WEATHER: Airports all day till Quito which was 22C and sunny
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Finally getting to my destination and seeing Amy again
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not having any travel documents for this portion of the trip
BUYS OF THE DAY: Hotel nachos for dinner for 8AUD
Would it be sad to say I am missing the bing bing bong of the ships PA system to wake us up and the dulcet tones of Susan telling us what day it is, the date, the temperature outside and a good morning. Yeah probably, but I miss it. That and waking up and not seeing my roomie by my side, with her ear plugs in her ears which I am hoping was not from my snoring!
It was 6.30am. The boarding time on my boarding pass said that the gate closes at 8.55am. As I have no bags to check and no check-in counter to see this morning and a 3 minute walk to the airport, I figured if I got there for around 7.30am I should be okay. So after checking out at 7.29am, I found myself at the airport at 7.30am and went straight to immigration. This felt so weird. I felt like I needed to tell them I was here or something, but I had my boarding passes, I didn’t need to do anything else, so after waiting in line for 30 minutes, we got stuck in a shift change at 8am, I was through into the departure lounges. Perfect timing at 8.10am. I made my way straight to the gate and only had to sit there for 30 minutes before they called my flight. LAN has this awesome system at the gate that they have 3 lines based on row numbers. So I was in the 31-40 row line, and this gave us priority over the other 2 lines that were sitting in rows before 31. What a great system I have to say. I am flying on a 767-300 this morning and it looks like a fairly new plane. The seating configuration is 2x3x2 and in seat TV’s. Plenty of overhead locker space, seatbelts and leg room. I like LAN. The flight is only ¾ full and what you know I had the seat next to me free AGAIN! Maybe there is something I should know about, even though it is a bonus for me, I could really start getting a complex about this! Fly time was 3 hours and 46 minutes and I am travelling 2548km. I feel like I am doing a ‘round South America in 24 hours’ by the end of this component having passed through 4 of countries to get to my final destination. It seems like a bit of a milk run, which it is, these were the flights that were cancelled when I was in Africa and Beth and Chris worked on getting me connections to still get me to Quito on the 20th due to the cruise leaving. But then only 3 weeks ago the cruise was moved by a day and I could have kept the changed flights…and the South America flight saga continues. My last flight on the 29th is the most important, but I’m not going to jinx it all by stating the facts and just hope it all falls into place.
We landed at 11.30am and had to wait 15 minutes to be able to get to a free gate in Lima. My boarding time wasn’t until 12.20pm, so I had a good 50 minutes up my sleeve to just get to the right gate. There were people in front of me that had to be at their gate at 11.45am and we were still on the plane then waiting for the doors to open. Poor buggers I wonder if they made their flight to Caracas? So all connection passengers have to go through a screening process before getting to the departure gates. I don’t really get this system, all airports do it, and we have just come straight off a flight, that had been security screened, where do they think we would/could get something to add to our bags? It was pretty busy here at the screening and by the time I got through I only had 20 minutes to get to gate 28, and you guessed it, it was located right at the other end of the terminal. I didn’t have to run, and I had time for a toilet stop, but as it turned out the flight was delayed leaving by 20 minutes, so on airline time I was okay. It was one of those damn bus jobs to the plane, which we know how much I love them and I was seated in 4L. Surly I am not in the premium economy cabin? Well, no I wasn’t. They only had 3 rows, so I was directly behind premium economy. Never mind, I had my beloved window seat. I had unpacked all the ‘stuff’ I need for my flight. My IPod, my notebook and my reading book and I also have out my point and shoot camera. So I was all settled in for the 1 hour 55 minute flight when you can imagine my surprise when some-one on the second wave of bus arrivals said I was sitting in their seat. I now double check before I strap in that I am in the right row and seat number, so I knew it wasn’t me, but then she produced her boarding pass and she also had 4L. So they have double booked MY seat. I can pretty much guarantee I had the seat allocated to me first yesterday, and if push came to shove, I was NOT going to be booted off the flight if it was full. I have a ship and a friend to catch. I was NOT going to be offloaded. As it turns out the flight was not full, we were given our boarding passes back and mine now had a pen written 1 in front of my 4. I asked if I had to move, which I totally didn’t want to do, but they said to just stay there and see how we go with the loadings. Anyway after the last people boarded including the middle seat of our row with an old old lady who could barely walk we were ready to leave Lima.
The flight to Lima was only 1 hour and 55 minutes and I was on a LAN A319 plane with a 3x3 seating configuration. They only had the drop screens every 5 seats, but as like all their other flights, plenty of overhead space, seatbelt space and leg room. The only thing I am concerned about is what they are going to feed us on the flight. From Buenos Aires to Santiago we got a ham and cheese roll and a juice. From Santiago to Lima we got a ham and cheese roll and some peaches in a cup, and low and behold after we reached cruising level we got a ham and cheese roll and a fancy chocolate. Man they need to vary their menu just a smidgen. Maybe there was a sale on the ham at the airline store, so they are just trying to get rid of it all. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy a ham and cheese sandwich with the best of them, but 3 in 3 flights, come on LAN. So that really was my only gripe. Which they got me to my destination with no complications so I should just be grateful for that. The next test would be if my bag finally turned up after being checked in since 6pm the following day.
