Ecuador Day 12: Early Morning Flight back to the States via El Salvador, Los Angeles and Finally Home

We had the front desk call us around 2:30 a.m.  I felt like crap and wanted to sleep longer then I realized I was going back to the US and my own bed and motivated me to get ready to go.  I was so done with traveling at this point.  I've been on way too many airplanes, been around way too many germs, got sick (which I still have a cough from) and been around way too many people.  I was done.

I got changed, did my bathroom stuff, made sure I didn't leave anything in the bathroom, packed my bag with the stuff I wouldn't need on the plane, checked my bed, under the bed, the table tops and the bedside table to double check I didn't leave anything behind.  Mom was getting all of her stuff ready as well.  We didn't want to be the people holding up anyone.

We went downstairs, checked out, gave them back the room cards and waited for Amy, Beth and Kaitlin and our taxi to come.  I found out two more of our volunteers were also staying at the hotel as well and had almost identical flights back to the US.  Amy, Beth and Kaitlin were late coming down so the two ladies took our taxi.  Amy was so upset because she specifically called for that cab to come get us.  I honestly didn't know if it was theirs or ours because they also could have called a cab for themselves.  The hotel got us two more because we all were not going to fit inside of just one with all of our bags.

About five minutes later we were on our way to the airport.  At this point every minute counted.  We paid the taxi driver, made sure all of our bags were out and we went inside to find our line.  Our line was really long and I actually was worried we might not get a spot on the plane.  When we got closer to the roped off area of the line, some guy cut in front of everyone and some lady really didn't like it.  She called over some security guy and turns out the guy was waiting in the wrong line and wasted all that time.  Karma.

When we finally got to the desk to check in, we gave her our passports, we checked in our bags this time and hoped that we received them when we got to Seattle.  She gave us our tickets and we were literally the last ones on the plane to El Salvador.  We went through security, which took a little while, walked to our gate and got on quickly.  We found out seats and got situated.  Everything since 2:30 a.m. seemed very rushed.  Our plane left late because of the ticketing delay.  Mom sat behind me.  I watched Gifted and ate breakfast on our way to El Salvador which was almost a 3 hour flight.

The flight was very turbulent as we were getting closer to El Salvador.  During our descent, as we got past the clouds, we could see how rainy it was.  The country was very green and it would be cool someday to actually explore it.  We arrived in El Salvador late and we immediately had to get off the plane (which we had to walk the tarmac in the rain), run through the corridor, after finding out our gate, Gate 10, (because it wasn't on our ticket), rush though security (had to take off our shoes and I had to debag my laptop).  They were boarding everyone and we were a few of the last passengers on the flight.  We all sat together in the middle of the plane.  This plane was one of the bigger air busses so a lot of people were going back to the US.  We all sat in the row that didn't have screens for movies.  We got lucky because no one else got to watch movies either.  They made an announcement stating that they were having technical difficulties with the media onboard and none of the screens were going to work the duration of the flight.  Of course it would be for the longest portion of our flight back to the US.

I got my notebook out and wrote some stuff down in it.  We were served some food and drinks but we mostly slept during this leg of our flight.  I am so glad I bought that blanket because it came in handy while I was sleeping.  I was freezing.  The 5 and a half hour flight was grueling.  I so wanted to be in the US because it meant one step closer to home, food, shower and bed.  Just before our descent the flight attendants brought around a declaration document that we had to fill out.  It was basically who we were, where we were coming from and going to, what we were bringing into the country and how much it was worth and gave them back to them.

When they said we were on our final descent into LAX I got so excited I wanted to be there already.  We touched down, slowed our momentum and made the journey to our gate to get off.  I turned my phone off of airplane mode.  It has been on airplane mode for 12 days.  I was surprised that I only got one text message that entire time and it was from Grammie who said, "yea you are coming home!  I am so glad, seems like you have been gone a long time.  You helped a lot of people!  Had a lot of adventures!  Anxious to hear your stories.  Love ya bunches!"

I could not wait to get off the plane and through security and customs so we could eat before the next plane ride.  We had no idea how long it would actually take but we were glad we had that 2 hour plus cushion.

