| Oct 5, 2005 - Day of travel
| Well I did not expct to make an entry devoted soley to my travel day, but after yesterday, I think it warants it. It starts with just 2 hours of sleep the night before, a morning run to CVS for last-minute items, 55 pounds spread over 2 bags, and JFK airport.
Now, I did my research, I know about visas and when I need them and when I don't. Some of the countries I will visit require a visa, but most of them you can just get upon entry (at least, as a US citizen you can). Other countries require proof of departure from their country, called an "onward ticket". Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay are these countries. Ecuador is not. I know this from my guide book, and from 3 friends that I spoke to who have done a very similar trip to this. American Airlines disagreed with all of us. Not even 50 feet into the airport, I am trying to check in, and the woman at the counter tells me "you are staying in Ecuador too long, they won't let you in". I explain that I will be leaving for other countries in just a month, but since I do not have proof of this, she says, "if we send you there, they will deport you. You have to change your return ticket, or we cannot let you leave." Luckily, I booked my flight with frequent flier miles, so I can change the date and time of my ticket as often as I want for no extra charge. So we just changed it to December so that it looks like I am leaving within 90 days, the duration of Ecuador's typical tourist visa. I just need to change it back later, but not until after I enter Peru, so I don't have to deal with that again.
Then all is well. I get to my gate, get on the plane, and fly to Miami. We land a bit late, and I have one hour until my next flight takes off. Turns out I need to walk from terminal D to the other side of the airport at terminal A. Ever been to Miami airport? It is huge! This takes me between 15-20 minutes to get there, and literally as I arrive I hear them announce on the loud speaker, this flight has been moved. Your new gate is in terminal D. D45. One gate away from where I got off. So I do the walk back, about 35 minutes round trip. Get there, and the flight is delayed an hour. They say the plane we were gonna take hit a bird, which did damage, and had to land in El Salvador, so we are waiting for another plane to come. Fine, no problem, I'll just get in later. I board the plane, scarf down the airplane meal since it was my first real meal of the day, and watch Seabiscuit which they show. All in all, I maybe slept a total of an hour on the 2 flights.
Arrive in Quito, get through customs (of course, they did not ask for any onward ticket) and get my bag fine. Find a taxi and give him directions to the hostel I chose from my guide book. We get to the address and it is a Swiss Chalet restaurant. Where is Daugi's? The driver and I ask around, and Daugi's closed down some time in the past year! I píck another hostel, get there, check in, and very happily put all my stuf down. I am staying in a "dorm" room with 4 other people.
There were over 20 english-speaking travellers from all over the world there, and it was nice to have some company and conversation. Luckily, it was free Rum & Coke night at the hostel... and that helped. |
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