Reservations, smeshervations...

As soon as we stepped foot back on US soil, Ken and I were already planning our next trip to Ecaudor. Flights were booked and confirmed, AND paid for before the end of 2011. Did I say PAID for? Yep. So imagine my surprise....

I had this nagging thought late one night - did I have seat assignments done on both flights? Hmmmm. I'm pretty sure I did that way back in December. I checked the printed out itinerary, and yes, I had. Nice. Now go back to sleep, Tami.

The next day went on as usual, but when I got home that evening, I still had this weird feeling I had better check our flights. Went online and typed in our reservation code. What???? Arriving in Quito? What???? Oh, there's Guayaquil, but what the heck - arriving late at night? What happened to arriving in the late morning? I was having a come-apart as they say in the South. Ken!!!!!!! He got on the phone with LAN, and of course there was 'nothing we can do, sorry."

For those of you reading this that have not yet traveled to Ecuador, or Latin American country, let me explain why this arrival time was so bothersome.

Reason #1 Traveling at night is a dangerous sport. I would rather go rock climbing and I am terrified of heights. Not only do busses get robbed at night, those drivers have a tendency, uh, to have a drink or three before their shift. They also have to dodge cows, pigs, rockslides, and all this on unlighted streets. So no thank you. I will travel during the day, and take pictures of the livestock roaming the streets.

Reason #2
We now have to spend the night in Guayaquil. More $$$ down the drain. This is really the pet peeve of mine. We do have reservations at Hotel Murali just a few blocks from the airport. So taking a taxi from the cooperative (taxi line at the airport) to the hotel will be fine, as we know where this hotel is, and if it were daytime we could walk, but alas....

Not everything is sour news though. Crap happens, it was just bothersome that the airline didn't notify us!! Glad we had time to make adjustments in our schedule. I cannot wait to embark on this journey, every step we take is one step closer to realizing our dream.

Our Route:
Our trip is extended by 1 day because of the flight mess. We are traveling up the coast from Guayaquil to Manta to Bahia, and back down to Puerto Lopez, possibly Montanita to visit friends, and then to Salinas for one night, and then back to Guayaquil. All of our travels will be by bus or taxi. We need to know if we can get by without a car, and this will also help our Spanish. Which sucks rocks, btw!

We have reservations at Hotel Murali, and from what I hear it will be a good experience. An expat friend recommended it, so glad she did, because I didn't want to take a taxi across town late at night. They will feed us breakfast the next morning, and we can then take our bags and walk to the bus terminal if the weather is nice outside. Off to the coast we go....

We are taking the executive bus (who knows which one, we will figure that out once at the Terminal Terrestre). We don't yet have reservations, but there are plenty of hotels in Manta, we will figure something out....living on the edge, love it (LOL)

I am very excited about the Bahia part of our trip, we will be staying in a nice B&B called Casa Grande. One of the expats made the reservations for us, which was such a help. I can't wait to dine at Puerto Amistad, the owner and chef is also from Alabama, and I look forward to hearing about his experiences living in Bahia. That, and enjoying fresh seafood and good wine.

We also have reservations at Hostel Mandala in Puerto Lopez., which is south of Manta. We will be there for two nights enjoying the beach. This will be the relaxing part of our adventure. In their pictures I noticed the mosquito netting over the bed. So no air conditioning, which is just fine by us, it will remind me of the Banana Azul in Costa Rica.

On our last night in Ecuador, we will be hanging out at Will's - Hostal Aqui, and enjoying the great food and friendship at Score Sports Bar. Wendy and I have a bottle of wine we need to consume! Oh, and their margaritas.....

The other nights we haven't planned out, we will fill in those blanks when the time comes.

Only a few more weeks.....getting super excited!!

Cheers, Tami

Flying Times

Back in the day flying used to be fun. Something to look forward to, a treat. Now, it is anything but enjoyable. Very few airlines make an effort to be pleasant, the seats are so small, no food or movies to help occupy the time, unless you want to pay through the nose....