We had to wait in a huge line just to go through customs.  Once we got through the line and to the actual customs area downstairs, we went to a kiosk to put in our information, it scanned our passport and took your picture.  You were to keep that when you saw one of the officials to go over it with you and welcome you back to the US.  That part didn't take that long.  When it was my turn, I walked up to the official and handed him my documents.  He did some stuff on his computer, handed me back my passport and told me "welcome home!"  I was sure happy to hear those words.

Next step was to get our tickets for Seattle and go through security.  I swear we walked a mile to the ticket office.  I was so hungry I started to get hangry.  Every tiny thing bothered me and we were running out of time.  I did not want to stay here any longer than I had to.  Luckily, the ticket line moved faster than the customs line did.  We walked, what seemed like another mile, to security and waited in line there.  I kept checking the time.  I really wanted some time to get some food before we got on the plane.  I was getting really antsy.

We finally got to the end of the security line and I took off my shoes and took the laptop out of the bag.  I was scanned and then on the other side they took the tub with my computer for further scanning.  I was so upset.  I had to wait at least ten minutes and those were a long ten minutes when you are hangry.  The security worker told me that they needed to check my computer for residue and took it to a station and rubbed it down with a cloth and then stuck the cloth into a machine to tell them if it was dangerous or explosive.  My computer was negative for everything.  They handed me back my stuff, I threw on my shoes, stuffed my laptop into my bag and started looking for food on the other side.

I bought a turkey sandwich and Doritos at one store and found a place that sold Pepsi.  I was so excited to eat this food it was literally killing me.  Between airplane food, snacks, Cliff Bars and the food we ate in Ecuador I was so ready for this turkey sandwich, chips and soda.  I found a place to sit and I nommed so hard.  I heard that our flight was going to start boarding soon so I walked to where Mom, Beth, Kaitlin and Amy were sitting and ate the rest of my food.  A few minutes later our airline started boarding.  I've never flown Virgin Airlines before and it was so colorful inside.  I sat next to mom and she gave me the window seat.  We took off shortly after.

I dinked around with the screen and watched an episode of Family Guy then decided to write in my travel journal for a while.  About halfway through the flight they served us cinnamon biscuit cookies and drinks. The ride was pretty uneventful and there wasn't any turbulence which was nice.  I looked out the window several times when we would pass the recognizable landmarks like Mount Shasta, Hood and Rainier.  A few minutes later we were into our descent into Seattle.  I was super stoked!

We touched down and we were welcomed into Seattle earlier than our arrival time.  We made sure to grab all of our stuff and got off the plane.  We were finally home!  We went to our baggage claim carousel and hoped our stuff made it as well.  After a few minutes of waiting we saw our bags.  We grabbed them and got the heck out of there.  Beth's husband came and got her while we added a new passenger, Dr. Harris.

We waited for our shuttle which came within ten minutes and we were on our way back to Amy's SUV in the Ajax parking lot.

We arrived at the lot, got out with our bags and got into the SUV.  One more step closer to home!!  I called Ben to let him know that we are heading towards Lacey, we were going to meet up with Dr. Harris's husband at the Walmart in Hawks Prairie.  I also had Ben come get mom and I.  During the ride home, Dr. Harris asked us about our experiences in Ecuador, what were the things that went well and what are the things that could go better next time.  It was interesting to hear what people had to say.

Ben let me know he was on his way to Walmart as we got closer to Lacey.  Traffic wasn't that bad, which always surprises me, during this time of the evening during the week...especially on a Monday.  When we got there, Dr. Harris's husband and kids and just gotten out of the store so we got to meet them all.  After a couple conversations and some goodbye's, Amy was on her way home with Kaitlin, Dr. Harris and her family were on their way home and Ben picked us up and drove us closer to the store because mom needed a few things.  I bought pizza because I wanted pizza.

We had to drive out to Rainier to drop mom off, said hi to dad and headed home as soon as possible.  I wanted some pizza, a shower, my clothes clean and bed.  I was going to take a coma.  We got home after 7.  I brought all my stuff in, threw the pizza in the oven, peeled my clothes off, showered, put clean clothes on, all while the pizza was cooking so it would be done when I got out, stuffed my clothes in the washer, sat down and ate pizza.  We watched TV as we ate.  The clothes got done shortly after so I threw them in the dryer.  I unpacked the rest of my bag and set everything on the table for when I go through it the next day since I took the day off from work.

