Day 1: E-ville to Miami, Day 2: Miami to Quito

Day 1:  E-ville to Miami

Quote of the day: Are you going to let us on the shuttle? Si…uno minuto, por favor, senor

Weather:  Clear, humid in Miami

We upgraded all our American/Lan flights to business/first class, and the first leg is a real pleasure:  much leg room, good on the back. They pass out tablets; THB ignores his and sticks with Kindle. M&P also on the flight. 

Long wait for the bags, and we watch as shuttles for 20 hotels pass us by until the Sheraton shuttle arrives and the reason for the lack of a Sheraton shuttle becomes apparent: the shuttle driver is verbose with wry humor en espanol con totalmente las personas. Slight meal of quesadilla con pollo and drinks in the Sheraton bar, $37, and off for a short night’s sleep.

Book Review: Swimming Home, Deborah Levy. A short novel of a British family vacation with another couple at a house in the south of France where a young woman shows up, asks if she can stay with the vacationers, and things go wrong. Mildly recommended

Day 2:  Miami to Quito

Quote of the day:  has your bag come off yet?

Pics: Sheraton, new Miami Marlins ballpark (alas, for another time to inside), in and around downtown including P with locally grown crop

Weather:  Overcast and humid in Miami, dark and humid in Quito

Breakfast buffet, included, total for hotel $190.

Instead of fitness center, the four of us cab into town and slowly walk Old Town and along the river, cab back, wash up and head to airport, very early, arriving at 12:30 for a 3:55 flight (for Miami, they advise getting to airport 3 hours early). We eat at a restaurant in the top of the hotel inside the terminal; sandwiches and iced tea, $35. We meet up with S&A at the gate, they’ve come a few days early to Miami to visit with family and friends.

Off to Quito…

Not exactly: Miami now has big weather and our flight leaves 3 hours late; we sit in the plane the whole time. And, part of that time was to return to gate to add more fuel as they planned to take off to north and circle south. By the time it takes to add the extra fuel, it has cleared up and we head south anyway. It’s a 4+ hr flight (slower than usual due to weather and possibly extra fuel weight) and then a long wait at customs, only to find out that S&A’s bag didn't make the flight. That means we are at Quito airport for over 1.5 hours, then there is a 1 hour van ride to the hotel, and thus we didn't make it to hotel until after 1am local time (it’s one hour earlier here than Miami, so is that 2am body time or 11pm body time for west coasters?), for a grand total of 13 hours transit for a 3 hour 45 minute flight. That’s if THB can still do math after this journey. He’s pretty sure he can’t.

And, for S&A, they have to hope their bag gets here on the next day’s flight, or else it will be trailing far after them as we head to the Galapagos early the second day in Quito.

The Casa Gagnotena in downtown Quito is spectacular, though THB is having a very hard time appreciating the grandeur given the travel weariness.