Day 2 - January 1, 2009

We had an absolutely wonderful buffet breakfast after a good work out. The room was wonderful and well worth the price. In the early afternoon the hotel van arrived to take us to the train station. The driver was quite a large man - think John Candy - in a very well-worn polo shirt and well-worn shoes; not exactly management material. However, he promptly informed us that this was not his normal job; they were short handed. He said he had employees and told us how important he was the whole time he drove us to the station. He was quite a contrast from the handsome young, well-dressed black man who was our driver the night before. That man looked like management material.

On the plane we were fortunate to have a whole row to ourselves and our bags fit under the seat in front of us. We had an over five-hour flight ahead of us. I thought things were looking up.
When it came to meal time we discovered they had nothing for gluten-intolerant, vegetarians. Why not? I mean; it can't be that difficult to put together a decent meal for a gluten-intolerant vegetarian, can it? They did manage to scrounge something up for us and it was actually pretty good.
Each passenger got a headset and free movies, TV, games or music. Yippee. I tried to listen to music. Nothing. Well, I will read, I thought. Much later we were getting quite restless while everyone else was enjoying a good movie. We thought we should, too. I even found a movie I wanted to watch. But it wouldn't work. None of the screens on our row worked. We finally managed to get someone to listen. "Oh," he said. "It just needs reprogramming. Turn it off for ten minutes and I will reboot it." After he did that twice, well, you know the rest of the story. While others were enjoying their movies all we could do was monitor the progress of the flight. Which, by the way, was pretty neat!

We were late arriving at about 11:20 pm. We now had to go through dreaded Customs. We have read all of the horror stories of how they pilfer through your underwear looking for contraband. But, that was not the case. Unlike the United States, Ecuador does not treat all of its citizens and visitors like terrorists. They treat us like guests. With a big bienvenidos and little fanfare; after checking out our papers and putting the bags through a screening device, we were on our way.
We were a bit terrified that we would not be able to find anyone waiting for us. It was late and I had confirmed reservations and a charter to the Radisson from the airport through our wonderful friends at Ecuador Living. I had the surprise of a lifetime, though, when we went out the door and there, right in front of this large crowd waiting for their loved ones, was a sign that read "Radisson - Laura Hatton." My name right there. I felt like I was home already.