We were given the landing forms while on the flight, which is awesome and when I got to the question on the name of the hotel and address, I sat there and had to think. I have no idea on where I am staying in Quito. I pulled up the voucher that Beth had sent me and it was basically just a one page overview voucher stating our transfer details and the name of the company that was looking after our booking. So if for some reason the transfer guys wasn’t there, and being a Sunday afternoon the office wasn’t manned, I literally would have nowhere to go as I didn’t know which hotel we were booked in. This can sometimes happen when you book through 3rd parties, but there was a comment that an information pack would be available upon arrival. Gee I hope so.
No-one needs a visa for Ecuador, so it was just a process of standing in line to get the passport stamped and heading to the baggage carousel. The bag trolleys weren’t free here, so I decided to just suck it up and carry my bags through the last security screen of the day. So I was waiting, waiting, waiting for my bag. People were leaving and the crowd was growing thinner and I was starting to think that maybe my bag had not made it when I saw it come out – oh thank the travel god again. Touchwood for my last 3 flights this continues. No I just need to have my transfer man with my name on a board when I came through the arrival doors. The doors opened and the first 5 signed were not for me and then I saw my guy talking to another board holder and I let out a HUGE sigh of relief!
Welcome to Quito he said as he took my backpack. It is actually getting harder to carry when my straps are zipped up for travelling as the top carry handle has not broken and the side carry handle is now on its last legs and is halfway ripped though. My bag has done so well to date, and really she only has to hold on for the return flights to the Galapagos and the last booked flight to Lima and we are home free for 5 months on the overland truck. Keep it together old girl!
So as we were waiting for the transfer to pull up, he asked me which hotel I was staying at! Funny right! I thought he was taking the piss and when I realized he wasn’t so I told him I was hoping that he knew as I have no documents or vouchers of any kind. So he looked up on his sheet and told me we were staying at the Hotel Dan Carlton, well thank goodness some-one knows where we are going. No arrival pack, but everything seems to be going to plan at this stage. Franco was quite nice and gave me a quick rundown of Quito. The airport was only a 15 minute drive from the hotel, so it was super quick. He re-confirmed the week’s details and without me asking, he knew about the free city tour that had been offered and our collection time was 8.45am tomorrow and that the pack should be at the hotel when we get there. Quito is the 2nd highest capital in the world at 2800m, so the air is a lot thinner, and here I was thinking that all the ship food was catching up with me and I was super unfit. Their local currency is the USD. They changed from their own currency 11 years ago. This is great news for me, as I will be able to stock up on my USD kitty that was starting to get depleted without having to do a double exchange. Awesome.
As we have now been upgraded onto a 5 star ship, our hotel also got upgraded for the 2 nights we are in Quito. The Hotel Dann Carlton is an amazing hotel and very classy. When Franco checked me in, there was no package, but within 10 minutes I was in the lift and into my room on the 6th floor. Amy was due in at 6.30pm, so I had a few hours to kill before her arrival. It has been 16 months since we have last seen each other when I went for a visit to the Meaf (her home town in Canada) to see her. It will be uber awesome to have her around for my birthday, which is now in 6 days!
As I waited for Amy to arrive I tried a million times to load my Antarctic photos to Facebook, but as they have changed the system (again) it is stalling after only loading a few and I have to shut down my whole profile and re-log back in. I was only gone for 11 days from using the old system, so I am hoping that they get their shit sorted soon as I don’t want to get too far behind in the uploading department, especially when I had access to free hotel Wi-Fi. I also checked out the room service menu and I have to say for a 5 star hotel the prices were reasonable with a burger for 12USD and nachos for 8USD. As I know Amies will be as tired as I was, we were just going to have room service for dinner, catch up on A LOT of GOSSIP and then get some shuteye. The downside to having the airport so close to the city and our hotel is the planes flying overhead sound like they are about to land on your building. Quito International seems to be a super busy airport and there were still planes flying in at 1am this morning. They seriously are going overhead every hour just about.
Aimes arrived just after 7pm. After a massive hug, tipping the concierge and a massive catch up we ordered out room service meal. It was like we had just picked up where we had left off 16 months ago. I love friendships like that and just know we are going to have an awesome time in the Galapagos. This makes me feel happy and good inside. It also occurred to Amy on her flight while filling in the landing forms that SHE didn’t know where we were staying either. What great world travelers we make!!!! But it all worked out, so nothing lost. Luckily.
So what another massive travel day to chalk up for the books.
4 flights
4 countries
24 hours total travel
12 hours sitting in a plane it will be the last massive travel day I will have till early May next year and as mentioned previously I have no idea where that will be just yet, but from South America to anywhere entails massive fly times.
So goodnight from me – good night from Aimes and welcome to Quito.
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