150$ down the drain. WTF RANDOM ECUADORIAN THIEVES.

Despite that little set back, this morning I went on to drink some random beverage called AVENA that was sweet and warm and kind of tasted milky, and to “shower” with the aid of two buckets of warm water.   My mamí took me on a walk through Lumbisí along with fernandito and Andres or andy, the children of my oldest sister. I got to see the park, the church, basically the whole hood and I even saw where Kelsey, Zack and Alexis live not too far away.  The town is adorable and everyone says buenos dias when they pass you on the street, so much more friendly than los estados unidos.  We stopped and bought ice cream for los niños and I had a delicious fruit beverage of banana, organge and some other random fruit I know nothing about.

 

Long long long day and a half. Now I rest. Sorry for the dim witted post but between lack of sleep and robbery it was the best I could do.

HASTA LUEGO!