As I said we had an awesome two days travelling to and from Machu Pichu but all good things have to come to an end and it was time to get to Ecuador for our medical mission. This was to take two days.
Our flight was booked for 1250 so our driver had promised to come at 1100. This gave us some time to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast and even do a little half hearted shopping. Our driver was late which was a little anxiety provoking, I should get over this, drivers are always late in developing and developed world. We arrived at the airport and on checking in were told our flight was an hour late. No problem, we were only flying to to Lima with no connecting flight. We expected to have a few hours in the afternoon and evening to explore Lima which we had never visited.
Getting through security we entered the departures area which even by standards of the developing world was full and very busy. There were no seats available and people were sitting and lying on the floor. Our flight was not posted on the departures screen which was okay because there was only room for 4 flights and we were really early. We had an indifferent coffee, and walked around the departures area in turn. As time went by our flight was still not posted. I went to a LAN employee and asked for an update and was told our flight was departing at 1350 as we had been told. When it finally appeared on the board, it was now to leave at 1430. About 5 minutes later, it disappeared from the board.
It was pretty clear that something was wrong. People were starting to yell; flights arrived, hardly anybody seemed to be boarding flights. We went to the gate where our flight was supposed to leave before it disappeared from the screen The screen was blank there but people were lining up. I went up to the LAN employee at the gate and asked again for the status of out flight. The man pointed out to the line and said stand in line there.
About half an hour in line we started to board our plane. Someone in line said that the pilots had been refusing to take off. Some said it was a labour dispute, some said it was because of the weather. Personally if my pilot thinks it is unsafe to fly, I will take his opinion over some MBA in head office and I also like my pilot to be happy. I am kind of funny that way. Anyway as we were boarding the plane, people not in line were yelling at the staff. It appeared that our flight was going ahead while flights that were supposed to leave earlier were still waiting. Not really fair but you have to look after ones self of course. We eventually took off about an hour after we were originally supposed to land in Lima. It was otherwise an uneventful flight.
A man from our tour company met us at the airport. He had waited 3 hours for us so it was nice of him to hang around. He half jokingly half serious told us we were going to have to leave a larger tip. We had about a one hour car ride into LIma, the last bit driving along the Pacific Ocean. The tour company had booked us a hotel 3 blocks from the beach. This was too bad as we arrived around 1900 so really didn't get to enjoy it. We just had a beer on the roof-top bar, ate dinner in the hotel restaurant and off to bed,
Our driver picked us up at 0850 the next morning and it was off to the airport through the morning rush hour traffic in Lima. We got dropped off at the airport, negotiated a large line-up to check in, got through security and to our gate. Did I mention our plane was late? Finally we took off for Quito. I was able to shame the flight attendant to move me to an exit row. After 2.5 hours we started descending to Quito but then suddenly started climbing very suddenly. The flight attendant ran over anxiously to check if the exit row was unobstructed which was a little unnerving but we did land uneventfully.
This was our first visit to the new airport in Quito which was built outside of town. No more descending perilously close to houses and apartments. It is a very nice airport compared to the old one. Even with our late flight we had a 4 hour stop-over. The Quito airport has unfortunately been taken over by American restaurants so we had to eat at a "Fridays". This is a pity because Ecuador has its own unique cuisine and frankly I can get quesadilas, ribs, burgers or wings in Canada. We ran into some stragglers from our mission who were flying on another flight to Cuenca, the main group having flown earlier that day. It was nice to catch up even though we have been meeting monthly for the last six months.
Our flight to Cuenca eventually took off. The flight to Cuenca is a short flight where you are either taking off or landing. On arrival our luggage was actually waiting for us. We had planned on taking a taxi to the hotel. Our hotel while not the Hilton or Marriott is a place where a lot of tourists stay so it was a little amazing that the first taxi driver didn't know where it was, even when we gave him the street it was on. The second driver didn't either but with the help of an English speaking physician we met on the plane and a phone call to somebody, he figured out where it was. Our taxi driver had the philosophy common to many taxi drivers in Ecuador which was that the only way to drive was to drive as fast as possible, maintaining the minimum distance between him and the car in front of him. Plus my seat belt didn't work. I haven't been so relieved to get out of a taxi, since the last time I took a taxi in Ecuador. I paid the man $3 and someone from the hotel got our bags.
It was a relief to finally get to the Inca Real where I have stayed 7 years in a row. The staff even knew our names and we got checked in quickly. We exchanged pleasantries with the people who had arrived earlier. I had resolved in the Quito airport that as soon as I got to the hotel I was hitting the sack but we ended up talking,laughing and drinking until 2300 when we finally hit the sack in our usual room.
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