Saturday, May 14, 2016

The cellphone alarm chimed at 5:30 am, giving us plenty of time to handle last-minute household chores, before our neighbor, Bill Winterhalter, showed up to take us to the airport.  Bill was at our door promptly at 9:15 am, ready to load his truck.  Lauren handed him the sherry nut cake we made as a thank you for this neighborly gesture. 

Getting the house and pets ready for this trip was a lot of work but we left it cleaned, ready for Dick and Mona’s overnight stay on May 18^th.  Post-It notes were strategically placed in the kitchen area so the neighbor girls, Kaylee and Lynsey, would have reminders of their pet sitting responsibilities.  At the time, we were fostering a mama cat, Sabrina, and her four kittens, Effie, Barlow, Ankita, and Ashton,  We found a woman to foster them while we were gone so Kaylee and Lynsey could focus on our four cats. 

NOTE: We had no idea that the foster volunteer, Holly, already had 22 cats she was fostering for the animal shelter.  We were stunned she would volunteer to take ours but she seemed very normal and highly intelligent so we didn’t worry that she was some sort of cat hoarder.   She also had a dog, by the way.

Blue skies and light traffic were good omens for the journey to Guayaquil, Ecuador.  Due to reported delays caused by understaffed TSA security lines, we got to the Asheville airport well in advance of our 11:15 am departure.

No worries.  We were just about the only ones at the airport.  Three agents took care of checking our bags out of sheer boredom.  For this trip, we were allowed one checked bag weighing no more than 44 lbs. as well as one personal carryon item.  (Lauren and I were well under with about 30 lbs each.) The weight restriction was important because a small plane would be taking us from the mainland to the Galapagos. 

We were the only ones to go through security as well.  That was fantastic but there was a glitch with my carryon as I had put a small jar of almond butter in it for future snacking.  The TSA guy encouraged me to go to customer service to mail it to myself.  I commented that this would cost far more than the $6.00 I had paid for it but I gamely went anyway.  For the record, it would have cost me $14.  Another TSA guy suggested I put it in my already checked baggage.  Since we had plenty of time and there was no one at the American counter, I did as he suggested.   Lauren and I had matching green rolling duffels so it was easy for them to spot it amongst the other checked bags.

Charles and I sought out a seat at the airport restaurant while Lauren waited at the gate.  I had scrambled eggs and toast and Charles had a yogurt and fruit/granola cup.  The airport coffee is great.

We departed Asheville for Charlotte at 11:30 a.m.    We had about an hour in the Charlotte airport so Lauren grabbed something to eat then.  We departed CLT for Miami at 1:20 p.m. and arrived, uneventfully and as planned, at 3:40 p.m.  We were excited because we were going to meet up with Jill.  Jill had done a quick calculus of her NY to Miami flight plan and, sagely, changed to an earlier flight to avoid possibly missing her Miami connection to Guayaquil.  She was waiting for us on Concourse D, Gate 50, having only just arrived herself.

Jill, Lauren, and I ambled around, looking for dinner to take on the plane.  Jill and I got a veggie roll and California roll, respectively.  I later realized this was a bad choice because it would not be refrigerated.  I pulled out the crab before eating to avoid ruining the trip with food poisoning.  We rejoined Charles who was watching over our bags to let him find something.  He grabbed some Cuban coffee, which we can’t get in Asheville.

At 6:00 p.m., we either were on the plane or taking off.  We three girls were seating in Row 25 and Charles was in front of Jill in Row 24.  SnapChat proved to be immensely entertaining as the three of us took turns “trying on” the various face overlays available.  I was so tickled with the results and we did screen-shots of many them for our memory book.  There is a video of me as a puppy dog, happily licking with a huge pink tongue.  Lauren is really handy with the SnapChat art tools and turned Jill into a deviish mermaid. 

I must note here that this was the 100^th day of the gratitude texts Ann Jennings, Linda Nuzum, Valerie Miller, and I shared with each other nightly.  We had agreed 100 days earlier that we had a lot to be thankful for and pledged to let each other know, via text, the three top blessings of the day.

