November 14, 2007

Maryland to Quito

After waking up at 6am and getting ready, G and I drove to his brother's house. His brother drove us to the airport where we checked in with Delta. Our flight was slightly delayed taking off, but we landed in Atlanta with plenty of time to catch our flight.

The Quito flight was on time, although the aicraft was very run down. The flight was scheduled to take 4.5 hours. When we got to Quito the pilot said we had arrived at Quito, but were at 25,000 feet. There was not enough visibility to land. We were going to circle hoping for the fog to lift.

The pilot came on saying we were preparing to land, but instead of Quito we were landing in Guayaquil. He said that the decision on how to get us back would be made once we landed. After landing, we waited about 15 minutes before they allowed all passengers whose final destination was Guayaquil to de-plane. About 15 minutes later, the pilot said the other passengers could leave the plane to make phone calls and get food. G was one of the seven who was able to make it off before they stopped that said everyone must get back into their seats. That the weather had cleared and we were trying to get ready to take off. After waiting for all the passengers to return and then just waiting another hour the Guayaquil to Atlanta passengers got on to go with us to Quito. The flight was re-routed. We then waited another 30 minutes before we could push back, and then due to flight plan issues we waited again to take off.

Our 10:30pm scheduled flight landed at 1:30am. We made it through immigration and customs with no issues and walked out into the mass sea of people. Luckily G is tall and Heide, his cousin was able to find us. She then drove us to her house in Conocoto on the outskirts of Quito.

It is so cool to be back. So much is the same, but the freeway system is all new.