By January, we found out that we weren't going to be able to go to Peru because Amy was going to Australia for a wedding and couldn't do both. Ugh, lame. I guess I will be going to Ecuador a third time in Spring 2020. We did find out what days we will be gone and for how long. This year we were going to northern Ecuador and will be staying with Amy's friend Joyce who now lives there. Joyce had several connections and planned the entire thing for the organization.
We got all of our travel plans situated, I put my leave in and now all I had to do was pack my stuff. We were taking a direct flight from Seattle to Mexico City, Mexico and have a 12 hour layover. Mom and Amy decided to book a tour since we were going to be there for that long. I knew that Thursday was going to be a very long day especially getting up at 6 a.m., working the entire day and then traveling several thousand miles through two time zones. We had just sprung forward too.
Ben got his days mixed up and thought I was leaving on Friday so he had to work Thursday night. I did get to see him on his break for about an hour. I really didn't have time to make dinner so he ate leftovers while I finished packing all my stuff. I didn't want to forget anything since I was going to be gone for about 12 days. We said our goodbyes and he went back to work. I told him I would update him when we were taking off and when we touched down.
I put my seats down and tossed my stuff inside. I drove into Rainier to pick up mom and her stuff. We were to meet Amy and Josh at the office in Yelm. We got to the office and started getting the rest of the dental supplies packed up. Amy, Josh and Tucker arrived with the truck and the bags we were suppose to cram the stuffed animals and supplies into. We tried to get everything stuffed in and we knew that they were going to be 50 lbs or very close.
Tucker and Josh helped us bring the bags out and put them in the back of the truck. We each had our carry-on, a personal suitcase and dental supply/stuffed animal suitcase. All together we had four carry-ons and eight check-ins. That was a lot of luggage and it was heavy. We left the office around 7:30 and Tucker drove.
We stopped in Nisqually at the newish store across from Red Wind Casino to grab some food. I grabbed a sandwich, chips and a Pepsi. I knew it would be a while until got a sandwich again since Mexico and Ecuador really don't specialize in sandwiches. I ate my food as we drove north on I-5. Traffic was minimal at that time on a Thursday so we really didn't worry about getting there late.
When we arrived, Tucker pulled over at the departures drop-off and helped us get our luggage out of the back of the truck. We thanked him for taking us to the airport and we each grabbed two suitcases/bags and made our way to the ticket line. Surprisingly, the ticket line for our international flight went pretty quickly. We got our checked bags tagged and our tickets for AeroMexico. Since we are doing a humanitarian project and had all of our proper paperwork, we were able to get our second bag fee waived. We thanked the ticket clerk for doing that for us. And, our bags were going all of the way to Quito which meant we didn't have to pack them with us the 12 hours we were in Mexico.
We went through security and customs and then filed into the tram that took us out to the international gates. There, we had to hang out for a bit. I used the bathroom several times, wandered around, filled up my water bottle (even though it was icky city water) and we all talked about the plan while we were in Mexico.
Mom and I fumbled with her new SD card. Apparently it will tag the location and the time of where you took the picture. It also had capabilities of being able to post directly from the camera from your phone but I have yet to see this. It wouldn't let us download certain parts of it so we just gave up and went with it.
It was our time to board. We all got to sit in the exit rows, mom and I were on one side and Josh and Amy were across the aisle. We had an empty seat between us which was nice because it gave us more room to relax.
We got comfortable and about an hour into our flight they fed us ham croissants, peanuts, chocolate bar and I just drank my water from the Nalgene. I find it interesting that the international flights will feed you when you are traveling less than a few hours but domestic flights just give you peanuts or pretzels. If you wanted an actual meal you had to pay like $8 for it.
After I finished my food I went through the free movies on the screen and found one I haven't seen but saw on commercials. It was called Instant Family and it was a pretty good movie. It had a great storyline and was entertaining. Part of it was sad but had a happy ending. I think I slept for less than 3 hours after that. I woke up just before dawn and saw the sunrise through the window. I knew it was going to be a long hot day.
Next Adventure: A Tour of Mexico City, Teotihuacan Pyramids and Quito, Ecuador
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