Quito and the Volcano of Doom!

Thursday evening, we landed in Quito again, still the world's highest capitol! I was all excited because it's a new place to me, it was one of the first ever UNESCO World Heritage sites (tied for first with Krakow, Poland; see my posts from Krakow in May 2012), it is one of the best preserved cities in the world, and Steve picked out a hotel for us that was originally a grand home with two indoor patios, built in the 16th century! 

But our excitement was short-lived. For one, the smell of pollution was completely overwhelming. Everything we read about Quito warned us about altitude sickness, but we didn't have any problem with that. We had problems from breathing in the fumes! I thought maybe once we got away from the airport the air quality would improve. I was not correct! But on the bright side, we got to enjoy this view on our flight in: 

Pretty, huh? 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. You see, when we went to the taxi stand to get a ride to our hotel, the woman at the desk saw the address for our hotel and said, "This is a problem." 

What? 

She took us over to another woman who could speak more English, and that lady told us there were protests going on in the old section of downtown, so a cab could get us close, about a 20 minute walk away from our hotel, but it could not drop us off there. So there you go. Good thing we travel light!  

So we got in a cab and drove almost an hour into town. It's only 23 kilometers (just over 14 miles) from the airport to downtown, but the mountains make the roads curve, which makes the actual distance much greater! The good part about it taking so long was that the crowds had started to disband, so our cab driver was able to get us within 4 blocks (about a 5 minute walk instead of 20 minutes) of our hotel. Hooray! 

So we made it to the Hotel Patio Andaluz! The hotel is truly beautiful and has been meticulously restored! It's incredible! The staff were friendly and helpful, and everyone was dressed professionally, yet traditionally. And our room had two levels! One for sitting and one for sleeping. We mostly used the one for sleeping.

After walking only 4 blocks in the smog and amongst the (still disbanding) protestors just to get to our beautiful hotel, we didn't want to leave it to go find supper. Instead, we had a lovely and romantic dinner on one of the indoor patios. 

Traditional mountain soup! 

There were several other couples there, including a super cute older couple--the husband was on his e-reader, the wife was enjoying some peace and quiet. Too cute. Steve and I talked about what fun we had in the Galapagos and played the "thankful game". I said one thing I was thankful for, and he said one thing he was thankful for. We took turns for a while until our food came. :) 

Shellfish paella, anyone? There were lots of leftovers!

After dinner, we took a hot shower (something we missed on Isabela Island!) and headed straight to bed! For not doing much but traveling and sitting in planes and airports that day, we sure were sleepy! 

Friday morning, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast on the indoor patio, then set out in search of history and adventure! We planned to go on a free guided walking tour at 10:30, and we had a couple of hours to kill before then. We got directions from our hotel's front desk attendant, checked out, left our luggage with her, and began our day with an uphill walk to the National Basilica! 

The altitude got to us a bit, especially on the way up the steps in the towers, but the pollution was what shocked my system the most! You could even see it in the air, not just smell it. Other than that, the views were pretty nice! Except there was this little white debris falling on us and getting in our eyes...

But I was able to get one good, clear shot of the city!

The hostel where we were supposed to meet for the walking tour was apparently not in a good area--good thing it was daytime! You know I'm pretty adventurous and not afraid to be on my own just about anywhere in the world, but so many people warned me about Quito and Ecuador being dangerous, I guess I freaked myself out because I was a little more self-aware and on the lookout than usual! I was glad to have my handsome, strong, take-nothing-off-nobody husband with me! And glad that we would be in a large group for the tour. Turns out we had nothing to worry about anyway! 

The hostel itself--called Community Hostel--was actually quite nice! I really like the atmosphere of a hostel actually. People are friendly, everyone is respectful of personal space and others' stuff, people are usually traveling on a dime, and you can pick up some good cheap travel and packing tips! There's a "we're all in this together, so let's have fun and make the most of life" kind of attitude. 

That said, I am so blessed to have a husband who can afford to put us in nice, historical places in good parts of town when we travel! I LOVED the Hotel Patio Andaluz! 

I won't bore you with all the details of the tour like I usually do. Honestly, the 3+ hour tour could easily have been an hour, maybe an hour and 15 minutes at the most! There was a lot of waiting time between stops--picture time, buying juice time, buying candy time, bathroom and snack time, etc. But we also learned a lot about the origin of Quito as we know it (Quito means half of the earth, or something to that effect, because the equator runs through it), and Ecuador is also in the best position on Earth to study the sun! 

We also learned about the Incas and then the Spanish who settled here, the uprisings and revolutions (another similarity with Krakow and Poland!), and that there was a president who was killed walking from the church across the street to the president's palace. We even learned about the local fruits and vegetables and where to get a good quality meal! Our guide was fun and really seemed to enjoy himself, which made it even more fun for me! 

Oh, and we saw this adorable street. =) 

Anyway, when we finished up with the tour, Steve and I meandered back to our hotel to pick up our stuff and figure out the best way to go to the equator and get to the airport while avoiding the upcoming protests at 4:00pm. Fortunately, going back to the hotel also meant our phones would automatically connect to the wi-fi and check our email. Unfortunately, that is where things got interesting...

