Frozen in Quito

Question 1: WHY IS IT COLD?

Question 2: Why am I STILL in Quito? Oh the joys of traveling. I don’t know how I feel about those peeps who believe that “getting there” is half the fun. What I want right now is to be warm and in bed.

Here’s what went down. I began my Ecuadorian journey Saturday night/Sunday morning when I woke up at 2:30 a.m. I really do consider myself a pretty punctual person despite my Latin background, however, my punctuality did not pay off this time around.

My flight was supposed to leave from DFW to Houston at 6:30 am. So my amazing and most wonderful friends got up at the crack of dawn with me to take me down to DFW. (They rock my world)

Well…the first delay was already upon me and I arrived in Houston with about 4 minutes to SPRINT to my next gate, which happened to be the distance equivalent to that of China from the U.S. Not to mention, I had my heavy carry-on with me. As soon as I stepped off the plane in Houston, the announcement comes on “LAST CALL FOR ANYONE GOING TO PANAMA CITY!” Or something like that. So I swung my backpack around and ran like a mad woman. I think people actually laughed at the sight of me with my panicked/confused face running in circles looking for that awful Gate E. By the time I was sitting in my seat on the plane, I was shaking and sweating and out of breath. I was a mess.

Upon arriving in Panama City, I felt my first real level of discomfort. I felt far away from home. The sight of the airport didn’t help. And there the doubtful question began...“What on earth am I doing?” 

Little did I know, that question was an understatement or I guess you would call that an underquestion? As I arrived in Quito, several things confused me.

Why was I filling out an immigration and custom form when I still had one more flight to go? Why did I have to go get my bags and recheck them in and then go through security again? Why is this Quito airport so hard to stinking navigate? Where is check-in? AND WHY IS THIS LADY TELLING ME THAT THE GATE IS CLOSED?????

Ladies and Gents, I officially hate airports. As you may have guessed, I missed my flight to Cuenca. The hard part to swallow, I missed it by 5 minutes. This lady telling me this was not mean…and I’m a Christian…and I STILL wanted to punch her. Of course, I didn’t want to punch her as much as I wanted to kick the man who led me around the entire airport for nothing. HE seemed to find the whole situation humorous.

I really have to watch out for times like this. For those of you who know me well, I know you’d agree that I can be pretty emotional. Often. And I was so tired, and still hadn’t eaten, and just wanting to see my host mother, and frustrated with the fact that I couldn’t understand everything that was happening around me. I found it hard to explain my situation in Spanish and well….that’s why I came here, so that expressing myself in Spanish becomes a cinch (sp?). But survival mode is scary when you don’t feel 100 percent confident in getting the message across. I’ll get there. I know it. It’s just a lot for one day.

Ok ANYWAY, all that could be done was to purchase another ticket. So, I did. And now I can join many others in saying that I have had the luxury of trying to sleep but not sleep in an airport all night on the hard ground with all my luggage under me, with my arms trying to touch everything so that no one steals anything with a sad little lost puppy look AND freezing cold because at night, it’s freezing in Quito!!! For those of you English majors, yes I know that was a run-on sentence, but it was a rough night!

(I started this blog the morning before I arrived in Cuenca. I am finally currently in Cuenca needing desperately to do my Spanish homework before lunch at one, a museum at 2, and then class at 3. Until then…..)

LOVE LOVE LOVE