Around 10 p.m. I went to bed and didn't wake up until almost noon the next day.  Wow what a trip!  The next planned trip is scheduled for May 2018 but I can't go until May 2019 when our side trip will be Machu Picchu in Peru!

Next Adventure:  Pumpkin Carving Game Night

Ecuador Day 2: The Red Eye Plane Ride, Our Layover in Colombia and A Night Adventure in Guayaquil

As I was contemplating how I was going to stay comfortable and warm, our first meal wheeled up at about midnight, somewhere over Mexico.  I chose the chicken and rice dish, the other was beef and noodles.  I had started my free movie and I chose Wild, so I ate and watched my movie and of course only my left earphone worked.  Man, this flight kept getting better and better.

I watched my movie in its entirety and near the end I was starting to get tired.  This traveling was kicking my butt and I was not even remotely comfortable in my seat to even think of getting any sleep.  I got up to use the restroom and to blow my nose because it was getting very dry with all the recycled air.  Around 2 a.m. we encountered a little bit of turbulence.

I came back to figure out how I was going to sleep.  I tried multiple positions, blew up my inflatable pillow and tried.  Failed.  I sat there for a few minutes and then got frustrated that everyone around me had blankets and I didn't.  I was cold and wanted to sleep.  Beth came by and told me she couldn't sleep and asked how I was doing, I told her I didn't get a blanket and offered me hers since she wasn't using it.  I thanked her and spent the next hour trying to get comfortable to sleep.  I did get at least 1.5 to 3 hours of sleep until daylight woke me up 4:00 a.m. our time and 6:00 a.m. local time.

With an hour and a half left of our flight, the flight attendants handed out drinks and hot sub sandwiches.  Mine was turkey, provolone and pesto and I ate it with water because nothing else sounded good.  I couldn't go back to sleep so I started my travel journal (which eventually became this blog.)

We arrived in Colombia around 8:00 a.m. local time.  This was my first legit country other than the US and technically Canada.

We grabbed our bags and got off the plane to head to immigration/security. 

I forgot about my unopened brand new bottle of water and had to throw it away.  I had noticed a lot of women here are employed by the airport.  Again, we had to take everything in our pockets, keys, cell phone and belts off except for our shoes.  This time I had to take my laptop out.  Once everything was gone through, my bag was asked to be opened so I could show her my unopened toiletries in the Ziploc bag.  I had to ask Katie what the woman was asking me at first.  I took it out and explained that all of it was brand new and unopened.  The woman said okay and told me I was good to move on. 

We all walked down the corridor and into the waiting area.  We used the restroom, found a good spot to set up camp (for the next 8 hours) and turned on the WiFi.  It took us a while to figure out how to use it since our phones were from the US and not South America.

A few of us got up to look for breakfast and coffee while the others stayed behind to watch the bags and to relax for a bit.  As people moved on to their flights, we took over the comfy seats next to the windows.  I fell asleep for a while with mom's neck pillow.  I was so tired from not getting enough sleep on the flight down.

A few hours later I had to wash my face and brush my teeth because I felt gross from all the traveling and not showering.  I could not wait to get to the hotel in Ecuador so I could shower.  Everyone came back after looking at all the culture spread around the airport and we all took it easy, chatted for a bit and fell asleep again.  Amy snored and Katlin got it on video.   I ended up eating one of my Cliff Bars just to have some food in me so I didn't have to go spend money.  We tried starting a card game but no one had the attention span to follow through with it plus it was almost time to get ready for our flight.

Mom wanted to get a Colombia shirt (for her travel quilt she is going to make) so we walked over and bought two and got one for free and got a water for mom.  While we looked, we had a woman, who was very short, supervise us as we looked.  It was either their custom there or a company policy that people were assigned assistants to help shop for them.  We literally couldn't touch anything we could only point to it and she would hand it to us to inspect to see if we wanted it or not.  It was an experience.  We ended up spending about $57.00 which was $168,788.40 in Columbian Pesos and I was like woah!  1 US Dollar was about 2,961.20 Colombian Pesos.  It was weird getting our receipt and seeing all of those digits.