Our flight out of Quito was cancelled!

Wait! Don't call the cab for the equator! The hotel attendants had already started calling for us, but as soon as we realized we had a bigger problem, we knew we needed to get that figured out first! Steve clicked on the "See my options" link in the United cancellation e-mail, and the message we received was: "There are no options." No kidding. 

So, United wasn't very helpful. There is exactly one flight out of Quito on United per day, and it leaves at 11:55pm, bound for Houston. For Steve and me, waiting for tomorrow night was not an option! So Steve and I, while Steve was on the hotel phone with United, searched for better options. The representative told us the cancellation was because of the volcanic ash in the air, so even tomorrow night's flight might not go! You remember that stuff I mentioned that was falling on us earlier in the day? It was volcanic ash! 

What baffled us during this new flight-finding process was that so many other flights were leaving Quito. Anyway, we (Steve and me, not the United representative) finally got some new flights booked after an hour on the phone. Now, instead of leaving at 11:55pm and arriving in DC at 11:29am the next day, we would be leaving at 6:28pm and landing in DC at 11:45am! What started with Quito to Houston to DC now became Quito-Panama-Newark-DC. And we needed to book it to the airport!  

The Quito airport is nearly an hour away from town, and protests would be starting soon! No equator excursion for us! :( Our helpful hotel assistants were there for us through the whole ordeal, which was really helpful! They even called us a cab and told him to go really fast! Round and round and round the mountains we went! Up some hills and down some curves, roundabouts abounded, and other cars came way too close for comfort! Our cabbie even had his flashers on for us, and we got there in under an hour. He was pretty awesome! 

So there we were, ready to fly on Panama-based Copa Airlines, in the Star Alliance with United. When we checked in, the man behind the desk told us to go straight to the gate because the flight may leave early because of the volcanic ash. Or it might be cancelled. So go to the gate immediately! We muddled through passport control and the duty-free zone (trading the exhaust and gasoline smell for way too many perfume and cologne!). Then we realized... Our gate was behind an impenetrable barrier, a glass wall! 

And so we waited. No one could really tell us why the big glass wall was there. No one could really tell us when it would open. We just had to wait! We made a friend in line. Her name is Janice, and she is from New Jersey! She would be on the first two legs of the journey with us. And she had just come from a week in the Galapagos, too! We had seen her at the Basilica that morning. She was great! 

Our flight took off just a few minutes early, and we watched the sunset over Ecuador! 

Then we made it to Panama: 

But we missed the Canal. 

Landed. Hooray! Steve took a shower in the Star Alliance lounge while I Skyped with mom for a few minutes. Then I made a mistake. I went to ask the girls at the front desk if there was a Starbucks in the airport. I wanted to add a mug to our collection and have it as a reminder of our exciting detour on the end of our trip of a lifetime. They looked at me like I had just insulted them in the worst way! Glad looks don't kill! For the record, there is no Starbucks in Galapagos, Quito, or the Panama City Airport! 

The Panama airport was pretty impressive. I've never seen so many high-end stores in an airport before, many I had never heard of! But the experience at the gate was less glamorous. They had us go through extra security, which is fine; I like to feel safe. But they also took away our water at the gate. The only other airport we know of where they do that is Hong Kong! Now, I drink a lot of water. This was problematic. Those little 4 ounce cups of water... Seriously? The flight attendants came by once for beverage service (I got a water and a hot tea), and once more with a tray of cups of water. By the time we got to Newark, I was incredibly thirsty! But on the bright side, I didn't need to go to the bathroom so much! 

And it's a good thing! Because Steve spotted a 6:00am flight from Newark to Dulles. If we could get on that flight, we would save ourselves 4 agonizing hours waiting in the airport, and get home 4 hours and 45 minutes ahead of schedule! Let's go! 

Thank goodness for Global Entry, mobile boarding passes, TSA Pre-check, and Steve's elite status direct phone line to United! They just really pay for themselves over and over again, seemingly on every trip, and this time they were especially helpful! We rushed through security, ran from Terminal C to the Terminal A shuttle (after missing it and having to backtrack!), and waited 10 precious minutes. We needed to get to Gate A25A to ask if we could even get on the flight. But by the time we got to the waiting area for the shuttle, it was already 5:25. The gate agents would probably tell us no by the time we got to the gate, but we had so much time to spare while we waited for the shuttle, and it hit me... Why don't we call now and get a jump start on the process? 

So Steve whipped out his fancy 1K United card and called the magic number on the back. Much to our delight and amazement... She got us in! The shuttle finally arrived, and when it parked at Terminal A, we dashed to the counter and got our new tickets printed. The United employees at the gate were very rude and unnecessarily bothered by us coming on at the last minute, but you know what? We didn't care! We were going home! 

And this was our view just before takeoff in Newark. 

And you know what we did when we got home? Took a three-hour nap! Thank you for joining us! I hope you enjoyed the ride and that you'll join us on another trip soon! 

For more pictures, click HERE!