South of the border – Way South

It started like most trips, planning for a couple of months, develop a packing list, reserve a few apartments, hotels, tours, etc., try to keep the costs down. Then a practice packing session where we lay out everything we think we’ll need and see if it fits in our suitcases. Getting pretty good at this part.

So, for our South of the Border adventure, everything fit into out suitcases and backpacks. Backpacks are a little heavy but everything fits. Suitcases are right at 32#s each. That’s for 3 months of travel. Laundry will be every 9 days so we’re good to go.

Before I get too far along, take a minute and enjoy a tune by the Doodie Brothers in honor of our journey

Back to our regularly scheduled program… the journey began early Friday morning with check in at the Delta counter in Denver International Airport. Flight was at 7:05am so not a lot of people here. Checked in and headed for security when we found out that somehow, no TSA Precheck. WTF!!! Been a Global Entry member for 10 years and no TSA Precheck! Pisser! Now we have to strip down and unpack those backpacks that are jammed with all the stuff we couldn’t put in the suitcases. Not to mention the “fellin up” I get just because I have artificial hips. Only good thing about this whole ordeal.

Stop bitching already! Made the plane, got our seats, all good. Made it to Atlanta for our connection with plenty of time to drop a couple of hundred dollars on lunch before the 5.5hr flight to Quito, Ecuador. Rodrigo will be waiting for us at the International Passenger exit in Quito to drive us to our apartment. Good thing, the airport in Quito is 50 minutes away from the city, and I thought Denver was bad!

Back on the plane, something was a brewin! What, the air conditioner has stopped working! Enter the mechanics. There’s no way in hell this plane is leaving on time. I don’t care if the pilot can’t find reverse, if you call a mechanic, he’s getting his 1hr charge – do or die!

Sure enough, 1 hr later, all is good and cool air is freely flowing throughout the cabin. To the skies we go.

Remember Rodrigo, the guy going to meet us at the airport. Well, he was there when we arrived at 10:30pm, after customs and immigration, which for the record, was painless. Simple questions, look in the camera, have a nice night. Next!

Made it to our apartment and boy we’re we glad we paid to have Rodrigo pick us up. Athens, Porto and Dubrovnik pride themselves on being built on multiple hills. Well, they got nothing on Quito, and these hills are steep! We would have made it to the apartment by midnight if Rodrigo could have gotten the car out of first gear. So we did make it, met the concierge Segundo who will do our laundry, if needed, walked through the apartment and enjoyed the city lights. But now…time to open the suitcases, unpack a few things and get to bed. Tomorrow we have a tour of Quito and the surrounding area so off to bed. Great first day.

Welcome to Ecuador.

Pics from the house…

2nd bedroom

Entryway

Kitchen

Living & Dining room

Master bedroom with glass floor (Yep, glass floor)