We walked back to our "camp" and hiked all the way to Gate 52.  I sat at a plug in for a bit because my phone was almost dead.  When it was time to board, we had to ride a bus on the tarmac to our airplane.  We got off and walked up the stairs to the plane, found our seats and put our bags into the overhead compartments.  I sat next to mom, I was in the middle and on the other side was a very polite guy and Beth, Kaitlin and Amy sat in the seats across the aisle to our right.

This was a very turbulent flight.  It was a short one but it was pretty shaky.  About halfway through we were served turkey, cheese and mustard hot sub sandwiches, chips and a drink.  I wrote my blog so far on our trip for the last part of our flight.  We descended into Ecuador.  We finally got to our destination after 24 hours of traveling.  I was so ready for a shower and a bed.

We got off the plane and grabbed the zebra bag that we checked in back in Seattle.  We went through customs and before we actually entered Ecuador, we had to go to a counter and the person asked us some questions, checked and stamped our passport for entry and welcomed us to their country.  This was my first stamp in my passport and I was super stoked!  We exited the airport and was taken by shuttle to our hotel, which was literally down the street at the Holiday Inn.  We really could have walked there it was so close.  We checked in, thankfully the front desk crew spoke English, they checked our passports to verify that we were suppose to be on the guest list and gave us our cards for rooms 503 and 505.  Amy, Beth and Kaitlin shared one room and mom and I shared the other.

We only had time to freshen up, hide our valuables and head downstairs.  Katlin had talked the hotel and the hotel shuttle driver into taking us to the mall and luckily they had a market inside.  He picked us up and the traffic in Guayaquil was insane!  Let's say you have three lanes, well the cars are so close to one another those three lanes are really six lanes of traffic with horns honking, people cutting off each other but the funny thing is no one hits anyone and no one gets road rage.  It's a normal thing here and everyone is used to it.

Mall de Sol was huge!  Our shuttle driver told us he would be back at 8 p.m. to pick us up in this exact spot.  We thanked him and went into the mall.  So many mazes, nooks and crannies.  I got lost instantly. We eventually just started following Kaitlin around. We went into a place called Mega Maxi, we laughed, it is similar to a Fred Meyer.  We found a bunch of stuff we could eat for breakfast the next day since we didn't want to spend $20 on breakfast at the hotel. I bought some bananas, Froot Loops and some milk.  I didn't bring a razor because I thought they would take it away at the airport so I bought a pair of them.

Then we went upstairs to the food court and got dinner.  There were tons of choices, including American food/franchises, and mom couldn't decide so I decided for us.  We picked Texas Chicken, which is an affiliate of Church's Chicken, because chicken sounded good.  It came with fries and a drink for $3.00.  We sat down as a group and ate.  The food tasted a bit different because they use different oils and spices than we do.  The ketchup tastes less sweet and more spicier than ours.  It was almost time to head back to meet our shuttle driver so we tried to remember where we had to go.  We stood outside until we saw the shuttle, he was about three minutes late and we jokingly made fun of him for it.  His name was Dario and he definitely made this an experience.

When we got back I opted not to go swimming or to the gym with everyone.  Instead, I talked to Erika and Ben while they drove home from the farm.  We shared stories.  Mom walked the treadmill while Amy, Beth and Kaitlin swam.  After I was done talking to them, I went and took the shower I have been dreaming of since I got home from work on Thursday.  It's been 48 hours since I showered last and this shower was utterly amazing.  It was great to feel clean again after all the airports, recycled air, weather and sweat.

Mom came back up shortly after.  I got onto my computer and she jumped in the shower.  I repacked my bag then sat and did some stuff on the computer.  About 10 p.m. local time, I was ready to pass out.  I turned off all the lights, crawled into the bed, arranged the pillows and passed out hard.  I really needed sleep and it felt nice to finally lay and close my eyes.  I didn't wake up until I heard mom in the bathroom the next day around 6:15ish.

Next Adventure:  Day 3: Ecuador to the Galapagos Islands, Tortuga Bay and Downtown Port Ayora