Getting to Ecuador

I got up really early on the 4th to catch my ride to the Phoenix airport to be there 2 hours prior to my 7:46 flight to Chicago. UA wanted me to fly to Chicago, to fly to Houston, to fly to Quito. Didn’t make a lot of sense. When I checked my bag, I asked the attendant if I really had to do that. He gave me a ticket for an 11:00 flight directly to Houston. Ah, I could spend 5 hours in the airport. But, I was there, so I found a place to sit and got onto the free wifi.

Then the flight to Houston got delayed twice, and another UA attendant moved me onto an even earlier flight to Houston. No problem…

In Houston, I walked around a bit. I eventually decided to eat at PappaDeaux. This is a chain, and I had eaten at one of them in Dallas years ago. Pricey, but good.

The flight to Quito was 90 minutes late leaving Houston, and an hour late arriving, at about 1 am (Ecuador time, which is the same as EST). It took almost an hour to get through passport control and customs, and the gentleman (Santiago Palma) who owns this B&B (Suites Metropoli) was waiting for me. He said the hotel is only 12 kilometers from the airport in a straight line, but we had to drive 40 kilometers to get here - among the mountains and rivers - kind of like in the movie “Romancing the Stone.” Also, he told me the movie “Proof of Life” was filmed here.

And it’s very safe here.

I have no telephone, but I do have internet here in the hotel…

And so far, I like it a lot.

Besides, it’s already tomorrow!