And I haven't even gotten to the security nonsense we American citizens, and those who dare to pass through our borders, have to endure.

We arrived in Miami super early for our 8:30 am flight to Guayaquil. Getting through the security line was easy, no long lines at 6 in the morning, international terminal. Went through the full body scanner, it was working, not happy but then again do I want a thrill of a grope session, or someone looking at my boobs and crotch on a screen? Hmmmm.

I decided to live with the anonymous person looking at my bod instead of the hands-on approach. 


Our group of 3 were in and out in a matter of minutes. So far so good!


LAN Ecuador gate - they let us board a tad early because my back was hurting. Flight attendants even came by to check on me, and one offered a little something something....how sweet :)


Flight was awesome. Smooth as silk, food was pretty decent! Headsets free of charge, movies, games, music available. All in all, a very non-eventful event.

Customs in Ecuador - they like gringos. And gringas with blondish hair, hehehe. We had ZERO problems, no questions asked. The only people with luggage splayed out were Ecuadorians or those who looked the part.


Returning to the US - this is the fun stuff!!
We had some serious excitement (lots of nail-biting and praying) just driving into the city and making it TO the airport to drop off our car at Budget, getting a taxi to the Malecon and THEN getting a taxi back to the airport.

Uh oh, there's a space available.....

Now there isn't!

And more cars have filled in whatever space WAS there...

Already out past the safe gringo curfew (LOL) we decided we had taken enough of a chance getting into a taxi in downtown Guayaquil after dark and so getting to the airport 4 hours before our flight wasn't that bad after all. Good time to catch up on reading, free wi-fi for the kid and his Facebook, and an opportunity for me to have a drink, or three.

Standing in line at the LAN counter for 1 hour prior to getting our luggage checked was a nice lesson in patience. Oh, we were 3rd in line. I am NOT JOKING.  Another tip: people will sneak in front of you if you are not paying attention. How do I know this? A few tried. Only 2 guys succeeded, but that was because they knew the group in front of us. So I don't really count that. The others weren't so lucky. Girlfriend here had her eyes open, looked at them square, and made it perfectly clear it wasn't gonna happen on my watch. Hahahaha....evil laugh. 


Security - leave your shoes on. Bracelets too. Take the coins out of your pockets, guys. Ken left some change in his pocket, but the security guy just laughed, waved his wand, and waved Ken right on through. How nice. No groping, no checking out if we had bombs in our panties or boxers, overall a very pleasant experience. Wait a minute! They let me take my full bottle of Coke Zero, a Te (tea) drink, and a bottle of water! Didn't we just go through security??? This must be a dream from decades back....I think I need a drink.



Terminal: a bar filled with smoke (anyone been to Atlanta and seen those people crammed into the smoker's room? yep, same thing but here they are drinking while smoking). I go in and ask the gal at the counter if I could have the 'quesadilla special' that includes a cervesa - and could I get that 'to go?' With the assistance of a very nice gentleman translating, she said sure, and I promptly walked out of the smoke filled bar and into the terminal carrying my two beers. My kid got the special too, but he is too young to drink! Oh, well, someone has to drink it.

There I sat, with my handsome hubs on one side of me, enjoying his empanada, and my handsome 17yr old son on the other, checking out his Facebook page, eating a quesadilla, and me, in the middle. Enjoying beer. IN PUBLIC VIEW. Horrors! I am such a bad example according to US laws. Oh yeah, that's right: I am in Ecuador. If only for a few more hours.


And then as we board the plane: yep, the long and strong arm of the US is ever present and wielding it's power. Our carry-ons are opened and checked. We are patted down, albeit a light "I don't really want to do this but I have to" kind of thing, and we are on board. We are welcomed with headsets, pillows and blankets in every seat, and ...oh, eye masks and ear plugs! I remember those! And the pleasant yet sad journey home has begun. Sweetened with a snack of lasagne, cake, and unlimited wine. 

Welcome home to the USA. Long custom's lines, and yes we had the special invitation to go to inspection room 15 and have all our luggage, including carry-ons and purse, screened. Again. I feel so special!


:D