I typically am miserable  on long-distance flights but Snapchat fun and watching an episode of Ru Paul’s All-Stars Drag Race with Lauren (one ear bud in my ear, the other in hers) kept me entertained.  The Big Short was the in-flight movie and I watched that again while Jill enjoyed it for the first time.   When all the technology of exhausted, I read the Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli, a surprisingly interesting little book, which distilled the information I had been gleaning from weightier books into terrific “sound bytes” for lay people such as I.  It provided an overview of the most fascinating aspects of the great revolution that has occurred in physics in the 20^th century and the questions and mysteries it has opened up. 

The Miami-Guayaquil leg had been less than optimal, to be kind.  We expected the seating to be cramped but did not anticipate the flight attendants to be unsmiling and of minimal help. Very surprising and certainly disappointing.  We did get a meal service of chicken or pasta but it was nothing special. 

We landed, a really bumpy one, at the José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport on time, around 10:30 p.m. As we stepped off the plane into the hallway, I was present to everything around me to ensure that I savored every moment of this privilege.  I knew it was unlikely that I would ever be in Ecuador again.  I studied the tourist travel signage lining the narrow corridor walls conveying us to Customs.  I tried to absorb even the sparse, totally uninteresting commercial landscape beyond the plate glass windows on the opposing side of those walls. 

 It would take quite awhile, however, to clear customs.  The line was long and slow moving.  Once we had our travel intentions declared and passports stamped, we moved on to the luggage claim area to find our bags.  Jill, being a savvy and frequent flier, only had carry on.   When I didn’t readily see my bag, I saw the wisdom of this.  Fortunately, all of our bags made it. 

It was a bit unsettling to see how many bags were wrapped in plastic – a sure way to keep thieves out of baggage.  We joined the queue.  Behind us was a medical missionary, a dentist, who was spending a week in Ecuador.  A 7.8 magnitude earthquake shook Ecuador on April 16, which was felt strongly in the capital of Quito.  There was great need.  He had boxed up  medical equipment and it was hard for him to manage moving it along the line.  We helped him by running interference to allow him a clear place in line as many were jostling for places. 

We had booked passage through tour operator Lindblad on its National Geographic staffed ship, The Islander.  When we were traveling up the Rhine on a Viking Cruise last June, we had met a well-seasoned travel agent, Bonnie Barry, who stated that her favorite destinations were Africa and the Galapagos.  Charles and I decided to move that Galapagos up in rank

on our Bucket List.  She also highly praised Lindblad so we booked with them.  When Bonnie learned we were going, she made virtually last-minute plans to join us and brought along her 40-something daughter, Robyn, as well.   

Lauren had commented to me that she didn’t want to get to the Islands because that meant we would be closer to leaving.  I understood her perfectly.  We had been anticipating this trip for almost a year and I had been erratically emailing “Fun Facts to Know and Tell”  about the Islands to Lauren, Charles, Jill, and our friends Bonnie, Dave and Robyn.

Nat Geo representatives gathered us together and led us to a small tour bus waiting outside.  The warmth and humidity hit me at once.  There were more than a dozen others who came on this flight.  Other travelers had flown into Quito and we would meet them at the airport in Guayaquil the next day.  It was a short 10-minute bus ride to the Hilton Colon Guayaquil but our Travel Director, Rodney Bravo, filled the time with a rundown of protocols and the following day’s itinerary.  The landscape was unremarkable so our attention was focused.  The four of us were lined up on the bank of seat at the very back of the bus, which had a musty air, matching the humid feel of the city.

One look at the lobby and it was easy to tell this was a high-end establishment.  A valet greeted us with a tray of ice-cold washcloths, which he picked up with tongs to give to every one in our group.  Like ducks, we filed over to the reception desk to get our room key cards and complimentary free drink ticket.  There were light refreshments offered as well.  

The elevator was part glass, which made it fun to look up at the soaring ceiling, across through the expansive window-paned exterior walls, and down over the pendant lamps and fireplace.  Our bags were in our rooms, 715 and 717.  The rooms were expansive and well-appointed with amenities one comes to expect in a luxury hotel.  I really liked the pinpoint lighting meant for reading located on the headboard of our super comfy bed. 

 Connecting doors allowed us to visit with Jill and Lauren.  It was close to midnight and we had to be up for a 7:15 a.m. breakfast so we just got ready for bed.  Yet, where was Lauren?  I had several worried moments when we learned from Jill that she might have gone down to the bar to use her complimentary drink ticket for a rum and coke.  I was about to get redressed to find her when she appeared.  Needless to say, we gave her a lecture about strange places.